Series / Good News

David Ramsey and Roz Ryan as "Pastor David Randolph" and "Mrs. Hattie Dixon"

Good News was a short-lived, and today, somewhat forgotten, television sitcom that aired on the United Paramount Network (UPN, now a part of The CW Television Network and Paramount Global/Viacom) from August 25, 1997, to May 19, 1998. Starring actor David Paul Ramsey, and actress and singer Roz Ryan, the TV series followed the often humorous and comedic adventures of a young pastor and minister, named Pastor David Randolph, who moves to the Compton borough of Los Angeles, California to take over a small, fledgling African-American church, in the middle of a crime-infested and gang-infested urban neighborhood.

The series ran for one season with 24 episodes, but was unfortunately canceled and discontinued after the first season wrapped up, because the show didn't meet UPN's rating requirements to continue with a second season. Because of this, the show’s reruns are not often syndicated on most TV channels, except for occasional reruns on channels that show vintage and retro African-American sitcoms from the 1970's–1990's.

In addition to David Ramsey and Roz Ryan, the series also starred actors and comedians Tracey Cherelle Jones, Jazsmin Lewis, Guy Torry, Alexia Robinson, Phill Lewis, Dana Michael Woods, Hawthorne James, Bern Nadette Stanis, and musician and singer, Billy Preston.

Not to be confused with the Australian news commentary series Good News Week.

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Main Cast:

• David Ramsey as Pastor David Randolph, the protagonist and new young minister and reverend who takes over as the senior pastor of the Compton Community Church of Life.
• Roz Ryan as Mrs. Hattie Dixon, the deuteragonist of the show who serves as the church cook, and the uptight and often nit-picky critical foil to Pastor David Randolph.
• Jazsmin Lewis as Venita Stansbury, the church secretary who has a huge romantic but unrequited crush on Pastor David.
• Alexia Robinson as Mona Phillips, the church's youth and children's ministry leader who's also best friends with Venita.
• Guy Torry as Little T/Lil' T, one of the young members of the church who serves as a choir member and an assistant to Mona in the church youth and teens ministry. He also starts out as best friends with and later on dates Cassie Coleman.
• Tracey Cherrelle Jones as Cassie Coleman, one of the young members of the church who serves as a choir member and an assistant to Mona in the church youth and children's ministry, and is Little T/Lil' T's best friend and eventual girlfriend.
• Billy Preston as Billy, the church's head music director and choirmaster.
• Hawthorne James as Deacon Bob James and Mr. Henry. He plays as Deacon Bob James, one of the deacons of the church who acts as a good friend and advisor to Pastor David, and Hawthorne James also plays as Mr. Henry the Mechanic, who starts out with a severe stuttering problem, but his stuttering problem eventually goes away when he takes speech therapy and overcomes his fear of public speaking at one of his friends' funerals that's held at the church.
• Phill Lewis as Dr. Larry Mayfield, Pastor Randolph's new dentist when he moves to the city of Los Angeles, and a member of the church who Pastor Randolph often has to counsel him and his wife when they have bad conflicts with each other.

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This show provides examples of:

• As the Good Book Says...: Obviously, sense the show relies heavily on Christian and religious tones and motifs, Pastor David and several other characters often quote verses from the Bible.
  • Subverted in the episode, "Ashes to Ashes" where when Pastor David is asking Lil'T for some advice, Lil' T gives him a quote which Pastor David mistakenly thinks is from the Bible. When Pastor David asks him what scripture verse his quote is from, Lil' T humorously reveals the quote has nothing to do with the Bible:
    Little T: Well Rev, perfection is not to be expected in this life, but in paradise.
    Pastor David: Wow, T. That was beautiful, I've never heard that Bible scripture before. What verse is that from?
    Little T: Well actually Reverend, it's not from the Bible. I got it from an advertisement for a booty club in Jamaica!
