ABC still has plans for Dan and Darlene
‘The Conners’ moving on without Roseanne Barr
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. – ABC had the top-rated show on television – for eight weeks, anyway – until its “Roseanne” revival imploded after its star, Roseanne Barr, sent a racist tweet.
The show’s planned second season was canceled, throwing a wrench into the network’s fall plans and effectively ending Barr’s prime-time career.
In her first public comments about the cancellation, ABC Entertainment President Channing Dungey said she knew the revival was a risk from the start.
“We had had some conversations, because she had her volatile moments in the first run of the show,” she told USA TODAY in an interview at the Television Critics Association press tour. “And in talking about what her hopes and expectations were for the new show, (Barr) felt very grounded and forwardthinking and excited about storytelling. And I’m a big believer in second chances, and so we certainly went forward with everybody wanting to make their best effort.”
But even in January, facing the same TV critics, she had to confront Barr’s tweets. “I try not to worry about something outside of our control, but at a certain point it starts to reflect badly on our company,” Dungey said.
On the decision to cancel the series, at great risk to ABC’s performance, “there wasn’t any hesitation in my mind,” she said. But “what was gratifying was how in lockstep everyone was” at Disney and ABC and how quickly they could “execute” the decision:. “It doesn’t always happen in a company this large.”
Many people applauded the decision, but not Barr, who in an interview with Sean Hannity last month cast herself as a victim.
Now ABC is moving forward with an unlikely spinoff, “The Conners,” that features the same cast – John Goodman as husband Dan, Laurie Metcalf as sister Jackie and Sara Gilbert as daughter Darlene, among others – minus its former title star.
Under Screen Actors Guild rules, ABC and producer Carsey-Werner were on the hook to pay those stars for seven episodes anyway because the show had already been renewed. Barr had to be financially separated from the series, from which she profited as an executive producer, before ABC would agree to revisit it.
“Putting ‘The Conners’ together happened very smoothly,” Dungey said. “The actors were excited to be back,” she said, adding that “Roseanne” writers and crew members remained largely intact.
While the 10-episode spinoff is likely to face lower ratings (at least 25 percent, according to estimates), “from a creative standpoint I feel very good about it,” she said. “I’ve seen three outlines, and I feel like the writers came into (the new season) with a lot of stories they still wanted to tell about this family living in middle America in these economic circumstances, and most of that hasn’t shifted. There were (planned) arcs for Darlene or Dan they wanted to do, that they still are going to be able to cover.”
They’ll just have to do it without the show’s anchor, and it remains to be seen how key she was to its appeal.
The central mystery? How she’ll be written out of the show. (Rumors are that Roseanne Conner will be killed off.) On that, Dungey took the Fifth.
“We’ve taken a little page out of the Shonda and Marvel universes and are not talking about it. You’ll just have to tune in on (Oct.) 16th.”