It’s hard to believe, but Mike Judge has been a continuous presence on television since the early 1990s.  In 1993, Beavis and Butt-Head began its often controversial run on MTV.  As that show ran down in 1997, Judge, John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky were hard at work on King of the Hill.

It’s a toss-up as to which show Judge will be better remembered for, but his future is in The Goode Family (ABC/CityTV: premieres May 27, 9:00 PM) now.  I’m not sure it’s a good move for him.

As spotty as King of the Hill was near the end of its run, the show made fun of everyone’s insecurities and character flaws.  I see that in The Goode Family, but in a blunter and less intelligent fashion.  The Goode Family is just King of the Hill with thematic sightlines aimed at the politically correct.

Gerald Goode (Judge) is just David Van Driessen from Beavis and Butt-Head, much as Hank Hill was initially Tom Anderson with hair.  He has a wife named Helen (Nancy Walls), but there’s not much to the two characters aside from white liberal guilt.  They’re the most boring characters on their own show, which is not a good sign.

Ubuntu (David Herman) is the Goodes’ near-mongoloid adopted son, originally from South Africa.  The Goodes wanted to adopt a black baby, but neglected to mark the appropriate race box on the adoption form.  Bliss (Linda Cardellini) is a relatively normal teenager, wary of her parents intruding into her personal life.

In keeping with King of the Hill’s subversive tradition, neighbour Ray Johnson (Gary Anthony Williams) is a black redneck/NASCAR fan.  Che is the Goodes’ “vegan” dog, who eats the neighbourhood pets away from the Goodes’ purview.  Charlie (Brian Doyle-Murray) is Helen Goode’s father, as conservative as Helen is wannabe liberal.

The cast is well-rounded, but there’s something troubling about all the one-note characters.  Brian Doyle-Murray is great as Charlie, and he’s given less screen time than the dog.  Ubuntu is at this point grunt stupid.  How is The Goode Family going to flesh his character out?  Also, does the show really need a pet?  King of the Hill at least had the good sense to keep Ladybird way in the background as it focused on Bill Dauterive and John Redcorn III.

The use of one-second gags might be the worst thing about The Goode Family.  Mike Judge’s shows are great at dialogue and character interaction.  King of the Hill lasted thirteen seasons for that reason.  Even when Beavis and Butt-Head were making fun of music videos, they were reacting to the world at large.

The Goode Family’s first episode is reminiscent of The Critic, betraying Judge’s strengths for easy “What Would Al Gore Do?” jokes.  A subplot about purity rings was worked to better effect on South Park’s thirteenth-season premiere, and South Park has the shorter lead time.  Judge is capable of far better than purity ring bashing.

I can only see a decent run for The Goode Family if it develops as King of the Hill did.  There are worse animated shows on TV – the latest episodes of Bob and Doug are complete shit – but this show is disappointing coming from Judge, Altschuler and Krinsky.  If ABC stays with The Goode Family past the summer, I’ll be amazed.

The complete Swiss Family Robinson series will come out June 30, 2009 through Image Entertainment.  TVShowsonDVD.com lists Swiss Family Robinson as a 1976 series.

There’s confusion about when the show debuted – it varies from 1973 to 1976.  I’ll defer to Wikipedia’s date of 1974.  The Wikipedia entry actually has sources.

This is the American release of Swiss Family Robinson, as Morningstar Entertainment released a series set in March 2007.  I assume the show is popular enough for Image Entertainment to release a similar set Stateside, Dove Family Approved logo and all.

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Life with Derek’s second-season set might come out August 11, 2009 through E1 Entertainment.  This is very early information, but I’m sure this set will come out.  Life with Derek has its fans and is part of a lucrative market.

For those who haven’t seen Life with Derek, it’s not like Hannah Montana or its clones.  As such, the show isn’t on the Disney Channel home page like Hannah Montanas I through IX are.  I refuse to believe people watch Wizards of Waverly Place.

Dumb aside: I’ve watched the Wizards of Waverly Place episode with the talking zit twice.  I don’t know why as I otherwise never watch WoWP.  It’s not even the best show on Disney Channel where an anthropomorphic pimple has featured.  Please don’t ask further about this.

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Survivorman third-season box set art.  I assume this is the American release, as Canada hadn’t adopted the current Discovery Channel logo at the time of the announcement.

You know a show is popular when a King of the Hill episode bases a subplot – a Dale subplot, yet – around it.  Mind you, I prefer Mantracker to Survivorman.  I’ll be honest, I’ll watch a documentary on TVO before watching Survivorman.  All survival-oriented reality shows give me that “might be fake” feeling.  Television, you know?

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Finalized list of extras for Corner Gas‘ sixth-season set.  It’s the final season, so buy the set and help restart Canada’s moribund economy!  Come on!  CORNER GAS!

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The 2007 version of Flash Gordon comes out on DVD July 14, 2009 through Peace Arch Phase 4 Films.  It’s a Canadian-only set, so American fans will have to import the series for now.

