GOODE FAMILY, THE: PILOT {SERIES PREMIERE} (TV)
Summary
The pilot of this animated series about an environmentally conscious and excessively politically correct family.
Ubuntu’s sixteenth birthday is approaching, and the Goode parents, Gerald and Helen, recall how they adopted him from an agency specializing in babies from Africa; they accidentally adopted a baby from South Africa, the son of two racist Afrikaner criminals. Ubuntu expresses a wish to learn how to drive, although Gerald and Helen are wary about the carbon emissions that this would entail. Nevertheless, Gerald compromises and proposes that Ubuntu can get his license but can only drive in an emergency situation. Helen consents to this course of action. Meanwhile, Helen tries to learn more about the personal life of her daughter Bliss, but fears that she is keeping secrets from her. To rectify this, she takes Bliss shopping at an organic grocery store as a means of trying to communicate with her. However, Bliss ignores her the entire time. Helen faces mockery from the cashier, Margo, whose husband is Gerald’s boss at the local community college, especially when Helen realizes she forgot to bring her reusable bag to the grocery store. While there, Helen comes to suspect that Bliss has become sexually active, and is mocked about this by Margo, claiming that she is more communicative with her daughter. Helen panics and fears that she might lose any influence she has on Bliss’s life.
Helen attempts to talk to Bliss about her sex life, but Bliss is visibly uncomfortable and does not respond to her mother’s attempts to sound “cool.” She takes Bliss to a booth at the community college in an attempt to educate her about safe sex, causing Bliss further embarrassment. Helen discovers that she has inadvertently sought help from a proponent of abstinence-only education and promptly seeks out a different booth teaching education on contraceptives. However, Bliss later states that she has chosen to be abstinent and has decided to attend a father-daughter “purity ball” thrown by the safe sex education division, asking Gerald to take her. Helen is upset about this turn of events and complains to Gerald, unhappy that Bliss is associating with “abstinence people.” Ubuntu passes his driver’s test quite easily and obtains his license.
Gerald is distressed to learn that the “purity ball” is being held in a church and that the young women in attendance are required to undergo a “ceremony” involving an exchange of rings with their fathers which unnerves both Gerald and Bliss. They attempt to flee but find that Treyvon, one of Bliss’s acquaintances, is there doing a “stealth documentary,” and Bliss fears that he will see her there and put footage of her on the internet. They hide, and Gerald explains Helen’s motivation for her intrusiveness to Bliss. Lacking other escape options and with Helen intoxicated, they call Ubuntu to come pick them up, claiming that it is an emergency. He gets them out in the nick of time, and Helen apologizes to Bliss for being too pushy and acting “ridiculous.” Bliss, in turn, promises to talk to Helen if she ever decides to become sexually active. Includes commercials.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: May 27, 2009 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:30:00
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: 104218
- GENRE: Animation
- SUBJECT HEADING: Animation; Families; Comedy
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 2009
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV – Commercials – AT&T phone service
- TV – Commercials – HP printers
- TV – Commercials – Hyundai automobiles
- TV – Commercials – Lipton tea
- TV – Commercials – Lowe’s home improvement stores
- TV – Commercials – Sprint phone service
- TV – Commercials – Subway restaurants
- TV – Commercials – Target department stores
- TV – Commercials – Volkswagen automobiles
- TV – Commercials – Wendy’s restaurants
- TV – Commercials – “Night at the Museum: Battle of the Smithsonian” motion picture
- TV – Commercials – “Terminator: Salvation” motion picture
- TV – Commercials – “The Hangover” motion picture
- TV – Commercials – “The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3” motion picture
- TV – Commercials – “Up” motion picture
- TV – Promos – “Surviving Suburbia”
- TV – Promos – “The 2009 Scripps National Spelling Bee”
- TV – Promos – “The NBA Finals”
CREDITS
- Michael Rotenberg … Executive Producer
- Tom Lassally … Executive Producer
- John Altschuler … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Mike Judge … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Dave Krinsky … Executive Producer, Created by, Writer
- Jonathan Collier … Co-Executive Producer
- Jace Richdale … Co-Executive Producer
- Dave Jeser … Co-Executive Producer
- Matt Silverstein … Co-Executive Producer
- Mark McJimsey … Supervising Producer
- Jordana Arkin … Producer
- Kenny Micka … Producer
- Owen Ellickson … Co-Producer
- Robert Parigi … Associate Producer
- Ryan Corbet … Associate Producer
- Wes Archer … Director
- Franklin Hardy … Writer
- Shane Kosakowski … Writer
- Howard Kremer … Writer
- Chip Pope … Writer
- Leila Strachan … Writer
- Groove Addicts … Music by, Theme Music by
- Mike Judge … Voice, Gerald Goode
- Nancy Carell … Voice, Helen Goode
- Linda Cardellini … Voice, Bliss Goode
- David Herman … Voice, Ubuntu Goode, President Kent Jensen, Treyvon
- Brian Doyle-Murray … Cast, Charlie
- Mo Collins … Voice, Checker, Lucy
- Gary Anthony Williams … Voice, Ray Johnson, DMV Person, Ted
- Rini Bell … Voice
- Scott Klace … Voice