Good Times Creator Ranada Shepard States That Animating The Classic Sitcom Was "A Gift"

Summary Animating Good Times allowed for creative exploration into social commentary and unique storylines not possible in live-action.

The reboot aims to showcase the reality of systemic oppression in 2024, exploring modern-day obstacles faced by the Evans family.

Viewers do not need to watch the original show to appreciate the reboot, but fans will enjoy Easter eggs and nods to the classic series.

Based on the 1974 sitcom of the same name, Netflix's Good Times reboot is currently available to binge on the streaming service. However, the show's latest adaptation has a major change that caught long-time fans off-guard. The studio opted to animate the project, rather than follow in the footsteps of its live-action predecessor.

Creator Ranada Shepard was intrigued by the reboot's creative direction and wanted to ensure that the chosen style would serve as a way to elevate Good Times in 2024. Shepard believes that she was able to use the animation as a gift and adapt the story for a modern audience. The showrunner expresses enthusiasm for the project, hoping that it will appeal to old and new fans alike.

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Ranada Shepard chats with Screen Rant about the process of adapting the live-action 70s sitcom into a contemporary animation that honors Good Times' roots.

Animating Good Times Allowed The Series To Expand Beyond What Live-Action Allows

Screen Rant: I'm assuming you were a fan, so what are your thoughts on the original Good Times?

Ranada Shepard: I absolutely loved it. I grew up on the south side of Chicago, so it was really an extension of home, especially during my younger years when I didn't have the basic concept of how television worked. But also, getting older and still being a fan of it, it was a beautiful place to work out the issues and the problems that people were pretending didn't exist in the world. There was the comedy and the familiarity of Thelma and J.J. fighting like my brothers and I fought. There was the sterness of the mother, like my mom, and the sternness of the father as well, and who was going to win the sterness contest. It was really near and dear to my heart. To be a part of this today is amazing and a dream come true. Not to mention the Norman Lear of it all—just the master of bringing the issues to the living room and watching families work them out in the best of ways.

Then how did this opportunity end up presenting itself?

Ranada Shepard: It was a really cool phone call from Sony. They were like, "Hey, we've got this project, we've had it in motion, and we're pausing it. We would love to know if you're interested in a take on this and how to move it forward." I jumped at the opportunity, being a fan, and it all worked out, and here we are.

A lot of viewers were surprised that this was a reboot, rather than an animated version of the original. Was it always the plan for this to be a new story?

Ranada Shepard: As far as I know, it was sold as the animated Good Times reboot. To my knowledge, that was always the path they were going in. It's lightly connected, in a sense of, "What does it look like today?" That's where I picked up with Sony. The family was already laid out, and already existed, so it was a matter of just building really cool stories around this amazing family that was already on paper.

What did you feel the animation offered, creatively, as opposed to a live-action series?

Ranada Shepard: That's a great question. I had to ask myself, "Why animate Good Times?" One, you go, "Why touch Good Times?" It's great the way we remember it. And then you ask yourself, "If I'm going to do this, why would we animate it, and what would come of that that possibly wouldn't in live-action?" In so many ways, the animation was a gift. It allows you to go into spaces and into worlds that live-action wouldn't have allowed. There are so many subject matters that come to mind that I like to explore. In the original series, the mom always looked to the heavens. There was always a moment that you knew God was a part of every storyline of every day in that household. And the first thing I thought was, which I think in general, "I wonder what God's thinking?" There are times that we've all, in our own ways, whoever your God is, have used God as a genie. In my mind, he has to be tired of me. "Didn't I just answer those prayers last week? Now you've got a new one?" That's something interesting to play with. Let's go to heaven and see what God is saying and how their God is responding to the things that are going on in their lives. And then from there, I thought, "We can just play with the subject matter, the social commentary, and the world we go in, being in Junior's brain insideout." The uterus and the womanhood in Episode 103. Episode 108—what a special way to show the animation. Junior is an artist, and you use his art to tell the story in a graphic novel style. So these are three things that wouldn't happen. A line producer would come to me and go, "Absolutely not," in a live-action show. If I couldn't use the animation as a gift, it wasn't something that I was interested in. That was then the task, to figure out how to use it as a gift, and it truly was a dream come true to animate this series.

Shepard's Good Times Is Meant To Showcase The Reality Of Systemic Oppression In 2024

What kind of things did you take into consideration while writing for a 2024 audience, as opposed to viewers who were watching during the '70s?

