Did Steve Harvey Let The ‘Good Times’ Cast Fall On Hard Times?

As the television industry adapts to the way people consume media, one of the shows rumored to be in line for a comeback has been Good Times from the late 1970s.

This week, the Inquisitr reported that the cast of Good Times made an appearance on the Steve Harvey Show, where the comedian was able to reminisce on the show and how influential it was to him growing up.

Good Times was one of the many successful shows created by Norman Lear, who at the time was dominating television with Maude, Sanford And Son, The Jeffersons, and All In The Family.

When Steve Harvey asked Bern Nadette Stanis about a reunion show, she told him that they had a Kickstarter campaign, but as the Inquisitr article shows, they fell extremely short of their goal of $1 million.

The rules of a Kickstarter campaign are that if the goal isn’t reached, no funds are received and while Stanis said that they were talking to private investors for the show, it would have made perfect sense for Steve Harvey to reveal a surprise at the end of his show, saying that he would personally fund the project, but that didn’t happen.

Instead, the surprise was that Ja’net DuBois, who played Willona Woods, and Johnny Brown who played Nathan Bookman, came on the show, as they hadn’t shared the stage in decades.

The “put on” however was likely for the audience, even though they were all together as early as last year, but there’s reason to believe they’ve been working on something currently, as Stanis has said that Black-ish creator Kenya Barris is developing the project, according to another article by Inquisitr.

The IMDB page also shows a Good Times project as in development, but says very little about it.

One of the things Steve Harvey brought up was the message the show put out, showing how united the family was.

This appears to be the signature of creators like Norman Lear and Kenya Barris, both who have hands in putting that “family united” message out there through their sitcoms, where they place their characters in interesting environments, testing them to see how they overcome them.

Now on #SteveHarvey: #WhereAreTheyNow week continues w/ Good Times cast reunion! #MustSee pic.twitter.com/RLNtghnumH

— WTVR CBS 6 Richmond (@CBS6) May 11, 2016

But it would seem that Steve Harvey’s support has limits when it comes to financing the project, as he’s valued to be worth an estimated $100 million, the comedian’s financial support could save the project and have it ready to go in no time.

Of course there’s also the case of whether the cast is easy to work with or not.

It would be easy to assume that Steve Harvey’s support of the original show puts them in a trust-worthy position, but Jimmie Walker isn’t exactly known to have a good relationship with some people in the industry, especially with the late Ester Rolle who played his mother, and stage father played by John Amos, who left the show because of Walker.

It’s said that Walker did not even attend Ester Rolle’s funeral when she passed.

Of course Steve Harvey is so involved in many different television projects; on his daytime show he features segments where he attempts to solve problems in relationships, which means he might have to play moderator between rivalries on the set?

If it doesn’t come with a paycheck, he likely doesn’t want anything to do with it.

Variety reported that in the Season 2 finale of Black-ish, Barris pays tribute to Good Times with a dream sequence, where the cast for his show perform as the Norman Lear creation.

The Good Times cast has also said they’ve reviewed many scripts over the years and have collectively agreed on the direction of the characters today, causing delays in going ahead with any effort to bring the show back in one form or another.

As of this writing, there is no information on when a new Good Times project will be released.

[Image by CBS Television via Wikimedia/Public Domain]