Netflix’s 'Good Times' Animated Series Reveals Voice Cast

AI invasion of the arts! Good times! Studios dragging their feet on labor deals! Good times!

Norman Lear’s death on December 5 at the age of 101, leaving behind a vast legacy of shows he created and produced. To some extent, he was still working. Case in point, he was an executive producer on an animated remake of Good Times, the sitcom starring Esther Rolle and John Amos he originally developed in the ‘70s.

The animated series, ordered for 10 episodes by Netflix in September 2020, found a new showrunner in Ranada Shepard last year, replacing Carl Jones, and now announced some of its voice cast. As in the original series, It follows the Evans family as they navigate the world and the social issues embedded in it. Like the original series, with the love of family, anyone can get through anything.

However, it’s not going to be Rolle and Amos’s Florida and James Evans again recast, nor their children Michael, Thelma, and JJ, originally played by Ralph Carter, Bern Nadette Stanis and Jimmie Walker. Instead, J. B. Smoove and Yvette Nicole Brown will voice Reggie and Beverly, and Jay Pharoah voices one of their sons, Junior. It’s otherwise unclear how much the children setup matches the original’s.

Smoove is known for his roles on series like Curb Your Enthusiasm and The Millers, but has also built quite the voice acting resume, guesting on American Dad and The Simpsons, and having major roles as Bebop (fka Anton Zeck) on Nickelodeon’s first Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles series, Phil in 3Below: Tales of Arcadia, and Frank the Plant on Harley Quinn. He also played JJ in a Good Times sketch on Saturday Night Live back in 2004. Known for Community and Drake & Josh, Brown’s voice acting career began with The Hub Network’s Pound Puppies, currently has a main role on Apple TV+’s Frog and Toad with a recurring role on Pupstruction, and numerous voice roles in between. Pharoah, a credited Saturday Night Live performer from 2010-2016 who has become a consulting producer on Family Guy and had voice roles this year in The Venture Bros.: Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart, Invincible, and utilized his Jay-Z impression for Urkel Saves Santa, played JJ in the Good Times remake Lear was alive to see come to fruition: the December 2019 Live in Front of a Studio Audience recreation of the episode “The Politicians”. It also starred Viola Davis as Florida, Tiffany Haddish as Willona, Corinne Fox as Thelma, Asante Blackk as Michael, and Andre Braugher, who died less than a week after Lear from lung cancer at age 61, as James Sr.. Amos cameoed as Fred Davis.

Lear executive produces with Brent Miller through Act III Productions, alongside Family Guy, Ted, and American Dad creator Seth MacFarlane and his Fuzzy Door banner’s Erica Huggins, and NBA superstar Stephen Curry’s Unanimous Media. Lear’s production company remains based with an overall deal with Sony Pictures Television, and thus they’re making the series.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter