I don’t have much to say about Roseanne Barr. Woman says and does obnoxious, provocative things over a period of thirty years. She gets a TV show and says and does obnoxious, provocative things. After the show’s run she keeps saying and doing obnoxious and provocative things. She gets a reboot of her 25 year old show. She keeps saying obnoxious and provocative things. She gets fired for it. Times and social media have changed.
I do want to make one comment about Roxane Gay’s op-ed in the New York Times about it, “‘Roseanne’ Is Gone, But the Culture That Gave Her a Show Isn’t”. The culture that gave her a show is ABC/Disney. You know, the same people who are gleefully destroying people’s childhoods by producing third-rate pap in imitation of the Star Wars movies of the 1970s. It’s still here, largely due to intellectual property laws.
Rather than breast-beating about racism in the country at large which as far as I can tell had nothing to do with Ms. Barr’s getting a reboot of her show, the teachable moment here is about the stupidity of mega-corporations. They knew what they were getting. They did it anyway. Why? (Hint: for the money.) Consider that before you buy Frozen accessories for your daughter.
Update
More thoughts in a similar vein from Reason:
Roseanne is crazy, and her disgusting remark about Jarrett is perfectly in character. No one is allowed to pretend that Roseanne finally went too far, or some such nonsense: the Jarrett comment—for which she swiftly apologized, to no avail—is hardly more offensive than any number of things she has said over the years. If people who say very bad things do not deserve to work in television, then Roseanne should never have been rebooted in the first place.
or, in other words, this whole thing is on Disney. They knew what they were getting when they hired her or at least should have if they’d done due diligence. Complaining about Roseanne Barr without complaining about ABC/Disney is just telling half the story.
If there is a culture of racism, it’s theirs.
She is unhinged. They never should’ve brought her back for lots of reasons. Should have done a similar show, with a better actress.
Steve
I didn’t even know she had a new show, much less a reboot. That’s how much I care about network TV.
I think Reason gets it about right here and they are largely in agreement with you.
https://reason.com/blog/2018/05/29/roseanne-barr-valerie-jarrett-cancelled
I agree completely. However and this is my point: that’s on ABC/Disney. They knew who and what she was when they hired her. If they didn’t, they hadn’t done due diligence. There’s no excuse.
The most successful show launch of the season, though one may quibble with it being more of a re-launch, it was still the most viewed show on ABC and the second-most viewed show overall. This had to have hurt.
I watched them all, though with various motivations, but mostly just to see what happened to the Connors since last seen (spoiler: not in a good place). While the acting was wooden at times (Barr), there were talented writers and actors involved as well. If anything, the show seemed to lurch towards moral-of-the-week stories about how your Muslim neighbor is OK, and its OK for a boy to dress like a girl. The outrage that these stories generated from the pseudo media sort of doomed the show to bad press because Barr would not be forgiven.
@steve, I don’t think this type of show gets made today, but for the gravity of the previous series. Sit-coms these days involve relatively affluent people, and I don’t think an audience would invest in a story about an oxy addicted Uber-driver, whose kids have failed and moved back to a home that is falling apart. Can’t even sell reverse mortgages with that kind of story.
Well, that, plus making a rookie mistake.
Instead of tweeting, she should have been developing deep, contemplative thoughts, like our former Speaker, about the underappreciated good in the hearts of MS-13 members. At least when they aren’t cutting out the hearts of people I suppose…….
Sing with me……”everyone is beautiful, in their own way……”
“the same people who are gleefully destroying people’s childhoods by producing third-rate pap in imitation of the Star Wars movies of the 1970s”
By turning Star Wars from a space age Bildungsroman to a Greek Tragedy? Disney made curious decisions in the “mythology” of the characters from the original trilogy.
Lets hope it can be fixed in the “final” part of the new trilogy, otherwise I will have to cut off the new trilogy from my mind like I did with 2 “sequel’s” to the Matrix movie.
I don’t have time for T.V.
The Rule of Sequels applies. If Solo or Rogue One had been the first Star Wars movie, would there have been a sequel?
Drew is mumbling about MS13. That can only mean that he is depressed over losing his favorite TV show. What will he watch now? Wait, he is in luck. I am sure that he keeps a copy of The Trump Prophecy on his wall. Well Surprise, Surprise, Surprise! Liberty University is making a movie about it. Order early and I am sure you will be able to get tickets.
http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/us/2017/december/he-predicted-trump-would-be-president-6-years-ago-heres-why-this-prophet-says-trump-is-in-for-two-terms
Steve
(This Trump Prophecy is a real thing with evangelicals BTW.)
Nice try, steve. Just vanilla snark about selective outrage. Rosannes an idiot. Apparently you are a comrade.