The Conners’ move on without Roseanne
Following Roseanne Barr’s dramatic departure from ‘Roseanne’, the remaining cast return as ‘The Conners’, debuting tonight in the UAE
The morning of May 29 was already expected to be a critical point in the timeline of ABC’s revival of Roseanne. Executive producer Bruce Helford had gathered the writers on the Warner Bros lot in Burbank to begin work on the follow-up season to what had been a remarkable blockbuster return of the groundbreaking family sitcom. But a racist tweet about US President Barack Obama’s adviser Valerie Jarrett shared in the wee morning hours by the show’s controversial namesake, Roseanne Barr, was hindering the process — to put it mildly.
“We were seeing all these tweets, and then we were seeing the news coming out, and everything else,” recalls Helford, who also worked on the original series, inside the show’s production offices. “By 9.30, I think I had a hundred texts. And I get to the office and my mind was like, ‘OK, we’ll just see what happens.’”
Before 11am, the top-rated comedy had been cancelled.
“I just remember there were dozens of bagels just sitting there,” says Dave Caplan, who was a staff writer at the time.
Nearly five months later, ABC is unveiling The
Conners, its much anticipated spinoff of Roseanne
— without its sharp-tongued matriarch. The rejiggered revival of the blue-collar Conner family — continuing on with John Goodman (Dan), Laurie Metcalf (Jackie), Sara Gilbert (Darlene), Lecy Goranson (Becky) and Michael Fishman (DJ) — premieres today in the UAE. But will viewers, particularly Barr supporters upset by her ouster or others whose admiration for the sitcom diminished because of Barr’s behaviour, show up?
Helford, Caplan and Bruce Rasmussen — all serving as executive producers on the current show — are gathered inside the show’s production office, reflecting on the last few months. They each describe it in different terms.
“An emotional roller coaster ride that ends really good,” Rasmussen offers.
“If we were writing that scenario,” Caplan counters, “starting from something that was so unfortunate, it really could not have ended better. We love the show we’re doing now.”
Not long after the cancellation of the Roseanne revival, talks quickly began among the producers, ABC and Carsey-Werner, the
“Dan, in the absence of Roseanne, has had to step forward in a lot of ways.” BRUCE HELFORD | Executive producer
show’s production company, about whether there was any possible way to salvage the popular comedy. With hundreds of jobs on the line between the cast and crew, could they move on without its titular character who had proved to be the sitcom’s most unfiltered voice about the plight of the working class?
“And then there was a secondary element, after we answered ‘yes’ to that,” Caplan says. “Which was: The legacy of the show is so important. We just can’t let it end this way.”
The Conners charges ahead with 64 per cent of the crew and writers, according to producers. The rest, they say, had landed other jobs. Another factor of the new series: Barr could not profit or have creative involvement in it, an agreement that was reached between Barr and executive producer Tom Werner.
The producers are unequivocal when they say the premiere episode of The Conners was the hardest episode of television they’ve ever had to write.
“We laboured on it long and hard,” Caplan says, “because it was difficult to strike the right emotional tone.”
It’s not the first time TV writers have had the task of writing a lead character off a show, of course, but this situation was certainly a precarious one. It implores the viewers to separate the character from the lightning-rod star.
“Roseanne Conner was very beloved by her family, so in the event that she’s not around in their lives for whatever reason, there has to be an appropriate amount of grief and reaction caused by that,” Helford said.
At the same time, the producers say, removing the linchpin from the show has freed space to develop the other characters in considerable ways.
“Dan, in the absence of Roseanne, has had to step forward in a lot of ways,” Helford says. “And Darlene, Becky and Jackie all have gaps to fill in the matriarchal role. And they all have very strong opinions the way Roseanne did.”