Popular show canceled due to ‘racist’ star
Race is such a sensitive issue in the US right now that Starbucks closed 8,000 stores last Tuesday for staff to undergo a racial-bias training, and ABC canceled a top-rating show.
ABC canceled the hit reboot of “Roseanne” following star Roseanne Barr’s racist tweet that referred to former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett as a product of the Muslim Brotherhood and the “Planet of the Apes.”
ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey said the comment “is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values.” Barr apologized and deleted her Monday-night tweet, calling it a “bad joke,” but the damage had already been done.
Late Tuesday, Barr tweeted a second apology to the writers and co-stars of the show and urging people not to feel sorry for her. She also highlighted supporters’ tweets that criticized ABC and two of its personalities, Joy Behar and Keith Olbermann.
She also retweeted a meme that juxtaposed shots of President Donald Trump next to orangutans, and an image of Jarrett next to a picture of a “Planet of the Apes” actress.
The defiant tweetstorm capped a day that saw Barr resoundingly criticized by fellow actors, cast mates and others, and abandoned by several companies, including her talent agency, ICM Partners.
The revival of the comedy was a surprise smash for ABC, owned by the Walt Disney Co., and was counted on to lead the network’s fortunes next season. Its first new episode in March was seen by more than 25 million people, with delayed viewing counted in, numbers that are increasingly rare in network television.
ABC expected advertisers to pay millions of dollars for the chance to be seen during commercial breaks on television’s most popular comedy after “The Big Bang Theory.”
And it was all killed in a 53-character tweet.
One of the few network shows about a working-class family, “Roseanne” attracted considerable attention upon its return when Barr’s character supported Trump. That made the show popular with conservative viewers, and Trump himself suggested the character’s backing had a lot to do with the show’s success.
Barr herself has a history of diving into political conspiracy theories on her Twitter feed.
Barr was quickly condemned. Comic Wanda Sykes, a “Roseanne” writer, tweeted that she wouldn’t be returning to the show. Sara Gilbert, a co-star, also tweeted that the remark was abhorrent.
REACTIONS
But honestly she got what she deserved. 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.
SHONDA RHIMES
You can take @RoseanneOnABC out of racism but you can’t take the racism out of @therealroseanne.
DON CHEADLE