Good Times provided many people with something that was missing from television in the ’70s, but when the show ended its run, it didn’t quite give fans closure. And that’s something the original cast (minus Esther Rolle, who has since died) wants to provide.
BernNadette Stanis, Jimmie Walker, John Amos, Ralph Carter and Ja’Net DuBois aren’t using a big Hollywood studio to fund a movie based on the show instead they have created a Kickstarter campaign to which the public can donate. According to Deadline, the cast members’ attorney, Shaun Weiss, says the movie won’t infringe on any copyrights or trademarks from the original Norman Lear show.
“In the case of Good Times, there is going to be a comparison, but it’s not an infringement of copyright,” Weiss said. “What we are doing is bringing a new era into the cast. The characters have never been copyrighted or trademarked.”
But one has to wonder, with a $1 million goal and, so far, less than $5,000 raised, are their goals too lofty, with 15 days to go?
It’s also interesting to see that Amos will be involved somehow in the project, especially since his character was infamously killed off the show because he didn’t agree with Lear’s vision.
With news last year that Lear was planning a reboot of the series (yes, another reboot of something that shouldn’t be rebooted), the attorney for the cast says that their movie will be nothing like the old series.
“The best thing in the world is taking the popularity in the TV show and bringing closure to it a different way,” Weiss said. “The whole premise of the movie is to show the Evans family in the future and what they’ve all become without bringing in the old. If there is a piece of the old show that would be used, we understand that we would have to get clearance, but that is not the case. We are not going to tread on the old Good Times. What we are doing is using the characters and doing something new and telling a very different story.”