From what I understand, Flash Gordon started off horribly and improved midway through the season.  The show is still a failure considering it’s Flash Gordon, the venerable grandfather of comic book sci-fi.  It won’t be until I’m 45, but there will be a good Flash Gordon television series one day!

As for Peace Arch becoming Phase 4 Films, I don’t see the point.  It’s not like the company will magically be better run due to the name change.  The change is about as pointless as Koch Entertainment becoming E1 Entertainment.  I’m sure VSC will merge with itself next week and become H831 Video Space Pow!  It seems to be the trend of the moment.

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May 2009’s Acorn Media releases include a DVD compilation of Red Green Show-related specials.  Apparently PBS flogs the series like A&E Home Video flogs Monty Python’s Flying Circus DVDs.

This release is mainly for Red Green Show completists.  I’ll just wait for more season sets.  Maybe I’ll wait until the Dave the Barbarian series set with the talking z

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Sun Media article about the Nature of Things: Visions of the Future two-disc set.  Wow, that news just slid by me.  Mongrel Media and CBC Home Video put the set out.

I don’t want to sound like an idiot, but did CBC advertise this heavily?  The Nature of Things is an institution more battered than even Marketplace, but David Suzuki is still a well-known Canadian icon.  I know of Mongrel Media through its release of Manufacturing Dissent and other documentaries, but it’s not a familiar face in the world of TV-on-DVD.

Mongrel Media/CBC Home Video will also put out India Reborn on May 5, 2009, if you’re into CBC documentaries.

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Finally, here’s an American “newspaper” reference to Slings and Arrows‘ DVD sets.  I quote “newspaper” due to the Seattle Post-Intelligencer being an online-only news outlet these days.  Changes, aren’t they sweeping?

I’m amazed Slings and Arrows is so loved in America.  It never received that love in its own country, though that’s not surprising for Canadian television.

As a bonus, TV Guy’s opinion on the future of Canadian television.  I thought it was a good article, if a bit simplistic.  Your mileage may vary since, you know, Canwest.

Producing Parker (TVtropolis: starts May 4, 8:30 PM ET/PT) was one of two shows originally scheduled to debut on E! this spring.  It and Carlawood later moved to TVtropolis, as E! will no longer be a network in the near future.

Producing Parker could actually succeed for TVtropolis.  Unlike Carlawood, Producing Parker has a few things going for it – a point, comedy, Kim Cattrall, one of the stars of Young People Fucking and Peter Keleghan.

The show is almost too good for TVtropolis, unless Canwest is making an effort to build the channel up.  Of course, TVtropolis added Bob & Doug to its lineup recently.  I expect both Bob & Doug and Producing Parker to be rerun seven times a week.  It’s the TVtropolis way.

I’m not sold on Kristin Booth as Parker Kovak, the producer of The Dee Show (although she isn’t credited as such until the end of the first episode.)  It’s not that Booth’s voice is bad, it’s just that Kovak as a character is generic – she wants a man, is career-oriented and keeps the show from going pear-shaped.  Booth imitates Tina Fey, but Fey is more multifaceted and has Alec Baldwin to bounce jokes off.

In fact, almost all of Producing Parker’s characters are generic.  Simon (Aaron Abrams) is the wannabe reporter slumming on daytime television.  Blake Bellamy (Peter Keleghan) is the good-looking yet oblivious head of Bellamy Broadcasting.  Chicago (Sarah Cornell) is the ditzy, unqualified intern.  Massimo (Jamie Watson) is the talking dog/stand-in for the man Kovak wants.  Producing Parker does try to make its characters three-dimensional, but they’re placeholders for gags at this point.

Kim Cattrall is Dee, the superego of a talk show host.  She’s bitchy, temperamental and trend-conscious.  Cattrall sells Dee, displaying quite a bit of emotional range.  Considering how one-dimensional Dee could have been, Cattrall manages to make her more than an over-the-hill celebrity figure.  It’s really because of Cattrall, Cornell and Keleghan that Producing Parker works as well as it does.

The main problem with Producing Parker is that it’s shrill and a bit shallow.  The Newsroom and Made in Canada were more biting looks at television behind the scenes.  Producing Parker’s traditional Simpsons-style gags work only some of the time, but at least they work.  Producing Parker isn’t nearly as unfunny as Punch! and The Wrong Coast, but that should be a given.

Producing Parker’s animation is fairly well done.  While I’d like to see more traditionally animated Canadian cartoons, PP is a much better Flash effort than shows like Total Drama Action and Bob & Doug.  There’s a concerted effort to pace and animate the show so that the tweening is less noticeable, although Producing Parker still looks like a Flash cartoon.

Producing Parker isn’t on the level of 30 Rock or The Larry Sanders Show, but it’s a modest success.  I can see Breakthrough Films and Television selling this to America on the strength of Cattrall’s name, which makes me wonder why Producing Parker didn’t debut on Global.  Compared to Bob & Doug, Producing Parker has a much better sense of what it is and isn’t trading on familiarity.  Bob & Doug is dredging 200,000+ viewers a week, so I can see the two shows flip within two to three weeks.