• Badass Preacher: Downplayed with Pastor David, as he's not really an excellent master fighter, but he does know pretty basic self-defense and martial arts, and in one episode, he does hold his own against a guy who tries to fight him while he's at a bank during a robbery. He's able to fight the guy somewhat pretty well until the police arrive. This makes Venita fall in love with Pastor David even more. In a few episodes, he stood up to entire gangs, and even though he didn't resort to violence with them, he unyieldingly stood his ground against them, and got many of them to become friends and members of the church and convert to Christianity.
• Bank Robbery: In one of the episodes, Pastor David, Venita, and Little T are caught in a bank robbery when they try to go to a local bank to handle some of the church's financial business. Pastor David ends up fighting the bank robber and actually helps to subdue him until the police arrive.
• Berserk Button:
  • Pastor David and Mrs. Hattie whenever an antagonist tries to do something to harm any of the members of their church.
  • Venita whenever someone tries to flirt with or make romantic advances towards Pastor David.
• Best Friend: Venita and Mona, and Lil' T and Cassie before they started dating. Venita and Mona are truly a remarkable and inseparable example of this trope, because they grew up at the church together as best friends, and their friendship grew into their adulthood with them. They almost never have any conflicts with each other, and even when they do, they're usually very short-lived, and they usually can resolve them easily within a reasonable amount of time.
• BookWorm:
  • Venita can be considered an example of a Bookworm, because she is shown to be very intelligent and has a passion for intellectual and academic things sometimes. And also, even though she's kind of nerdy at times, she's a pretty attractive nerd.
  • Pastor David can be considered an example of this as well, given that he has a few college degrees and is shown to have quite a penchant for intellectual and academic topics, including religious and philosophical subjects. He also says he knows a little bit of Classical Hebrew, Greek, Spanish, and French; and loves visiting museums, which one episode revolves around him and Venita visiting a science and history museum to see an exhibit together.
• Brainless Beauty: Mona is a member of the church who leads and heads the church's youth and children's ministry with Cassie and Lil' T. She's best friends with Venita and she's very sweet and friendly, and has a lovely personality, as well as being very beautifully attractive, but sometimes she has a tendency to be sort of dumb and air-headed. Nevertheless, she does have some occasional wise and smart moments throughout the show when she has occasional sparks of intelligence for special circumstances.
• Butt-Monkey: Most often Little T, but sometimes Cassie.
• Casanova Wannabe: Before Little T starts dating Cassie, he often acts like this towards some of the young ladies of the church whom he tries to use his clever flirting and corny pickup lines on.
• Celebrity Paradox:
  • In one episode, Pastor David and Mrs. Hattie are talking about famous Gospel singers that they wish could come and perform at the church for their telethon. One of the Gospel singers they named was Shirley Caesar. A few episodes later, Shirley Caesar herself guest starred on one episode as Cassie's aunt who they invite to sing as a soloist for their church's Gospelfest choir competition.
  • In another episode, Little T and Cassie are talking about different African American TV shows and they mention the show Good Times. A few episodes later, Bern Nadette Stanis who played as Thelma in Good Times, guest stars on the show. When Cassie and Little T meet her character, they don't even seem to notice that she looks like Thelma from Good Times.
• Christmas Episode: The episode "A Christmas Story" revolves around the church using live animals for their Christmas Nativity play, and one of the children at the church, allows them to use his pet duck in the Nativity play. Hilarity Ensues when his pet duck eats Mrs. Dixon's earrings, and it has to be taken to a veterinarian before they go through with the Nativity Play for Christmas Eve.
• Clingy Jealous Girl: Venita acts like this towards Pastor David when some of the female visitors and newcomers of the church try to flirt with Pastor David.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Mona, when she often acts like she has her head stuck in the clouds sometimes.
• Cloudcuckoolander's Minder : Venita knows how to be this to Mona as her best friend and likewise Mona sometimes acts as a Best Friend Manual to Venita.
• Courtroom Episode: The episode "Under The Influence" (which coincidentally was the final episode of the show's first season, ^note  It's unknown if this episode was planned to be the season finale or not because the show was canceled after this episode premiered. ) revolves around Pastor David getting arrested for driving drunk when he accidentally eats an entire large bowl-full of rum cookies, and drives a man and his pregnant wife to the hospital, inciting a police chase against him. Miraculously, the judge goes easy on him and lets him off the hook with a temporary license suspension and makes him pay a hefty fine since no one actually got hurt by his drunk driving. It also doesn't hurt that he's a pastor and the judge has some sympathy for him because of his religious vocation, too.
