Good Times
Summary
Based on the 1974 sitcom of the same name , Netflix’sGood Timesreboot is presently useable to gormandize on the streaming help . However , the show ’s up-to-the-minute version has a major modification that caught foresighted - time buff off - guard . The studio choose to liven up the project , rather than follow in the footsteps of its live - activeness predecessor .
Creator Ranada Shepard was fascinate by the reboot ’s creative direction and wanted to assure that the chosen style would serve as a way toelevateGood Timesin 2024 . Shepard believes that she was able to use the animation as a gift and accommodate the fib for a forward-looking audience . The showrunner expresses ebullience for the project , hope that it will appeal to old and new fan alike .
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Ranada Shepard Old World chat withScreen Rantabout the process of adapting the unrecorded - action70s sitcominto a contemporary animation that honorsGood Times’roots .
Animating Good Times Allowed The Series To Expand Beyond What Live-Action Allows
Screen Rant : I ’m assuming you were a fan , so what are your persuasion on the originalGood Times ?
Ranada Shepard : I dead loved it . I grew up on the south side of Chicago , so it was really an denotation of home plate , especially during my younger years when I did n’t have the canonical concept of how television worked . But also , getting older and still being a devotee of it , it was a beautiful place to work out the takings and the problem that people were hazard did n’t exist in the humankind .
There was the comedy and the familiarity of Thelma and J.J. fight like my brothers and I contend . There was the sterness of the mother , like my mom , and the sternness of the founding father as well , and who was going to win the sterness competition . It was really virtually and dear to my heart . To be a part of this today is amazing and a dream amount reliable . Not to bring up the Norman Lear of it all — just the master of bring the issuance to the living room and look on families wreak them out in the serious of means .
Then how did this opportunity end up presenting itself ?
Ranada Shepard : It was a really cool phone call from Sony . They were like , " Hey , we ’ve got this project , we ’ve had it in motion , and we ’re hesitate it . We would love to love if you ’re interested in a take on this and how to move it forward . " I jumped at the chance , being a fan , and it all worked out , and here we are .
A lot of witness were surprised that this was a reboot , rather than an enliven version of the original . Was it always the plan for this to be a unexampled account ?
Photo credit: Kevin Scanlon
Ranada Shepard : As far as I know , it was sell as the animated Good Times reboot . To my noesis , that was always the path they were going in . It ’s lightly unite , in a sense of , " What does it see like today ? " That ’s where I pick up with Sony . The family was already laid out , and already existed , so it was a thing of just building really nerveless story around this amazing kin that was already on newspaper .
What did you find the invigoration offer , creatively , as fight back to a alive - action series ?
Ranada Shepard : That ’s a outstanding question . I had to ask myself , " Why invigorate Good Times ? " One , you go , " Why touch secure Times ? " It ’s bang-up the style we think of it . And then you require yourself , " If I ’m go to do this , why would we animate it , and what would get of that that possibly would n’t in live - action ? " In so many ways , the animation was a gift . It let you to go into blank space and into worlds that alive - action mechanism would n’t have allowed . There are so many subject matters that occur to mind that I wish to explore .
In the original series , the mommy always count to the heavens . There was always a moment that you knew God was a part of every storyline of every Clarence Day in that household . And the first thing I thought was , which I think in oecumenical , " I enquire what God ’s thinking ? " There are clip that we ’ve all , in our own ways , whoever your God is , have used God as a genie . In my mind , he has to be banal of me . " Did n’t I just answer those prayers last week ? Now you ’ve got a raw one ? " That ’s something interesting to play with .
Let ’s go to heaven and see what God is say and how their God is responding to the thing that are die on in their lives . And then from there , I think , " We can just play with the issue topic , the societal commentary , and the world we go in , being in Junior ’s brain insideout . " The womb and the womanhood in Episode 103 . installment 108 — what a special fashion to show the vitality . Junior is an artist , and you practice his art to tell the account in a graphical novel style .
So these are three things that would n’t hap . A line producer would follow to me and go , " Absolutely not , " in a live - action show . If I could n’t use the animation as a natural endowment , it was n’t something that I was concerned in . That was then the task , to figure out how to use it as a gift , and it truly was a dreaming come true to animate this series .
Photo credit: Kevin Scanlon
Shepard’s Good Times Is Meant To Showcase The Reality Of Systemic Oppression In 2024
What kind of things did you take into consideration while writing for a 2024 consultation , as opposed to viewers who were watching during the ' 70s ?
Ranada Shepard : The first matter was how we have evolve as a cultivation , as Black people in America . We ’ve had our first bootleg president , we ’ve had our first Black female vice - president . There are so many thing that have occur , which are great , but also , there was this hope that so much would be put out from us from systemic oppressiveness when these things came truthful . So much of that , deplorably , still survive in this land , and would exist for this family .
It was a matter of looking at , " What does systemic oppression look like today ? What are the obstruction this sept would have to overcome today ? " It was really interesting to hollow into , because so many thing have evolved , yet so many things have stayed the same . You ’re also seem at where we are today in cleaning woman ’s empowerment . When Florida want to go back to schooltime , James said , " There ’s only two places for a woman . The kitchen and the chamber . " That was a large fight in their episode .
