Roseanne could go on without Roseanne
Happy families: Roseanne Barr and then-costars at a New York town hall appearance on March 27, 2018. Photo: Getty
After a tumultuous week which saw her apologise then defend a racist tweet that sent her hit sitcom Roseanne into an immediate death spiral, Roseanne Barr was back from aggressive to remorseful on Twitter late on Thursday (US time).
The comedian, 65, offered “everyone involved one more apology and prayers for healing our divided nation” then – saying “I can’t let myself cave in” – used the social media platform to give a shout out to her eight-year-old Roseanne co-star Jayden Rey.
She seemed to suggest that critics were gunning for her:
https://twitter.com/therealroseanne/status/1002340766188834816
Continuing with contrition, “I begged for my crew’s jobs”, insisted Barr to her 853,000 followers.
“Will I ever recover from this pain? OMG”.
Then for the second time this week – the first was short-lived – Barr said she was retreating from her favourite social media platform: “Signing off Twitter for a while. Love you guys!”
While Barr’s career seems, for not at least, dead in the water, support from hopeful fans and other celebrities could see her show rescuscitated in the form of a Roseanne spinoff without its titular star.
As reported by Variety, the show’s co-star and executive producer Sara Gilbert and executive producers Tom Werner and Bruce Helford were meeting as early as today to discuss the future of the series.
“Multiple sources close to the situation say that there have been extremely preliminary discussions among key players … about options for keeping the ensemble together in some form without Roseanne Barr”, claimed the magazine.
One big problem? Barr, as creator of the show, has a significant financial interest in it, so any new version that could line her pockets “would be a non-starter” said Variety, which said sources warned that Roseanne’s cast and crew are facing long odds to keep it afloat.
Entertainment Weekly weighed in, saying “there could be a scenario in the works where ABC salvages significant parts of Roseanne“.
It reported that despite axing the show, “ABC has not exactly washed its hands of the family comedy”.
The idea of a new incarnation gained traction with industry insiders.
Actor Mindy Kaling gave a social media shout-out to two Roseanne stars, offering “Laurie Metcalf and John Goodman let me write things for you”.
Girls creator Lena Dunham picked up the ball in a response to Kaling.
“I will do the spin off of your show starring Darlene’s cool kids,” she tweeted.
Jim Parsons, star of Big Bang Theory, took to Instagram to share a viral fan-made poster of his BBT co-star Metcalf starring in her own-spinoff, named for her Roseanne character Jackie Harris.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BjYLI-eHeMD/?hl=en
But another fan-made poster reimagined a show called The Conners, and stuck an urn on the cast couch where Barr sat: “You’ll never miss her … They don’t”.
Talking to Canadian broadcaster CBC, TV critic Bill Brioux predicted that Roseanne’s writers could “kill off their lead and move ahead with a re-imagined series called The Conner Family“.
Mr Brioux said it would preserve the jobs of the “vast team” of actors, writers, producers, technicians and crew behind the blue-collar family drama.
“You can bet there are lawyers right now working, trying to sort this out”, he said.
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