Netflix is remaking the classic 1970s sitcom, Good Times, but reinventing it as an animation.
The new version of the TV classic depicts the fourth generation of the Evans family struggling to survive in a housing project. Chicago housing project.
Despite its cartoon form, the show is an unfiltered adult comedy.
Yvette Nicole Brown (Community), J.B. Smoove (Curb Your Enthusiasm), and Jay Pharoah (Saturday Night Live) will lend their voices to the characters on the series, which debuts on April 12.
Marsai Martin (Black-ish, Little) plays their activist daughter, Grey, Slink Johnson voices their drug-dealing infant son, Dalvin, and Rashida “Sheedz” Olayiwola (Jury Duty), also a writer on the show, voices the role of Beverly’s enterprising best friend, Lashes by Lisa.
Executive-produced by Ranada Shepard, Stephen Curry, Norman Lear, and Seth MacFarlane, the series aims to address modern-day issues, and unlike the original, it will not feature a laugh track.
Shepard said: ‘It’s about a Black family that comes together, laughs together, and survives the system on the South Side of Chicago.
‘What you’ll get from that is a lot of social commentary, a lot of pushing the boundaries, a lot of feel-good television, but also a lot of things that may be in the vein of The Simpsons and South Park and Family Guy.
She continued: ‘When you’re looking back 10 years later, you’ll be like, “They said that on Good Times?” Oh my gosh.’
The decision to make the antics in apartment 17C is a cartoon are so they can go into more experimental territory.
‘The other thing is, look, you don’t have the original cast, right? We can’t go back into the ’70s. So how cool is it that through animation you can re-create that apartment,’ Shepard added.
After choosing animation, the creators have worked hard to ensure skin reflects real life by varying in tone between characters.
The original version that aired on CBS from 1974 to 1979 ran for 133 episodes. It made history as television’s first Black two-parent family sitcom.
Oscar-nominated comedy writer Normal Lear, who worked on the original Good Times, died aged 101 in December.
He made pivotal contributions to the remake behind the scenes and also has a cameo appearance in the eighth episode – his final role.
Good Times will be available to stream on Netflix from April 12
