Plug pulled on ‘Roseanne’, a rare look at Trump’s America
HBO Europe begins shooting ‘Hackerville’
NEW YORK, June 3, (Agencies): Given the boot after a racist rant by its star, “Roseanne” was a rare TV series depicting conservative America despite the election of President Donald Trump, which could have popularized the genre.
In its first episode at the end of March, the series dared to set up a constructive dialogue between Roseanne, a Trump supporter and her sister, a fervent Democrat.
The bet largely paid off, as “Roseanne” was the most-watched series of the year on major American TV networks.
The show had been off the air for 21 years before its reboot, which premiered with almost 22 million viewers, according to ABC.
Nonetheless, the network cancelled “Roseanne” after its lead actress Roseanne Barr used Twitter to liken Valerie Jarrett, an African American former White House aide, to an ape.
“Roseanne” was one of the few depictions of working-class life on US television, and also of Trump supporters, who have been largely ignored by Hollywood.
The number of other popular US television series that present a non-caricature image of conservative America can be counted nearly on one hand.
There is the police drama “Blue Bloods” on CBS and Netflix’s “One Day at a Time,” which in different ways present issues at the heart of the family.
Traditionally, comedy and especially sitcoms were considered the best vehicle for showing conservative America.
Several series considered classics in the United States were based on interaction between Democratic and Republican viewpoints.
These included “All in the Family” (19711979) and “Family Ties,” which aired from 1982-1989.
For Dom Caristi, a professor at Ball State University, a television landscape that used to be concentrated around the three main channels, ABC, CBS, and NBC, drove them to compete for a larger audience share. But “that’s no longer true,” he said. Today, “a few million viewers is good enough,” and “they can try to appeal to a smaller segment.”
About 500 series are competing on US television.
According to several studies, the programs that succeed in uniting supporters of the left and right are non-political.
These include reality shows, talent competitions such as “The Voice” or “America’s Got Talent,” as well as sitcoms such as “The Big Bang Theory.”
The polarization of American political life makes it difficult to address the subject without leaving a show open to rejection by one part of the electorate, a factor amplified on social media.
“We live in a fragmented media world,” where the mere fact of suspecting that a series could be conservative or progressive will automatically turn off a segment of the public, said Dannagal Young, an associate professor of communication at the University of Delaware.
But Robert Thomson, of the University of Syracuse, says the success of “Roseanne” as well as the new CBS series “Young Sheldon,” a spin-off from “The Big Bang Theory” that takes place in conservative Texas, will encourage similar efforts by channels, platforms and producers.
“You’ve got a lot of other network executives that are going to be looking to develop shows like ‘Roseanne’ that don’t have Roseanne in them,” Thomson said.
Indeed, the entertainment website TMZ is reporting that ABC is considering re-rebooting Roseanne without her as the central character.
Instead, the show would focus on daughter Darlene, the report said.
Cable company HBO Europe has started to shoot cyber-crime thriller series “Hackerville” in Transilvania, a region of Romania, as its first international co-production, building on a string of locally shot productions, including Romaniaset detective series “Umbre”.
“It will put Romania on the map of the international TV drama scene,” says co-creator and executive producer Joerg Winger (“Deutschland 83”), adding he was won over by the location “as a dynamic and colorful place with a vastly unexplored history and present.”
The project was “created in a truly multicultural process, with great Romanian talent attached,” Winger adds, with music a key component, as it was in “Deutschland 83,” the Cold War-set spy series for AMC Networks’ SundanceTV and RTL Television.
The original six-part “Hackerville,” about a network of hackers and the investigators tasked with tracking them down, co-produced with TNT Serie, was created by Ralph Martin and Winger for UFA Fiction, and will be produced by Cristian Mungiu (“4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days”) and Tudor Reu through Mobra Films.
“We’re shooting in a very beautiful and not yet discovered Transilvanian city,” says Reu of the Gothic-spired Timisoara, “through the eyes of our very good Polish D.P. (and his drone).”
