The Goode Family

Welcome to The Goode Family, a scathingly funny report from the front lines of America's culture wars.

Ultimately, there's no substitute for amusing scenarios like the one with the dog, and clever writing, which The Goode Family boasts in abundance.

Just as "King of the Hill" started out as a show about middle-class Texans and slowly evolved into a twisted take on mainstream suburbia and family life at large, The Goode Family should eventually transcend the boundaries of its original premise.

If you passionately loved "King of the Hill," you will cautiously like The Goode Family. Tiptoe into it if necessary.

If the show treads a little more softly, there could be greatness; radical conformity is always lampoon-worthy, no matter the setting.

The Goode Family, which is nicely acted and well animated, works best when the cultural potshots give way to the more basic human needs of its characters.

Goode really does feel too much like the flip side of "King of the Hill." The humor comes from the opposite point of view but it's still a too-similar-to-stand-on-its-own comedy.

ABC chimes in with its new animated sitcom The Goode Family--then pulls just enough punches so tonight's premiere episode feels like satire lite.

The Goode Family is both smart and not very funny.

The best bits of the series are those that let the characters deliver the punch lines, not become one, and there aren't quite enough to go around.

The result, ironically enough, is a show that makes fun of all things PC and ends up being too PC to blister.

While the jokes may be funnier than "King" has been in a long time, the new show also feels more uneven and strained.

Unfortunately, The Goode Family isn't distinct enough or, ultimately, funny enough in the few episodes ABC screened to really worry about a future.

The show feels aggressively off-kilter with the current mood, as if it had been incubated in the early to mid-’90s, when it was possible to find global-warming skeptics among even the reasonable and informed.

The ideas in The Goode Family are promising, and the era of green consciousness and Hope and Change would seem to provide a target-rich environment. The problem is that the family seems missing from this family comedy: the satire is so pointed and obvious that it gets in the way of developing the Goodes as people--when it doesn't sabotage the characters altogether.