• Curse Cut Short: Because the show relies heavily on Christian and religious tones and motifs, sometimes when some of the characters are about to curse and swear, they get interrupted, or they stop themselves from fully saying the swear word. This doesn't happen every single time, though.
• Deadpan Snarker: Mrs. Hattie Dixon often snarks and snides at everyone in a serious manner, but because most people don't take her derogatory and sarcastic comments seriously, it often ends up having a more comedic effect than she intended.
• The Dentist Episode: As mentioned above, when Pastor David comes to the church, one of the members, Dr. Larry Mayfield, is a dentist. In one episode, Pastor Randolph develops a bad tooth ache and has to go to Dr. Mayfield for dental care. Unfortunately, Dr. Mayfield has to take Pastor Randolph in and give him his surgery to remove his wisdom teeth and a dental cyst that was causing the tooth ache on the day right before his own wedding. The next day when Pastor Randolph is officiating over Dr. Mayfield and his bride's wedding, because his mouth is still numb and swollen, and he still has some gauze and bandaging in his mouth, he officiates over the wedding...quite awkwardly and hilariously.
• Dislikes the New Guy: Mrs. Hattie Dixon, the church's cook, starts out this way. She often has a frenemy relationship with Pastor David, because of the generational gap between them (with her being an elderly senior who believes many facets of the church should be kept traditional and conservative, while Pastor David, being a younger man in his early 30's, likes to shake things up a little bit and take more liberal approaches) and because she misses the way things used to be under the old pastor of the church who passed away. Nevertheless, they do mutually respect each other and overtime, they do eventually learn how to put aside some of their differences and compromise with each other when necessary. Nevertheless, their frenemy relationship often causes them to get into a lot of stupid and pointless arguments and insult wars with each other throughout the show.
• The Door Slams You: In one episode, Little T accidentally slams Venita with the door to the pastor's office and when he closes the door behind him, she humorously falls forward onto the floor unconscious.
• Doorstop Baby: The episode, "The Baby On the Doorstep." Although not a baby, but a young child, Joey is left on the doorstep of the church, and when Pastor David calls CPS and the state social services department to see what to do with Joey, they work with the church to help find him some adoptive parents. Eventually, CPS allows Mrs. Hattie to take him in and be a foster mother to him until she can officially adopt him.
• Everyone Can See It: Most, if not all of the congregation, knows Venita has a huge crush on Pastor David, but Pastor David is usually the only one who just can't get the hint.
• Foil: Mrs. Hattie Dixon often acts as a foil to Pastor David: Hattie Dixon is older and often conservatively judgmental and uptight, while Pastor Davis is younger and more tolerant and liberal.
• Generic Ethnic Crime Gang: Several episodes of the show revolve around Pastor David and the members of the church often going back and forth between having conflicts with, and trying to make peace with the local young, African-American gangs in the neighborhood surrounding their church. In the episode: "Writing On The Wall", Pastor David decides its time to remove the gang graffiti from the walls outside the church. This angers the gang members and strikes fear into the hearts of the church congregation. But by the end of the episode, Pastor David manages to invite the gang to their Sunday morning worship service, and urges the church congregation and the gang to make peace with each other and offers to allow the church's ministries to help the members of the gang to gradually get out of their gangbanging lifestyles and try to become good citizens and friends with the church congregation.
• Good Shepherd: Pastor Randolph tries his best to be this type of pastor both to the church and to the rest of the local community as well, and does a "pretty darn good job at it," as he would say.
• Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Sometimes some of the characters who would normally curse and swear outside of the church, use euphemistic substitutes when they're around other church members or physically at the church building.
• Gospel Revival Number: Since the sitcom was about a Black church, several episodes featured stories and plots about their church choir, and several episodes often featured their choir giving big, exuberant Gospel numbers and musical selections throughout the show.
