'Good Times' Cast Launches Kickstarter Campaign To Fund Reunion Movie

With shows ranging from THE GILMORE GIRLS to FULL HOUSE producing new episodes, it might seem as if nearly any series that's been on television can come back for more if the cast is willing and available. The original cast of the Norman Lear series GOOD TIMES want you to know that they've available for a reunion movie, but they need fans to fork over the money.

Cast members John Amos, Jimmie Walker, Ja'net Du Bois, BernNadette Stanis, and Ralph Carter have launched a Kickstarter campaign to produce a new GOOD TIMES movie, set in the present day. Series star Esther Rolle died in 1998. The goal is to raise $1 million, although at the time this piece was written, 148 people had contributed a mere $5,200.

So why produce a movie? This is what the group has to say on their project page:

From the day we walked off the set of Good Times, forty years ago, all we have heard is  When are you going to have a Good Times reunion? Our audience have told us they need completion. They tell us we are not finished with the first Black T.V. family show. What happened? We want to see our favorite family show back on T.V.

Well, here it is a chance to make that happen. We as a cast have always said maybe one day, we will have a reunion. That one day is here now. It is not just up to us, it is up to our millions of fans who have the power to make it happen.

During these forty years as a cast we have been giving a numerous amount of scripts that were written about what happened to the Evans' family. The ideas are countless, but as a group we have made a decision on where each character should go  and what this long awaited script should be about.  We are bursting at the seems to bring this exciting movie to you. All that we can tell you at this point is that it will be exactly what you expect from us and more.

I am sure you will agree that the ones who can tell the stories of each character are those who have lived with those characters for forty years. That would be each one of us in the cast. Therefore in this movie we will have great input into what our characters will be about now. The success of kick-starter will give us as a cast control of what this movie will be about. Therefore bringing great satisfaction to our audience and to us as a cast who wants to bring nothing but the best to you.

We as the cast have decided to go on the Kick-starter website because we had heard this would be excellent in making the dream of a Good Times Movie Re-Union happen. We checked it out, studied the success of some of our favorite artists who have decided to bring their projects right here on kick-starter and have been very successful in seeing their projects become a reality through the help of their fabulous fans. This is exactly what we want our fans and Good Time lovers to do for our project. Support us in making this movie happen. You will become an active part of bringing this generational movie to the big screen.

Let all of those wonderful memories, those back in the day memories, come back to you with a brand new flare. You know the ones when you watched the show with your mom and dad and grandparents. Sitting in the living room watching that one television set, on CBS one of three stations back then. Well I hope its bringing a smile to your face because its bringing a smile to mine. Those were truly fond memories that we will never forget as we pass the tradition on of watching the show with our children and grandchildren.

Good Times has become a family staple in many American homes. The Evans Family was an African American family placed in the Cabrini Green projects in Chicago. It's been playing on television somewhere in the world for 37 consecutive years. Proving that GoodTimes  is not just an African American show, it is an American iconic show that all people have come to love. It has found its place not only in television history but in the hearts of people all over the world. 

 

The Good Time Family as we call ourselves, want to thank each and every one of our fans for the love and support all of you have shown us throughout these forty most wonderful years that we have known each other.

An irony of this reunion idea is that John Amos was fired from the show after three seasons, due to his increasingly public complaints about the direction of the show:

The writers would prefer to put a chicken hat on J.J. and have him prance around saying "DY-NO-MITE", and that way they could waste a few minutes and not have to write meaningful dialogue.

Esther Rolle was also unhappy with the evolution of the show, and left at the end of season four. She was later convinced to come back for the end of the series, but remained unhappy about the way the show portrayed J.J. Walker's character.

Given all of that, having a proposal that claims the movie would be "Dy-No-Mite!" is a bit odd.