Entertainment
‘Roseanne’ Fans Have Quite A Few Ideas For Continuing The Show Without Its Namesake
Before its cancellation on Tuesday, the Roseanne reboot was one of the highest-rated shows on TV, according to Uproxx. Now, viewers are rallying for Roseanne to continue — without Roseanne Barr. After ABC made the decision to cancel the show following Barr's racist remarks about Valerie Jarrett, former advisor to President Barack Obama, some fans began brainstorming, taking to social media to suggest potential versions of the show that didn't include the titular character. (Barr has since apologized for her tweet about Jarrett and deleted it. Bustle reached out to Barr's rep for comment on the backlash, but did not receive an immediate response.)
Some ideas were fairly dark, suggesting that the show's writers kill Barr's character off, much like what happened to Dan Conner in the series' original run. As @RickyAppleseed wrote, "They killed off Dan. Why not kill off Roseanne and continue without @RoseanneOnABC?" and @HasardJardinier said, "Call it 'Not Roseanne' and set the show in an inner city hardware store the Connor family won after Roseanne died in a horrible key duplicating accident."
Meanwhile, another Twitter user @MitchfromOhio offered,
"An interesting punishment for Roseanne would be for the show to continue without her and use this incident as a storyline."
Some people in the entertainment industry showed support for the series' other cast and crew members, who they argued should be able to keep working, regardless of Barr's behavior. Others suggested the network change the name to the more general The Connor Family or Darlene, after Sara Gilbert's character.
Animation producer Clay Renfroe tweeted, "There are a lot of good, talented folks that work on the Roseanne show. I say write off the lead character and let everyone else keep coming to work to do their jobs," to which voice actor Neil Kaplan responded, "It worked for 'Valerie' into 'The Hogan Family'. Ya know, I didn’t watch 'Rosanne' but I sure would watch 'The Connor Family'."
On Tuesday night, Jimmy Kimmel even proposed his own idea during his monologue on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
"Just because Roseanne is gone doesn't mean the whole show has to go," Kimmel said. "'The show must go on.' That's what we say in show business, and with that said, I think I have an idea that makes this work for everyone." He then showed a mock-trailer for a reworked version of the show called, Dan, starring John Goodman as the titular character.
Soon after posting the tweet in question, Barr faced swift backlash on Tuesday. According to The Root, Barr responded to a handful of tweets claiming that Jarrett had aided in various Obama-era cover-ups, writing in a since-deleted post, “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj".
After receiving widespread pushback, Barr apologized, writing,
"I apologize to Valerie Jarrett and to all Americans. I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks. I should have known better. Forgive me-my joke was in bad taste."
However, her co-stars and the show's crew members quickly condemned her words, distancing themselves from the comedian, and in some cases, announcing their departures from the series. Wanda Sykes, who worked as a consulting producer on the show, tweeted she was leaving, not long before the official cancellation was announced.
In the first of two tweets, Gilbert, who championed the show's revival, according to the Los Angeles Times, said, "Roseanne’s recent comments about Valerie Jarrett, and so much more, are abhorrent and do not reflect the beliefs of our cast and crew or anyone associated with our show. I am disappointed in her actions to say the least."
"This is incredibly sad and difficult for all of us, as we’ve created a show that we believe in, are proud of, and that audiences love— one that is separate and apart from the opinions and words of one cast member."
In the wake of Barr's comments, ABC president Channing Dungey issued a statement to Bustle, confirming the network's intention to cancel Roseanne:
"Roseanne's Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show."
As of now, there is no confirmation as to whether Roseanne will continue in any capacity, but it's clear that plenty of fans would continue to watch, so long as Barr isn't a part of it.
