*Good Times” star BernNadette Stanis has addressed criticism of the “Good Times” animated reboot’s perceived stereotypes.
We reported earlier that an animated reboot of the 1970s sitcom “Good Times” is coming to Netflix from Carl Jones and executive producers Seth MacFarlane, and NBA star Stephen Curry.
The original sitcom, which aired for six seasons on CBS from 1974 to 1979, starred Stanis, Esther Rolle, Jimmie Walker, Ralph Carter, and John Amos. It was television’s first African American two-parent family sitcom. Norman Lear produced the show, which centered on the Evans family, who lived in a poor, black neighborhood in inner-city Chicago.
According to the news release, Jones modernized the setting for the new adult-animated series reboot, transitioning the family from the 1970s to the 2020s.
“Jimmie Walker did contact Norman’s [Lear] office in 20202 and he pitched a Good Times cartoon which would include all of us except for Esther Rolle and we didn’t hear anything back from them,” Stanis told TMZ. “At least six months later they came up, and somebody said they had a cartoon coming.”
She continued, “My manager called up Norman’s office to see if we were included… They said no, it’s going to be generations later and it’s going to be like progressive, or whatever. But Brent Miller loves us very much, loves me and Jimmie, I know that. He said I can give you a small role.”
Now that she has viewed the trailer, Stanis admits she expected something different.
“When you see something that actually is not progressive, it kind of brings you back into the projects two generations later. Thelma had a baby, what happened to that baby? I wanted to be a surgeon, I guess I was. JJ was a famous artist. So you have positive images generations before that and then all of a sudden you see this,” she explained.
“I’m not knocking it because I don’t know what the whole show will be. Maybe they’ll bring it back to a more positive situation,” Stanis said. “But, when you have the name Good Times on top of that, our audience of 50 years has been really in our corner. They’ve always supported us. So, they were disappointed that they didn’t have it more progressive as the way I was told it would be.”
Watch her full remarks in the YouTube clip above.
“Good Times” will debut on Netflix on Apil 12. Watch the trailer below.
READ MORE: Yvette Nicole Brown Responds to Criticism of ‘Good Times’ Animated Series
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