The series was created by Mike Judge, the creator of MTV's Beavis and Butt-Head and Fox's King of the Hill, and follows the life of an environmentally responsible but obsessive family.

Situations in the first episode included shopping at a natural foods store, not having brought reusable bags, how to refer to ethnic groups, analyzing conservative beliefs they typically despise, and raising modern teenagers.

The pilot satirized both stereotypical "liberal" and "conservative" mindsets, including the ongoing derangement of the family's "vegan" dog (who has taken to eating neighborhood pets).

Showrunners John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky have mentioned these ideas for possible future episodes: On August 8, 2009, ABC Entertainment President Steve McPherson explained that the show, along with Surviving Suburbia, had officially been canceled due to low ratings.

A reviewer for the Los Angeles Times said: "The Goode Family, which is nicely acted and well animated, works best when the cultural potshots give way to the more basic human needs of its characters: a mother's desire to be close to her daughter, or to her father (Brian Doyle-Murray as the resident voice of political incorrectness), in spite of "a lifetime of crippling negative comments," and a father's willingness to go outside his comfort zone to make his son happy, as when Ubuntu joins the football team.