While Netflix has been in the habit of reviving old TV icons, Hollywood is no stranger to getting in on the nostalgia. And if you’re going to be digging up any old property, the socially relevant and racially poignant comedy of Norman Lear’s Good Times is a strong place to start.
A Good Times movie is currently in development from the creator of ABC’s African American spin on Modern Family, Black-ish, Kenya Barris. Deadline reports that the feature adaptation of the show, which ran on CBS between 1974 to 1979, is being set up at Sony and will be a period piece set in the ’60s.
Good Times was a spin-off of Maude, itself a spin-off of All in the Family, and was the story of a family of African Americans living in a poor, black neighborhood and housing project and how they still managed to have “good times”. Starring John Amos and Esther Rolle, the show was at first radical and socially aware for not making the black characters wealthy like The Jeffersons, but came under its own scrutiny as the character J.J., known for his catch-phrase “Dy-No-Mite!”, slowly sapped the show of some of its more pressing social issues.
Barris is currently also working on the script for Barbershop 3, but this will otherwise be his first feature film. One of Good Times‘s original creators, Eric Monte, will also serve as an executive producer on the new film.