• Green-Eyed Monster: In the episode, "Gospelfest", Mrs. Hattie gets jealous when Cassie's aunt (played by special guest star Gospel singer Shirley Caesar) comes to the church and they allow her to be their soloist for the upcoming Gospel choir competition instead of Mrs. Hattie herself.
• Heel–Face Turn: The leaders and members of the gang who started out terrorizing and antagonizing the church, later on try their best to become good citizens and even friends with Pastor David and the members of the church, and try to get out of their gangbanging lifestyles.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: Mona and Venita as best friends whenever they do almost anything together.
  • In one episode, when Venita and Mona go out to lunch at a restaurant together, the cashier at the counter who serves them mistakenly thinks they're a lesbian couple until it's revealed Mona is trying to help Venita with her crush on Pastor David, and likewise Venita is trying to help Mona with her crush on another guy she knows from her university she used to attend.
• Hollywood Old:
  • Pastor David Randolph's character is implied to be at least in his early to mid 30's in the show (his character is implied to be at least between 32 and 35), but David Ramsey, in real life at the time, had only just turned 26 years old when the show was filmed.
  • Jazsmin Lewis when she played as Venita was only between 22 and 23 years old in real life at the time, but her character was implied to be quite a bit older in between her late 20's and early 30's.
• Holy Pipe Organ: Many of the episodes that feature Pastor David preaching have the church organist Billy playing the Hammond Organ softly in the background behind him.
• Hot for Preacher: Throughout the show, the church secretary, Venita Stansbury, has a huge but unfortunately, unrequited crush on Pastor David. She, of course, doesn't make any brazen or direct sexual advances towards him because of her respect for God, her Christian beliefs, and Pastor David as her church minister, but she often goes out of her way to flirt with him and to try and get him to notice that she likes him, but throughout the show, Pastor David just thinks she's being nice because they're good friends and good professional coworkers together.
• Ignored Enamored Underling: Venita, as the church secretary who works for Pastor David, has a huge, almost obsessive romantic crush on Pastor David, but as mentioned above in the "Hot For Preacher" section, he only thinks she's just being nice because they're good professional colleagues and friends to each other. Even when she tries to ask him out on a date, he takes it as just a platonic meeting between them as friends, and doesn't get the hint that she's trying to ask him to consider her in a romantic way. (David Ramsey and Jazsmine Lewis said that the creators of the show were going to have their characters date in the 2nd season if the show had filmed a 2nd season, but because the show was canceled after the 1st season, the idea and plot line for how they would finally start dating was scrapped altogether.)
• Love Letter Lunacy: As mentioned below in the "Reactive Continuous Scream" section, one episode revolves around Venita accidentally leaving a love letter to Pastor David in his office when she hadn't intended to give it to him yet, and they break in to the church to steal it back.
• Lustful Melt: Venita has quite a few of these throughout the series with Pastor David:
  • One episode where she sees him working out and exercising at the gym and she almost has a quiet, hyperventilating orgasm, before she quickly calms herself down.
  • Twice in the episode, "The Dinner Party," where Pastor David sits next to her on the pew after service and slumps down in the chair stretching his legs out, tired and exhausted from such a long, busy week and weekend. Cue Venita having a quiet, hyperventilating orgasm, before she quickly calms herself down.
    • Then, as she listens to him making a short, passionate speech a few moments later about his dreams and visions for the church and how he's eager to work alongside her, once again cue Venita almost having a quiet, hyperventilating orgasm, before she quickly calms herself down.
  • In one episode, where she literally almost faints and swoons from helping Pastor David practice one of his sermons and speeches while they're talking in the office with each other, and then she says she has to leave and use the restroom really quickly. It's clear why she has to go to the restroom so bad, and it's not for your typical bathroom break, considering the fact that she just "randomly" takes a hairbrush out of her purse with her to the restroom, and not for reasons of her hair.
  • In one episode, Venita sees Pastor David flexing his muscles in his office, and again, cue Venita almost having a quiet, hyperventilating orgasm—starting to sense a pattern here?
• Malaproper: Lil' T and his girlfriend Cassie often humorously mispronounced a lot of words throughout the show, often causing both laughs and confusion from the other characters.
