Good Vibes (American TV series)
Good Vibes is an American adult animated sitcom created by David Gordon Green and Brad Ableson and Mike Clements for MTV. The series follows the exploits of recent New Jersey 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.
Good Vibes | |
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Genre | Comedy |
Created by | David Gordon Green Brad Ableson Mike Clements |
Developed by | Tom Brady Brad Ableson Mike Clements |
Voices of | Josh Gad Adam Brody Debi Mazar Jake Busey Tony Hale Danny McBride Olivia Thirlby Alan Tudyk |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 12 |
Production | |
Executive producers | Tom Brady Brad Ableson David Gordon Green Mike Clements |
Running time | 20 minutes |
Production companies |
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Release | |
Original network | MTV |
Original release | October 27 – December 29, 2011 |
On February 24, 2012, the series was cancelled after one season.[1][2]
Characters
- Montgomery "Mondo" Brando (Josh Gad): 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): 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): 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): Commonly referred to by his last name, Wadska is a hyperactive, perverted, and pint-sized nerd. 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.
- Jeena Wadska (Olivia Thirlby): 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 big sister and Mondo's girlfriend.
- Dirk Kirk "Turk" Turkpatrick (Jake Busey): Turk is the resident tough guy. He is shown as a brash and unrefined bully who often targets Mondo. However, he has a very sensitive side and is 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): 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 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): 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): A hippie and Gulf War vet who lives in a van by the beach. He gives Mondo and Woodie advice, usually while stoned.
- HJ & BJ Kuntz (Cree Summer): Identical twin sisters who are Milan's friends/entourage.
Episodes
No. | Title | Original air date | Prod. code | US viewers (millions) |
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1 | "Pilot" | October 27, 2011 | GV101 | 1.598 |
Jersey boy Mondo moves to a laid-back Southern California beach town in the premiere of this animated comedy. He feels like an outsider until he meets Woodie, a local teen who offers to help him navigate through what life is like in his hometown. | ||||
2 | "Floatopia" | November 3, 2011 | GV104 | 1.119 |
The boys find out about a loophole that lets them drink alcohol on the open seas, so they throw a party off the shore. | ||||
3 | "Tech Rehab" | November 10, 2011 | GV108 | 1.066 |
The kids' parents get frustrated with the younger generation's dependence on technology, so they send the gang on a wilderness trip with a former tech addict, which goes horribly wrong. | ||||
4 | "Don't Blow Your Wadska" | November 17, 2011 | GV102 | 0.768 |
Mondo finds out his crush's parents are out of town, and uses her eccentric brother to get close to her during a sleepover that goes horribly wrong. Babs and Ms. Teets go out. Absent: Milan. | ||||
5 | "The D-List" | December 1, 2011 | GV107 | N/A |
Mondo accidentally drops his pants after swimming in freezing water, exposing himself to the entire school. Then, he's ranked at the bottom of "The D-List." | ||||
6 | "Breast Friends" | December 1, 2011 | GV103 | N/A |
Jeena launches a mobile breast-exam initiative, inspiring the boys to cross-dress so they can attend and observe the event. | ||||
7 | "The Grass is Always Greener" | December 8, 2011 | GV106 | N/A |
Mondo escorts Woodie's sister to her sweet-16 and gets a little too comfortable in her wealthy world. | ||||
8 | "Red Tuxedo" | December 15, 2011 | GV112 | N/A |
Mondo and Woody find out that Jeena and Turk broke up, so Mondo finds out that this is his chance to be with Jeena on the night of prom. Meanwhile, Wadska helps Mila Kunis hide from photographers and in return takes Mila to the prom. Note: According to MTV this was supposed to be the season finale, yet it aired too early. | ||||
9 | "Mondo Mia!" | December 15, 2011 | GV111 | N/A |
Mondo tries to find out the identity of his father by hacking his mother's Facebook account. | ||||
10 | "Virgin Hangover" | December 22, 2011 | GV105 | N/A |
Mondo, Woodie and Wadska ditch school in search of a nudist beach. Absent: Milan. | ||||
11 | "Surf Legend" | December 29, 2011 | GV110 | 0.419 |
Woodie loses a surf competition and worries that he's lost his "stoke," so the boys turn to Woodie's surf hero, Duke Sanchez, for help conquering an infamous wave, which would bring Woodie's "stoke" back. Milan thinks she might be pregnant. | ||||
12 | "Backstage Babs" | December 29, 2011 | GV109 | N/A |
A call from the principal's office makes Babs worry that she's been too lax as a parent, so she decides to step up her parenting skills when she takes Mondo to a music festival, and helps him impress Jenna in the process. Wadska helps Turk get into the concert. |
Reception
Good Vibes received mixed reviews from critics. Some, like San Francisco Chronicle's David Wiegand found its writing to be "juvenile, hormonal and often pretty dang funny",[3] while Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's Rob Owen branded it "aggressively dumb, sex-obsessed and occasionally misogynistic".[4] In its review of the first season, Emily VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club 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".[5]
The show achieved a metascore of 58[4] on Metacritic and a Rotten Tomatoes score of 70%, with an average rating of 6.15/10.[6] It was cancelled by MTV on February 24, 2012, due to low ratings.[7]
References
- "Good Vibes canceled, no season two | canceled or renewed TV shows". TV Series Finale. 24 February 2012. Retrieved 2012-05-24.
- Deadline: Animated Comedy ‘Good Vibes’ Cancelled By MTV After One Season
- "'Beavis,' 'Good Vibes,' 'Allen Gregory' reviews". SFGate. 2011-10-27. Retrieved 2018-11-15.
- "GOOD VIBES : SEASON 1". Metacritic. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
- VanDerWerff, Emily. "TV Reviews: Good Vibes". The A.V. Club. Retrieved October 6, 2019.
- "GOOD VIBES (2011 - 2011)". Rotten Tomatoes. Retrieved 15 November 2018.
- Andreeva, Nellie (2012-02-24). "Animated Comedy 'Good Vibes' Cancelled By MTV After One Season". Deadline. Retrieved 2018-11-15.
External links
- Good Vibes at IMDb
- Good Vibes T-Shirts