''Good Vibes'' is an American
adult animated sitcom created by
David Gordon Green
David Gordon Green is an American filmmaker. He directed the dramas ''George Washington'' (2000), ''All the Real Girls'' (2003), and '' Snow Angels'' (2007), as well as the thriller '' Undertow'' (2004), all of which he wrote or co-wrote.
In 2 ...
and Brad Ableson and Mike Clements for
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
. The series follows the exploits of recent
New Jersey
New Jersey is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions of the United States. It is bordered on the north and east by the state of New York; on the east, southeast, and south by the Atlantic Ocean; on the west by the Delaware ...
transplant Mondo and his new best friend Woodie as they live their life in Playa Del Toro, a fictional Southern California beach town. The show was originally sold to Fox in 2008, and a pilot produced. When Fox passed, the producers looked for other buyers and in 2010 they received a series order at MTV.
On February 24, 2012, the series was cancelled after one season.
Characters
* Montgomery "Mondo" Brando (
Josh Gad
Joshua Ilan Gad (born February 23, 1981) is an American actor. He is known for voicing Olaf in the '' Frozen'' franchise, playing Elder Arnold Cunningham in the Broadway musical ''The Book of Mormon'', and playing Le Fou in the live-action adap ...
): Mondo is a young overweight teenage boy from Bayonne, New Jersey who is rather self-conscious and insecure about his looks. At first he kept to himself but after befriending Woodie, he begins to break out of his shell. He starts taking up surfing and develops a crush on Jeena who finally became his girlfriend. Mondo has never met his father; in "Mondo Mia!" we learn that his father was a "cleanup man" for the Mob who had to go on the run after witnessing something he shouldn't (two mobsters making out). He is Jeena's boyfriend.
* Woodford "Woodie" Stone (
Adam Brody
Adam Jared Brody (born December 15, 1979) is an American actor, writer, musician, and producer. He is known for his breakthrough role as Seth Cohen on the Fox television series ''The O.C.'', which premiered in 2003. Subsequently, Brody appeared ...
): Woodie is Mondo's best friend. As opposed to Mondo who is short and fat, Woodie is tall and skinny. Woodie is a lazy, laid-back and hedonistic surfer. He hates doing any type of work and prefers to spend all of his days surfing. Woodie's family is incredibly rich, but he hates what material wealth has done to them and prefers to sleep in a bamboo hut outside the mansion.
* Barbara "Babs" Brando (
Debi Mazar
Deborah Anne Mazar Corcos (; born August 13, 1964) is an American actress and television personality, known for playing sharp-tongued women. She began her career with supporting roles in ''Goodfellas'' (1990), ''Little Man Tate'' (1991) and ''Si ...
): Babs is Mondo's mother, she has worked several jobs: her current job is waitressing at a Hawaiian restaurant. She is very attractive and has large breasts and is the object of Woodie's (and every other man's) desire. A running gag in the pilot was that she longed for a job where she didn't have to work a pole, be on her back, be on her knees, and so on, and then several jobs where she did these things were seen: fireman-pole cleaner, meter maid, factory worker, mechanic, etc.
* Winthrop Aguilera Wadska (
Tony Hale
Anthony Russell Hale (born September 30, 1970) is an American actor and comedian. He is known for his role in the Fox comedy series ''Arrested Development'' as Buster Bluth. Hale played Gary Walsh on the HBO comedy ''Veep'' from 2012 until its ...
): Commonly referred to by his last name, Wadska is hyperactive, overly paranoid and somewhat psychotic. Wadska is known to engage in harmful and dangerous behavior and often gets Woodie and Mondo involved in some way. According to his sister Jeena he is on medication, possibly the reason behind his behavior. He also uses the Internet to prepare for both the apocalypse and college, whatever comes first to him. In every episode, his shirt has a different saying on it; similar to Frank's hats on ''
30 Rock
''30 Rock'' is an American satirical sitcom television series created by Tina Fey that originally aired on NBC from October 11, 2006, to January 31, 2013. The series, based on Fey's experiences as head writer for ''Saturday Night Live'', takes ...
''.
* Jeena Wadska (
Olivia Thirlby
Olivia Jo Thirlby (born October 6, 1986) is an American actress. She is best known for her roles as Leah in the comedy-drama film ''Juno'' (2007),Louie, Rebecca (June 28, 2008).Olivia Thirlby is smoking in 'The Wackness'". '' Daily News, location ...
