As we previously reported, the animated Good Times series is getting a reboot on Netflix!
The 2D adult comedy will debut on the streamer April 12, described as a “spiritual sequel” to the original live-action series, which made television history as the first sitcom centered on a Black two-parent family.
Moving away from the vintage laugh track, the new series will tackle modern issues as they affect the family living in apartment 17C. The voice cast is led by J.B. Smoove andYvette Nicole Brown as Reggie and Beverly Evans, the heads of the household; Jay Pharoah as their teenage artist son, Junior; Marsai Martin as their activist daughter, Grey; Slink Johnson voices the part of their drug-dealing infant son, Dalvin; and Rashida “Sheedz” Olayiwola , also a writer on the show, voices the role of Beverly’s enterprising best friend, Lashes by Lisa.
Here’s the official logline, per Netflix: “An animated reboot of the Norman Lear series finds the latest generation of the Evans family, cab driver Reggie and his wife, the ever-aspirational Beverly, scratching and surviving in one of the last remaining housing projects in Chicago along with their teenage artist son, Junior, activist daughter Grey, and drug dealing infant son, Dalvin. It turns out the more things change the more they stay the same and keeping your head above water in a system with its knee on your neck is as challenging as ever. The only thing tougher than life is love, but in this family, there’s more than enough to go around.”
Season 1 will also feature a voice cameo by the late Lear, in his final television performance, and MADtv‘s Michael McDonald playing a cartoonified Elon Musk, showrunner and executive producer Ranada Shepard (Young Love) revealed to Netflix’s TUDUM fan blog. Other guest voices include Pretty Vee, Lil Rey Howery, Godfrey, Ego Nwodim, Gabrielle Dennis and more.