Ranada Shepard: The first thing was how we have evolved as a culture, as Black people in America. We've had our first Black president, we've had our first Black female vice-president. There are so many things that have happened, which are great, but also, there was this hope that so much would be released from us from systemic oppression when these things came true. So much of that, sadly, still exist in this country, and would exist for this family. It was a matter of looking at, "What does systemic oppression look like today? What are the obstacles this family would have to overcome today?" It was really interesting to dig into, because so many things have evolved, yet so many things have stayed the same. You're also looking at where we are today in women's empowerment. When Florida wanted to go back to school, James said, "There's only two places for a woman. The kitchen and the bedroom." That was a big fight in their episode. Today, we're talking about Beverly running for the president of the project, and she wins. How being president impacts her life. That's a different space, right? So you just explore these concepts and take a deep dive. I had an amazing group of writers that were willing to do that and excited to do that and know that we could find these pieces of social commentary in exploring life today, but also still make it fun, loving, and funny.

When they were voicing these characters, was there anything the cast added that wasn't necessarily on the page?

Ranada Shepard: That cast is a dream come true, truly. We had a screening a week ago, and I mentioned this. Never once did anybody record with anyone else. I watched that show, and I'm in awe that they all siloed their recordings, and we never did playbacks. So they never knew the way in which the other person was saying the line, and they still deliver it in a way that is so cohesive. When you watch it, you think they are all in a room together fighting back and forth and talking to each other and answering each other's questions. That is the gift of that cast. J.B. was so amazing. He would probably say the line about five times and then go on a Reggie rant. I didn't want to stop him. We never wrote him speaking to himself and calling his own name out. That would just be the gift that he would give. I know society says that a big Black man is a threat and that's what was so great about his voice. There is something so endearing and vulnerable to dispel all myths and stereotypes about Black men in society. I am blown away at Beverly's levels. Yvette brougrht Beverly to life in a way that went beyond the page. Jay Pharoah does amazing work and also, like, fifty million voices. We had so many talents between rappers and other artists that were scheduled to come in, and for whatever reason, their schedules didn't work. Jay was like, "I got it." Marsai Martin was so amazing because she was coming off of Black-ish. She was coming out of a Disney space. She was figuring out this voice in herself that could actually curse and yell and scream and say, "I don't like this society. This is messed up," and just stepping into her power as a young Black woman. Honestly, this cast just came together in an amazing way.

How did you work with the art department and production design to capture an animated world that was based off a live-action set?

Ranada Shepard: The first thing is you take it to the stage, they perform it, they record it, and you're done, you go on to the next. I was literally in the writers room by five on Zoom, and then I'd jump onto another Zoom to do my design with my design team. That was everything from the floors, to the hair, to the eyes, to the lips, to the inside of the palms that are lighter than the outside of the skin, like our skin is in real life. The attention to detail was incredible. By the time we got to design, it was a matter of designing the world and the shots and getting it into its animatic form. Once we got into its animatic form, we actually got this animated in Australia. So then I would have calls after that because of the time difference to go over the animation and translate cultural nuances and the context of scenes. Initially, you get rid of an episode every week on live-action, and you're just constantly tinkering and finding things because the gift is sometimes that the animatic comes in, and that person has drawn something you didn't even imagine. It was like Christmas every time I got a new animatic in and every time I got a new animated version in. These are artists, and I'm not in their head. They're seeing these words, and they're taking it off the page, and they're giving me their art for what comes up for them. That has been a very cool experience for me. I am so grateful for these artists, who not only poured into the show, but love the show and love the characters enough to have fun and play with them in a great way.

Fans Do Not Need To Watch Good Times To Understand The Reboot

Do you feel viewers need to watch the original Good Times in order to appreciate the reboot?

Ranada Shepard: There are amazing Easter eggs. You do not need to watch the original in order to understand this. There were so many times our talent even had to admit [it]. I was born the year it ended, and they didn't necessarily grow up with it. They're like, "I think my mom had it on," and they weren't familiar with it, and they didn't need to be, rest-assured. But it's a great show, so everyone should dig it up and watch. If you grew up watching Good Times, you're going to love the Easter eggs. If you didn't, you're going to enjoy an amazing show about a Black family in Chicago, sticking together, loving each other, and doing everything they can to survive.

Lastly, do you have any other projects in the pipeline?

Ranada Shepard: There are amazing things coming up that I can't really announce yet. Just know that development is out there. Ranada will be bringing other pieces of art to you, other stories. I just love the art of storytelling. Where there's a story to be told, I will tell it. I'm definitely in development on some other projects, and I'm looking forward to announcing them soon.

About Good Times (2024)

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In this irreverent reimagining of the TV classic, a new generation of the Evans family keeps their heads above water in a Chicago housing project. An unfiltered adult comedy with the voices of Yvette Nicole Brown, J.B. Smoove, Wanda Sykes and more.

Good Times is currently available to stream on Netflix.