A strong Romanian-German collaboration runs throughout the process, he adds, including “the writing, the filming, including our locations, directors and actors, right through to postproduction.”
“The city of Timisoara in itself is a very cool location, a mix of Austro-Hungarian architecture with communist neighborhoods, industrial sites, the river and its bridges,” Reu says. “Our locations reflect the mix of old and new and include graffiti-painted urban areas, an abandoned village, a functioning refinery, railways and the internet cafe where our younger characters gather.”
Shooting is underway in Timisoara, which provides the main backdrop, with filming also scheduled for Bucharest and Frankfurt, Germany.
The cast is led by Anna Schumacher (“That Trip We Took with Dad”), Andi Vasluianu (“Of Snails and Men”) and newcomer Voicu Dumitras.
Igor Cobileanski (HBO Europe’s “Shadows”) and Anca Miruna Lazarescu are directing the series with scripts by Laurentiu Rusescu, Daniel Sandu, Ralph Martin and Steve Bailie.
Key characters are also international, says executive producer Johnathan Young, veep of original programming and production for HBO Europe, with cyber cop Lisa Metz written as a German of Romanian origin whose family left Romania 30 years ago.
“So it is both a homecoming story and a culture clash story,” he says.
Schumacher, who is herself a German of Romanian origin, is fluent in both languages and comes from an acting family. Her father, Ovidiu Schumacher, was well known in Romania in the 1980s and plays her father, Walter Metz.
One difference from crime dramas such as “Umbre,” says Young, is the lighter tone of the new series.
“’Hackerville’ has a lot of comedy as well as action and emotional drama. It’s a world of possibility, which is deliberately designed to echo the world of possibility online and in the gaming universe.”
Although “Hackerville” feels wholly distinct from “Umbre,” Young adds, “both shows have the vivid characters and feisty dialogue that is the trademark of Romanian writing.”
Sloane Morgan Siegel has been cast as the lead, Dwight, in “Dwight in Shining Armor.” The 30-minute show, produced by BYUtv, American suburban teenager Dwight, who becomes the champion of an ancient gothic princess and must defeat scores of medieval villains on her behalf.
“Baby Driver” actress Allison King has been cast in “The Purge” television series as a recurring guest star. She is set to play Eileen for three episodes, described as a humble, salt of the earth woman who owns and manages a factory, which she inherited from her father. Based on the movie franchise of the same name, “The Purge” imagines a world where, for one night out of the year, all laws are suspended and American citizens are allowed to murder and commit crimes without punishment. The show will be broadcast on SYFY and USA.
Meanwhile, Will Arnett and Mike Myers will appear as themselves on the second season of ABC’s “The Gong Show” when it returns June 21. (Myers also stars as host Tommy Maitland.)
The Fox comedy “Dan the Weatherman” is recasting two key roles, Variety has learned.
JoAnna Garcia Swisher is joining the project as Deborah, taking over the role played in the original pilot by Ashley Williams. Jack Stanton will play Dan Jr, the role originally played by Dashiell McGaha-Schletter. The pair will join the rest of the cast to re-shoot scenes from the pilot this summer, with the single-cam series still in contention for a midseason pickup at the broadcaster.
Williams most recently appeared as Ariel in ABC’s “Once Upon a Time,” in addition to starring in fellow ABC series “Kevin Probably Saves the World.” Her other TV credits include roles in “Reba,” “The Astronaut Wives Club,” “Gossip Girl,” and “Animal Practice.
For Stanton, joining “Dan the Weatherman” keeps him in the Fox family. He previously starred as Ben in the Fox comedy series “The Mick,” which was recently canceled after two seasons.
Swisher is repped by UTA and John Carrabino. Stanton is repped by the Osbrink Agency.
“Reno 911” and “The Odd Couple” alum Thomas Lennon plays the title role in “Dan the Weatherman.” After getting fired from his cushy job as a weatherman at the local TV station, Dan finds it’s not enough to be a charming man in this world. He reluctantly ends up at the local cable station.