News of an upcoming film adaptation of the ’70s sitcom leaves Ebony‘s Michael Arceneaux saying, “Damn, damn, damn, James!”
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“Damn! Damn! Damn!”
My reaction to news of a Good Times movie hearkened back to the episode in which Florida Evans learned that her husband had been killed at the railroad job that was finally supposed to get the family out of the projects. You know, after John Amos left the show due to the increasingly buffoonish antics of the JJ character?
Alas, Sony Pictures and (White) producer Scott Rudin are reportedly at work on a film adaptation, along with (White) writer Phil Johnston. According to Deadline, “The movie will be set in the 1960s, which gives Johnston a rich and politically charged period to mine.” The writer of the Deadline report also said “I think this has a lot of potential.”
If he means “the potential to piss off lots and lots of Black people,” we’re in agreement there. Although Florida, Buffalo Butt, and Wilona saving Penny from Mrs. Gordon’s fury are forever entrenched in my memory, so are recollections of how culturally offensive and grossly stereotypical Good Times could be. If you take a look at the IMDB page of television writer and playwright Eric Monte, who served as a script supervisor of the show, it was by design.
Read Michael Arceneaux’s entire piece at Ebony.
The Root aims to foster and advance conversations about issues relevant to the black Diaspora by presenting a variety of opinions from all perspectives, whether or not those opinions are shared by our editorial staff.
Michael Arceneaux hails from Houston, lives in Harlem and praises Beyoncé’s name wherever he goes. Follow him on Twitter.
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