(Credits: Far Out / YouTube Still)
Fri 9 January 2026 20:19, UK
If you like prestige TV and don’t like Walton Goggins‘ face, then you must be having a really tough time, for he is everywhere right now, especially on the small screen, and it feels like he’s been in every successful TV show recently, from Fallout and The White Lotus to Invincible and The Unicorn.
There’s another acclaimed TV show that the Goggmeister was involved with from 2019 to 2025, the HBO series The Righteous Gemstones, which revolves around a family of televangelists, where he played ‘Baby Billy’ Freeman. A former child star who has fallen on hard times, Freeman is the brother-in-law of the head of the family, who is played by a sometimes-reluctant John Goodman, who was in a major role in the first few seasons of the show, before taking on a more recurring part.
The Righteous Gemstones was created by Danny McBride, with his long-time collaborators Jody Hill and David Gordon Green serving as executive producers, and speaking to The Independent in 2024, Goggins took some time to talk about those three men, particularly how he felt they were severely underrated in their field.
“I have very strong opinions about it, and I’m not gonna throw HBO under the bus,” he said, tentatively, before launching into his rant, “I think it is criminal that the contributions from Danny McBride and Jody Hill and David Gordon Green in comedy and television have never been recognised by any formal institution. I think that is almost unforgivable really and laughable, at this point. They’ve fundamentally changed the fucking landscape of what a comedy could be.”
The trio of McBride, Hill, and Green have worked together on some very famous comedy TV shows, first making a splash with Eastbound & Down, a sports comedy starring McBride as former baseball pro-turned-teacher Kenny Powers, next with Vice Principals, which was co-created by McBride and Hill with Green serving as executive producer, where Goggins also appears.
Recently, the team has turned its attention to the world of horror, with Green directing the rebooted Halloween trilogy and everyone’s favourite legacy sequel, The Exorcist: Believer, with McBride a writer on all of those projects.
Despite all receiving strong critical backing, none of the three aforementioned shows got any sort of love at major awards ceremonies. Ironically, the only support they did receive was a ‘Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series’ win at the Critics’ Choice Television Awards for our old friend Walton Goggins.
It’s possible that they were all a little rich for the award-givers’ blood, as each show has a very unique comedic style, unlike anything else on the market. While you’d think this sort of successful innovation should be rewarded, it’s often the case that award bodies like to play it safe.
With each part of the triumvirate seemingly going their separate ways for now, it’s unclear when we’ll next see them turn their hand to comedy again, and as for Goggins, as previously mentioned, he’s one of the hottest stars on the planet right now. Only time will tell whether this dream team will finally get the recognition they deserve.
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