At the time, the show was embraced by fans of Beavis & Butthead and King of the Hill as a worthy sardonic successor to Judge's animated quiver. But, critics often attacked its mockery of political correctness and progressive politics. Some pundits went so far as claiming such a show was inappropriate in the era of Obama.
In other words, it's only censorship when your side is the one being silenced.
The one-hour, two-episode King of the Hill finale should stand not just as the end of a great show that never got the attention it deserved, but as a finale that tried not to seek that attention.
The show came to a rather quiet end last Sunday during Fox's "Animation Domination" block that has done just that, thanks in part to brilliant shows like King of the Hill. It featured two episodes that treated their audience to some of the characters' humorous and heartfelt changes before sending it off into the depths of the TV land vaults.
Then it slapped them back into cold, harsh reality by following it up with an all new episode of nature's cruel mistake Family Guy, but that's hardly Mike Judge's fault.
Thank you, Mike Judge. I really needed a pick-me-up after watching that depressing video of Soleil Moon Frye dressing up like Punky Brewster to celebrate 1,000,000 Twitter followers. And this video of Beavis and Butt-Head promoting your new movie, Extract, did the trick.
Ah, "Master Bateman!" Sometimes it's the simple things that help you get through the day.
Every time The Goode Family aired on ABC, it felt badly out of place -- right up until its cancellation. Now, its producers are hinting that the show will live again on another network.
ABC canceled Mike Judge's latest animated series last week. It was hardly a shock considering the network moved it around its schedule more than a Three Card Monte dealer shifts the Queen of Hearts. ABC looked for a place to bury the Goodes -- then they killed them.
But, on the show's Facebook page, show-runners John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky claim the show will return on a new network.
It looks like The Goode Family and Surviving Suburbia won't be surviving. ABC confirmed that Friday night's airings of both episodes season finales are in fact their respective series finales. I've sampled both series at one point or another in their runs, and this fate was inevitable.
It was great seeing the "other" Bob Saget get some TV time, but Surviving Suburbia just wasn't good television. Maybe if you're a television fan who's never seen a family sitcom, then the formulaic plotlines and dialogue won't bother you. In a way, I had the same problem with The Goode Family.
However, with the latter, it seemed like they had the potential to grow into something better. I think in the beginning they were too bogged down by their schtick: a family of do-gooders, recycling and living green and all of that crap.
Mike Judge doesn't strike anyone as the kind of guy who's created a legendary animated duo and a cult hit movie. And, you certainly wouldn't size him up as a creative mind with two active series on first-run network TV.
The native-Texan is just too unassuming, soft-spoken and self-deprecating to show up at Comic-Con International last week to discuss TV's The Goode Family and King of the Hill alongside his new feature film, Extract.
But there he was in Press Room 28e, preparing for his panel and eyeing the Mythbusters Comic-Con bag I'd just picked up on the convention floor.
"I've got to get me one of those bags before I go out there," Judge said.
On behalf of a grateful TV Squad nation, I offered him mine. He accepted the bag graciously. Then we begin the interview.
Despite glowing reviews from our own Danny Gallagher, it looks like The Goode Family is moving. Specifically, it's moving to Friday nights at 8:30 P.M., which is affectionately known by some as the "death slot". No specific reasons for the move are given, but the words "super low ratings" are used in the article to describe its first two weeks, so that could be a clue.
I did catch the premiere episode of the show online and thought it was cute and an interesting 180 degrees from the Hank Hill lifestyle that Mike Judge has been working with for 13 years.
Of course, ABC has been cruel to good animated shows before (coughcoughClerkscoughcough). The show isn't canceled yet, but I give it six episodes. I actually think the show would have fared better on Fox, or given Judge's attempt from this show to skewer extreme liberals, perhaps on Fox News. It probably would have worked better than The 1/2 Hour News Hour.
The premiere episode of ABC's The Goode Family didn't do a great job of giving its titular family the kinds of three-dimensional emotions and motivations that make them more than just two-dimensional characters.