• Mentor Archetype: Pastor David and Mrs. Hattie often act like wise mentors towards Cassie and Little T whenever they need advice and help with their everyday struggles.
• Mishmash Museum: One episode has Pastor David and Venita going to a museum together, even though Venita claims it's not a date so that Pastor David won't think she's trying to come on too strong. The museum seems to be an odd mixture of a history and science museum. While they're there, one of the tour guides warn the group they're with not to touch any of the statues in the exhibit because they're very fragile. When Pastor David leaves with the rest of the tour group, Venita starts daydreaming and fantasizing about her and Pastor David romantically and energetically dancing together, and she accidentally knocks over and shatters one of the statues of the exhibit. The episode then revolves around Venita and Pastor David trying to find a way to hide the broken pieces of the statue. Thankfully though, one of the museum employees explains to them at the end of the episode that the statue that Venita broke was actually going to be discarded and thrown away anyway because it was revealed it was a fake ^note  All the other statues in the exhibit were either real ancient and medieval statues, or replicas by real artists. The one Venita just so happened to break and destroy turns out ironically to be the fake forgery of another artist , and when they come back to the exhibit looking for it, seeing that the statue is no longer there, he says, "Oh, well I guess the statue is already gone. But why did they leave the pedestal here that the statue was on? Ah, it doesn't matter, never mind."
• Mr. Fanservice: One episode has Pastor David working out and exercising at the gym and Venita happens to be there. He's wearing a tank top and showing off his arms. Cue Venita almost having a quiet, hyperventilating orgasm, before she quickly calms herself down.
• No Theme Tune: The TV show has no theme song, but a rather catchy and cool-sounding instrumental Gospel sting played at the beginning of each episode.
• One-Shot Character:
  • Vera Hudson (played by Rose Jackson Moye) was originally supposed to be the office secretary for the church in the series from the pilot episode, but her character is replaced by Venita Stansbury's character after the pilot. Originally, Vera was the church secretary, and Venita was just a laymember of the church and a friend of Vera's , but Venita's character becomes the church secretary and Pastor David's unrequited love interest, because Vera (reluctantly) has to leave the church with her mother when her mother decides to leave and join another church elsewhere. Vera's character is never seen or mentioned again after the pilot episode.
  • Mr. Henry in the episode "Ashes to Ashes", however the actor who plays him, Hawthorne James, comes back as a recurring character, Deacon Bob James, later on in the show.
• Parental Substitute: Despite their frequent conflicts and often vitriolic relationship, Mrs. Hattie often acts like a motherly figure towards Pastor David sometimes when he needs sagely wisdom and encouragement.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Lil' T's character on the show , although he sometimes plays vital roles in some of the episodes' plot lines, he most often goes throughout the show acting as the comic relief to lighten up the mood when things get dramatic or serious.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Most of the antagonists on the show are usually just one-shot characters who only get focus for one episode, and when the main characters of the show put a stop to whatever schemes they were planning to antagonize the characters or the church with, they usually either have a Heel–Face Turn, or they just admit defeat and go away, never to be heard from again.
• Reactive Continuous Scream: Happens twice in an episode where Venita and Mona break into the church one night to try and recover a love note Venita accidentally left in Pastor David's office. It occurs the first time when Mona and Venita startle each other, and a second time when Pastor David comes back to the church because he thought he forgot something and he ends up startling both Mona and Venita this way.
• Romantic Wingman: Played for Laughs with Mona often acting like this towards Venita trying to help her find ways to flirt with and impress Pastor David.
• Saintly Church: Pastor David often tries to make the Compton Community Church of Life to be a saintly and respectable church to the Compton, California community.
• Sex Is Evil, and I Am Horny: In the episode "There's An Old Flame," Pastor David becomes a personification of this trope when one of his old ex-girlfriends visits his church and tries to have a reunion-turned-date-night with him at her hotel room she's staying in. She tries to rekindle the old flame with him that they used to have when they were dating, but unfortunately for her, he messes it up because of his clumsiness and awkwardness. They then part ways with each other afterwards and agree to just be platonic friends. Overlaps with Romantic False Lead. Venita invokes the green-eyed monster of jealousy in this episode to the extremes when she learns about Pastor David's ex-girlfriend trying to come back into his life.
