Good Times is making a comeback, but it’s nothing like it once was. Yvette Nicole Brown, who will voice Beverly Evans in the animated reboot of the groundbreaking 70s sitcom, recently responded to a follower on Twitter who expressed surprise over how the new Netflix show is “nothing like the show we grew up on.” In response, Brown promised that the new show would be “edgier” and “more irreverent” than the original sitcom. Good Times is hardly the first modern reboot to take a darker tone than its source material, but Yvette Nicole Brown has assured fans it’s still sticking to its roots regarding family.
The ‘Good Times’ Animated Reboot Is “More Irreverent” Than the Original
The original Good Times was a six-season sitcom that aired on CBS between 1974 and 1979. The sitcom followed Florida and James Evans, a couple living in a poor, black housing development in Chicago with their three children. The oldest child was James Jr., aka “J.J.,” a budding artist, illustrator, and romantic; Thelma, the only daughter, is intelligent and studious, shown attending high school and then community college, while Michael, the youngest, is deeply passionate about Black social issues and activism. The series starred Esther Rolle, John Amos, Jimmie Walker, Bern Nadette Stanis, and Ralph Carter, among other names.
The Good Times reboot was first announced in 2020 and will reportedly follow the current generation of the Evans family in an animated Netflix series. Norman Lear, Seth MacFarlane, and Steph Curry will produce, with Ranada Shepard as showrunner. Yvette Nicole Brown, best known for her role as Shirley Bennett in NBC’s Community, will star as Beverly Evans, a move that surprised many of her fans, who remarked that the new Good Times looked “nothing like” the sitcom from the seventies. To which Brown gave the following reply:
“This show is edgier and more irreverent than the Good Times of our childhood but it’s still a show about family, fighting the system and working to make things better despite where you start out in the world. That 100% lines up with my values.”
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Along with Yvette Nicole Brown, J.B. Smoove is set to star as Beverly’s husband Reggie, with Ay Pharoah as their teenage artist son Junior Evans, Marsai Martin as their activist daughter Grey Evans, Gerald “Slink” Johnson as – according to the logline – their infant drug-dealing son Dalvin Evans. Like the original, the animated reboot will follow the Evans family through their lives as they survive in one of the last housing developments in modern-day Chicago.
The first episode of the Good Times reboot starring Yvette Nicole Brown will premiere on Netflix on April 12th, 2024.