It seemed to doom the whole series to the bland, predictable taste of a tofu hot dog.
Last Wednesday's double feature of Goode Family episodes gave the family and even some of the lesser characters more depth and funnier situations. The Goode Family may not be so bad after all.
Just one look at Mike Judge's The Goode Family feels like Hank Hill and his clan are staring into a periscope that's peering into the Bizarro World. The only thing missing on the Goodes are goatees, including the dog.
It's just too parallel not to notice, and it's an unfair assumption to make. Even though they are from the pen of the same creators, they seem like two completely different shows on the surface. But the similarities end after the premiere episode.
The biggest difference is the first episode of King of the Hill was a gaff-guzzling vehicle for FOX, and The Goode Family's pilot felt more like a smart but bold-lacking hybrid for ABC.
The network that brought you Family Matters, Cavemen and is still bringing you the parade of unfunny that is According to Jim wants to bring the sitcom back to its rightful throne on the airwaves.
ABC made a solemn vow to bring back more hit, half-hour sitcoms to the airwaves starting with the new TV season, according to Variety.
The network's heads made their announcement at last week's Television Critics Association gathering.
Geez, for a show that was recently canceled there is sure a lot of news about it. First, we heard that King of the Hill was being canceled by FOX at the end of this season (though it will probably remain on the schedule through 2010 because of long-term production of episodes). Then, the lovely and talented Bob Sassone reported that the show could be picked up by ABC, who seems to be in the market for other network programs as of late. Now comes word that repeats (is that term now taboo?) of the Mike Judge series will be heading to Adult Swim's lineup.
That's right. Cartoon Network's older brother will be picking up the 11-year-old program, making it the next-to-last FOX animated series to air on its program schedule (The Simpsons would be the last, and I have no idea if it will ever make it to Adult Swim).
It looks like the Fox "Animation Domination" lineup will be changing. It took FOX long enough to put together a solid two hour block of animated cartoons on Sunday, but now comes word that the tides are a-changing. After thirteen years on the air, King of the Hill will wrap production at the end of this season. Of course, there will be new episodes in the can for airing even into next season. Not to mention that this isn't the first time Hill has been canceled, and ratings now are better than they were then. In fact, executive producer John Altschuler said, "It would be very odd for King of the Hill to not keep going."
At the same time, Seth MacFarlane's "other" show American Dad, has just been picked up for a fifth season. It makes sense for FOX to let King of the Hill go at this time, considering that Family Guy spin-off The Cleveland Show is waiting in the wings. On the other side, though, shouldn't they wait to see if that's going to work before they dump a solid perennial performer like Hill? The way they're going, Seth MacFarlane is going to own Sunday nights.
As usual, FOX leaves the best press conference (at least as far as I was concerned) for last. I sat through Karl Rove and Chris Wallace getting contentious with the critics near the end of the FOX News panel (more on that later), Jerry O'Connell and the cast of Do Not Disturb strain to answer questions about a show whose clip reel wasn't all that funny, and the millionaires from Secret Millionaire talk about being poor for a week. All of it was made worth it (and, really, seeing Rove start to get annoyed near the end was fun to watch) so we could see the final panel: all the producers of all FOX's Sunday animated shows.
The first person who spoke up, not surprisingly, was Seth MacFarlane. "Is this where Karl Rove sat? Because I don't want to get AIDS." Wow. Unfortunately, no line that was said after that was as shocking or funny. But it was all still pretty good.
The Goode Family -- the Mike Judge show ABC did everything it could to kill -- has a new home at Comedy Central.
Every time 
It looks like 
Mike Judge doesn't strike anyone as the kind of guy who's created a legendary animated duo and a cult hit movie. And, you certainly wouldn't size him up as a creative mind with two active series on first-run network TV.
Despite 
The network that brought you Family Matters, Cavemen and is still bringing you the parade of unfunny that is According to Jim wants to bring the sitcom back to its rightful throne on the airwaves. 
Geez, for a show that was recently canceled there is sure a lot of news about it. First, we heard that King of the Hill 
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