So by now you know that ABC’s Roseanne revival has been canceled after nine episodes following a Twitter outburst by the titular star in which she said of former Obama Whisperer Valerie Jarrett, “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.”
First off, let’s dispense with the liberal-MSM conspiracy stuff. Yes, Roseanne was the highest-rated show on network TV for half of this season, but the show’s trajectory was heading in the wrong direction, from 27.3 million viewers at the show’s debut to a season average of 19 million viewers. Did Roseanne make money for ABC/Disney? Sure. But this isn’t like Fox killing American Idol in 2003. Roseanne was a novelty act and no one thought it would be running at a high clip two seasons from now.
And even if they had wanted to keep it, Disney/ABC had to cancel the show because the show was already getting out of the Roseanne business. Consulting producer Wanda Sykes announced she wouldn’t do another episode. Executive producer (and co-star) Sara Gilbert ran away from Roseanne, saying “Roseanne’s recent comments about Valerie Jarrett, and so much more, are abhorrent …”
It’s pretty clear that there wasn’t going to be a Roseanne show next season, at least not in any recognizable way. All the corporate suits did was ratify the facts on the ground. (And save themselves the inevitable boycott/protest headaches that would have eaten up the next year of their lives.)
But the seduction of Roseanne is understandable. Despite what you may have read, Roseanne wasn’t about politics. It was a sitcom that got people to pay attention because it treated Red America Trump voters as normal (-ish) human beings. People on the right were desperate to see Republican types portrayed with any sort of sympathy by Hollywood. And so, they latched onto her, and her show, despite the fact that Roseanne Barr isn’t any sort of conservative.
They should have known better, because Roseanne isn’t just “not any sort of conservative.” She is, at best, a vulgarian and, at worst, a cretin. Remember the crotch-grabbing national anthem? Remember her publishing the address of George Zimmerman’s parents? Remember her dressing up as Hitler? Or speaking to the Occupy Wall Street protesters? Or running for president with anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan as her running mate? Because those are all things that happened in the very recent past and this isn’t even the whole list.
And yet, a bunch of Republican types—including White House social media guy Dan Scavino and the guy he works for (and that guy’s son)—all decided that, by gum, Roseanne represented the poor, the disposessed, the great, happily deplorable, Electoral College majority. Because, #ratings.
You start out thinking, Hey, this is kind of sketchy. But then you see the overnight numbers and you forget all about crotch-grabbing and conspiracy theories. But that stuff never really goes away. So eventually, Roseanne is calling Valerie Jarrett a Muslim Dr. Zaius and then conservatives find themselves defending her brave free speech or whatever. (And by the by, the Valerie Jarrett comment was only the second-worst thing she said today.)
In that way, Roseanne was a lot like Trumpism. You start out thinking, I know he’s said some weird stuff and has a shady past, but illegal immigration is a real problem! And the next thing you know, you’re defending a president who plays footsy with white supremacists and accuses a former president of—literal—treason.
To steal a line from my buddy Steve Czaban, signing on with Trumpism, or Roseanne, is a little like joining a motorcycle gang. You might be joining because you like riding your hog on Sunday afternoons and you enjoy getting a beer with like-minded enthusiasts. But even though you’ll to have some great rides with the gang, they’re still a gang. And motorcycle gangs are going to be motorcycle gangs.
Even if you only joined because you wanted a wall.
