Roseanne Barr Stands Up To Speech Bullies At ABC
Patrick Howley
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ABC is trying to get Roseanne Barr to stop talking about politics on her hit network sitcom. But Roseanne Barr has no plans to stop integrating political scenes into her show.
Roseanne Barr is standing up to the network executives, after hitting #1 in primetime, topping 20 million total viewers, and keeping the show #1 among sitcoms.
don't worry, #Roseanne show fans-next season will be even braver/funnier/timely than this season, despite what anyone mistakenly says.
— Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) May 16, 2018
ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey held a press ritual to declare to reporters from outlets including Deadline that the show will tone down its politics when it comes back for a full season in the fall. Roseanne Barr is a Trump supporter. The media has been obsessed with this fact, which is giving “Roseanne” a platform to be America’s #1 comedy in a way that has not been seen since “All In The Family.”
But Barr is not going to let that happen, and she will probably have to play network politics against Dungey, who has never starred in a #1 sitcom or had 20 million people watch her do anything.
Here is Channing Dungey, the first black ABC head who took offense to a joke on Roseanne in which Barr poked fun at “Blackish” and “Off the Boat,” which belabor the point that “They’re just like us.” Barr’s show has touched all of our cultural controversies, including having a Muslim neighbor (which was no more offensive than the classic “King of the Hill” in which Hank and the gang freak out about having Asian neighbors because they think their dog had been eaten).
As usual, Jimmy Kimmel is the hammerhead for management, making ruthless fun of Barr’s show at the ABC network upfronts.
Kimmel “joked” that since Roseanne became a success despite Barr being “old and crazy”, then ABC should greenlight a show for Gary Busey to make 9/11 conspiracy observations.
It is clear that Roseanne is being pressured. Also, ABC is losing Shonda Rhimes, producer of middlebrow soap operas geared toward middle-aged women. Rhimes is going to Netflix to work with Barack Obama presumably and for board member Susan Rice.
Big League Politics reminds readers of this article of what happened when Netflix embraced Obama and Susan Rice. Our headline was “Netflix Stock Plummeting In Response To Obama Show.”
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