By Susan Bredau
Hollywood, CA (The Hollywood Times) May 29, 2018 – To say that Roseanne Barr has had “a bad day” is an understatement of epic proportion. One Tweet by Barr, which doesn’t bear repeating here, led to another in which Wanda Sykes Tweeted her resignation as supervising producer of the newly-revived “Roseanne”, which then led to an announcement that the show had been cancelled by ABC, according to Entertainment Exec, Channing Dungey which prompted a flurry of Tweeting and more consequences for the now thoroughly-fallen star.
Shonda Rhimes pulled no punches as she took to Twitter to say “… As I tell my 4 year old, one makes a choice with one’s actions. Roseanne made a choice. A racist one. ABC made a choice. A human one.”
Sara Gilbert, who championed the revival and has now become a ‘former castmate’ for the second time, declared her “disappointment” with Roseanne’s action. Ya think?
An apology notwithstanding, ABC wasn’t the only industry power to sever ties – Disney, & ICM (Barr’s agency), Hulu and Viacom followed suit. Emmy consideration? Gone! Clearly, hell has frozen over, and pigs have flown when money isn’t the bottom line in Tinseltown.
What a difference a day makes; 24 little hours… Although there has been much praise for the stand that industry power players have taken, I wonder if anything will really change after this, aside from the fact that the “Roseanne” revival is over. What a shame that the star of a show with such possibility didn’t know when to keep her mouth shut.
The worst part is that a lot of people lost their livelihood today. No more writers, no production staff, no syndication, no more residuals… no butterfly flapped its wings somewhere in the world to cause this chaos; just a stupid, mean-spirited, and unfunny “joke” on social media.
My Mom always told me that “If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.” Good advice for all ages; across all platforms!
But I still found myself just a little bit partial to actress Alyssa Milano’s Tweet: “Thank you, @ABCNetwork for doing the right thing and for showing people that bigotry and racism has consequences. Now, if you could only cancel our President for the same reason. #RoseanneBarred”
However, Don’t count her out; Roseanne has been down before. And it wouldn’t surprise me if the FOX Network found room in its prime time lineup – Stay tuned, people. She hasn’t sung yet!