Today , we ’re talking about Beverly running for the president of the project , and she wins . How being chairman impacts her life . That ’s a dissimilar quad , right ? So you just explore these concept and take a mystifying dive . I had an amazing radical of writer that were unforced to do that and excited to do that and know that we could find these pieces of societal commentary in exploring spirit today , but also still make it fun , loving , and curious .
When they were vocalize these fictional character , was thereanything the cast addedthat was n’t necessarily on the page ?
Ranada Shepard : That cast is a dream come true , unfeignedly . We had a viewing a workweek ago , and I mentioned this . Never once did anybody record with anyone else . I watched that show , and I ’m in awe that they all siloed their recordings , and we never did playback . So they never have it away the mode in which the other individual was saying the pipeline , and they still deport it in a way that is so cohesive . When you watch it , you think they are all in a elbow room together fighting back and forth and talking to each other and answering each other ’s questions . That is the talent of that cast .
J.B. was so amazing . He would likely say the line about five metre and then go on a Reggie harangue . I did n’t want to stop him . We never save him talk to himself and send for his own name out . That would just be the gift that he would give . I know society tell that a big Black man is a threat and that ’s what was so neat about his part . There is something so endearing and vulnerable to drive away all myths and stereotypes about Black human in society .
I am blown by at Beverly ’s levels . Yvette brougrht Beverly to life in a way that went beyond the page . Jay Pharoah does amazing work and also , like , fifty million voices . We had so many talents between rappers and other artist that were scheduled to come in , and for whatever understanding , their agenda did n’t work . Jay was like , " I got it . " Marsai Martin was so amazing because she was coming off of Black - ish . She was coming out of a Disney place . She was figure out this voice in herself that could really curse and yell and scream and say , " I do n’t like this society . This is mess up up , " and just maltreat into her power as a unseasoned blackened woman . Honestly , this cast just came together in an amazing way .
How did you sour with the art department and production design to capture an renovate mankind that was based off a resilient - action band ?
Ranada Shepard : The first thing is you take it to the stage , they perform it , they put down it , and you ’re done , you go on to the next . I was literally in the writers room by five on Zoom , and then I ’d jump onto another Zoom to do my design with my designing squad . That was everything from the floor , to the hair , to the eyes , to the lip , to the interior of the palms that are loose than the outside of the skin , like our skin is in actual life . The tending to item was unbelievable . By the time we get to contrive , it was a matter of design the world and the shots and let it into its animatic shape .
Once we get into its animatic form , we in reality got this repair in Australia . So then I would have call after that because of the meter difference to go over the vivification and translate cultural nuances and the context of aspect . Initially , you get rid of an sequence every week on alive - military action , and you ’re just always tinkering and finding things because the gift is sometimes that the animatic comes in , and that person has drawn something you did n’t even imagine .
It was like Christmas every clock time I got a young animatic in and every fourth dimension I find a newfangled animated variant in . These are artists , and I ’m not in their pass . They ’re learn these words , and they ’re choose it off the page , and they ’re giving me their artistic production for what comes up for them . That has been a very cool experience for me . I am so grateful for these creative person , who not only poured into the show , but love the show and fuck the characters enough to have playfulness and play with them in a smashing way .
Fans Do Not Need To Watch Good Times To Understand The Reboot
Do you sense viewers require to watch the originalGood Timesin order to appreciate the reboot ?
Ranada Shepard : There are amazing Easter egg . You do not need to view the pilot to sympathise this . There were so many times our gift even had to admit [ it ] . I was bear the class it ended , and they did n’t needs grow up with it . They ’re like , " I imagine my mom had it on , " and they were n’t intimate with it , and they did n’t need to be , rest - assured .
But it ’s a outstanding show , so everyone should dig it up and watch . If you produce up watching Good Times , you ’re go to love the Easter eggs . If you did n’t , you ’re pass away to enjoy an awful show about a Black family in Chicago , sticking together , loving each other , and doing everything they can to hold out .
Lastly , do you have any other projects in the pipeline ?
Ranada Shepard : There are amazing affair follow up that I ca n’t really denote yet . Just know that growth is out there . Ranada will be bringing other pieces of artistry to you , other stories . I just know the artistic production of storytelling . Where there ’s a history to be tell , I will tell it . I ’m definitely in development on some other projects , and I ’m looking forward to announcing them soon .
About Good Times (2024)
In this impertinent reimagining of the TV classic , a newfangled generation of the Evans family keep their head above water in a Chicago lodging project . An unfiltered grownup comedy with the vocalism of Yvette Nicole Brown , J.B. Smoove , Wanda Sykes and more .
Good Timesis presently available to stream on Netflix .
Good Times is an animated reboot of the ' 70s sitcom of the same name . The original series revolve about on a working - class Black family unit and cut into into serious societal issues . Yvette Nicole Brown , J.B. Smoove , Marsai Martin , and Jay Pharoah allow voice for the characters on the show , which is produced by Netflix and Seth MacFarlane .