): Jeena is a popular and attractive girl who is Mondo's crush after having a vision about their graduation, marriage, life, afterlife in Episode 1. She is a bit of a tomboy and is very nice and laid-back. She also likes Mondo but she has an on-and-off relationship with Turk; in "Red Tuxedo" she breaks up with Turk and begins dating Mondo. She is Wadska's sister and Mondo's girlfriend.
* Dirk Kirk "Turk" Turkpatrick (
Jake Busey
William Jacob Busey is an American actor. Among his most prominent roles have been serial killer Johnny Bartlett in 1996's ''The Frighteners'', Ace Levy in 1997's ''Starship Troopers'', Kyle Brenner in 2001's '' Tomcats'', Aiden Tanner in the 20 ...
): Turk is the resident tough guy. He is shown as a brash and unrefined bully often targets Mondo. However he has a very sensitive side and shown to be rather cowardly deep down. He used to date Milan and now has an on-and-off relationship with Jeena who later breaks up with him and starts dating Mondo.
* Milan Stone (
Kari Wahlgren
Kari Wahlgren (born July 13, 1977) is an American actress who has provided English-language voices for animated movies, TV series, and video games. She got her start in anime voice-overs as Haruko Haruhara in '' FLCL'', and would later land ma ...
): Milan is Woodie's sister. She is a mean, vapid, vain, pretentious, snobbish, selfish, promiscuous and spoiled celebrity heiress who stars in her own reality show on
MTV
MTV (Originally an initialism of Music Television) is an American cable channel that launched on August 1, 1981. Based in New York City, it serves as the flagship property of the MTV Entertainment Group, part of Paramount Media Networks, a di ...
titled "16 and Bitchy". She has breast implants (which are removable by zipper) and used to date Turk. Despite her spoiled and snobbish demeanor, it is revealed that prior to her family's wealthy lifestyle, she and her brother always played together at the beach when they were young kids and that she still secretly cherishes that.
* Voneeta Teets (
Danny McBride
Daniel Richard McBride (born December 29, 1976) is an American actor, comedian, screenwriter and producer. He starred in the HBO television series '' Eastbound & Down'', ''Vice Principals'', and ''The Righteous Gemstones'', also co-creating the ...
): The sex-ed teacher at Del Toro High. She is a bisexual who weighs 400 pounds and gets around in a motorized scooter, but she is immensely proud of her body and is insatiably horny.
* Lonnie (
Alan Tudyk
Alan Wray Tudyk ( ;; born March 16, 1971) is an American actor. His film work includes roles in '' 28 Days'' with Sandra Bullock (2000), ''A Knight's Tale'' with Heath Ledger (2001), '' Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story'' with Vince Vaughn (2004) ...
): A hippie and
Gulf War
The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...
vet who lives in a van by the beach. He gives Mondo and Woodie advice, usually while stoned.
* HJ & BJ Kuntz (
Cree Summer
Cree Summer Francks (born July 7, 1969) is a American-Canadian actress and singer. She has worked extensively in animation, voicing long-running characters such as Susie Carmichael in ''Rugrats'' and Elmyra Duff in ''Tiny Toon Adventures'' and r ...
): Identical twins who are Milan's friends/entourage.
Episodes
Reception
''Good Vibes'' received mixed reviews from critics. Some, like ''
San Francisco Chronicle
The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...
s David Wiegand found its writing to be "juvenile, hormonal and often pretty dang funny", while
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The ''Pittsburgh Post-Gazette'', also known simply as the PG, is the largest newspaper serving metropolitan Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Descended from the ''Pittsburgh Gazette'', established in 1786 as the first newspaper published west of the All ...
's Rob Owen branded it "aggressively dumb, sex-obsessed and occasionally misogynistic".
In its review of the first season, Emily VanDerWerff of ''
The A.V. Club
''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...
'' criticized the pilot, praised later episodes and expressed optimism towards the series' future, mentioning that "this isn’t a recommendation exactly—there are still a few too many problems with the surface level of the show—but the undercarriage is sound, and it wouldn’t be surprising if this developed into a surprisingly sweet and winning little show given enough time".
The show achieved a
metascore
Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc Do ...
of 58
on Metacritic and a
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
score of 70%, with an average rating of 6.15/10. It was cancelled by MTV on February 24, 2012 due to low ratings.
References
External links
*
{{MTVNetwork Shows
2011 American television series debuts
2011 American television series endings
2010s American adult animated television series
2010s American high school television series
2010s American sitcoms
American adult animated comedy television series
American animated sitcoms
American flash adult animated television series
English-language television shows
MTV cartoons
Teenage pregnancy in television
Teen animated television series
Television shows set in Los Angeles
Television series by Warner Horizon Television