• Sexy Coat Flashing: In the episode where Pastor David's ex-girlfriend returns, she invokes this trope when she invites him to her hotel room to catch up with him. According to Pastor David, he only wanted to go to the hotel room to tell her that he didn't have any interest in rekindling their old relationship and that he wanted to make sure she was okay with him moving on to date and court other women. Nevertheless, before she finally gets the hint and before Pastor David's clumsiness and awkwardness ruins everything, she tries to play "sexy and horny seductress" with him to see if she can get him in the mood to want to rekindle the old flame between them.
• Sexy Priest: The title character of the show, Pastor David, is this trope. Considering that he is a somewhat muscular, handsome-looking, unmarried and single young man, many of the episodes feature the ladies of the church, both members and visitors, being very romantically and sexually attracted to him, and often going out of their way to flirt with him, even though most of the time he's pretty naïve and oblivious to it (or, at least, he knows, but he just doesn't entertain it and doesn't return the flirting because of him being a pastor).
• Short-Runner: As mentioned above, the show was canceled after just one season because it didn't meet the network's rating requirements to proceed with another season and to keep continuing with the show after the first season was done.
• Sophisticated as Hell: Mrs. Hattie in the episode, "Writing On The Wall."
  Mrs. Dixon (sternly and angrily): Alvin, I done played your game for too long that I forgot how dangerous you can be. But let me say this loud and clear to get it through your stubborn and obstinate skull: THIS is my church, and I will come here any time I DAMN WELL PLEASE!
  (Studio Audience laughs and cheers)
  Mrs. Dixon: (looks up and clears her throat) Excuse me, Lord. (studio audience laughs and chuckles; Mrs. Hattie still looks up) Forgive me, I didn't mean to swear like that in Your house.
• Special Guest: Gospel singer Shirley Caesar, TV producer and actor Lou Rawls, comedienne Armelia Mcqueen, and comedian Dana Michael Woods.
• Speech Impediment: The episode "Ashes to Ashes" revolves around Mr. Henry, a mechanic who wants to speak at his best friend's funeral, initially having a stuttering speech impediment and being afraid to speak at his best friend's funeral because of it. Pastor David tries to help by signing him up for speech therapy, but it doesn't actually help. It's not until he actually gets to speak at the funeral that the stuttering goes away enough for him to speak coherently and clearly about him missing his friend.
• Stalker with a Crush: Venita can sometimes occasionally drift into being this towards Pastor David, as she often knows where he's at and what's he doing and where's he going outside of church almost 24/7 sometimes, although she'll never let him know that. Her stalking of Pastor David is often portrayed as funny and humorous, though, and she doesn't do it to an obsessive or creepy degree.
• Studio Audience: Given that the show was made in the 1990's right before most sitcoms started switching to automatic stock audience sound effects, the show made good use of its live studio audience in several episodes.
• Telethon: A two-part special episode called "Show Me The Money" revolved around the church choir agreeing to sing in a televised 24-hour telethon in order to raise money to pay off some debts they owed to their bank for large previous loans.
• Token Minority: Although only a recurring character, one of the delivery boys who's Asian American who brings food to the church's choir rehearsals and befriends Pastor David and some of the church choir's members, can be considered this.
• Tsundere: Downplayed with Venita; she typically tends to be the Sweet (Dere) kind of Tsundere. Venita generally tries to be kind and sweet to everyone, but she does have a very snarky and sassy side to her that will come out if she is provoked significantly enough. When this snarky and bitchy side comes out, usually Pastor David has to be the one to help her calm down and rein it back in.
• Wedding Episode: One of the episodes revolves around Pastor David performing his first wedding ceremony when he officiates over Dr. Mayfield and his wife's wedding.
• Zany Scheme: Many of the episodes revolve around Pastor David and the church members often plotting or getting involved in many complicated and overly-convoluted schemes whenever they try to resolve some kind of odd situation, mishap, or misfortune that comes their way.

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