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Roseanne Revival


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1 hour ago, methodwriter85 said:

.... and Johnny Galecki seems like he'd be hard to get.

 

Do you say this because of his contract with CBS or because of the bitterness between Roseanne and Chuck Lorre?  Could be both, I suppose. 

Meanwhile, posting my own plot devices, I'm hoping that Becky and Darlene would both be living outside of Lanford and pursuing successful careers.  They would both come to Lanford for a family event.  Perhaps Jerry or Andy could be getting married, something like that.  Not very imaginative but it does get everyone together.   I'm also hoping for Leon in at least one episode.  He could be running a catering service and cater the wedding, that would do it. 

  • Love 6
(edited)

Because Johnny Galecki is busy with The Big Bang Theory, yes.

I'm hoping that Lecy is alright if they're willing to use her. I can't see Roseanne tolerating any kind of substance abuse issues on the set.

I think one of the babies from the show is going to end up GLBT. I always thought she would have done that with one of Roseanne's 3 older kids if she could have gotten away with it. (On the other hand, I don't want Darlene to come out as a lesbian. Sara Gilbert is perfectly capable of a playing a straight woman. Besides, the outspoken Darlene we knew in the show would have come out by 18 or 19 if not earlier.) They could go with the Andy becomes transgender gag from the end of one episode. That is a hot issue. Or Jerry could be getting married to another man, with certain residents of Lanford getting up in arms about it.

I do think the climate is pretty ripe for this kind of the show, if they do it right.

Edited by methodwriter85
  • Love 6

I'm excited about the reboot, but it is going to be a hard one to do since the finale pretty much tied up any loose end there could be, since they obviously didn't consider the possibility of a renewal since that wasn't a "thing" back then. Would they continue based on reality or Rosannes perception? 

I am guessing that unless it just isn't feasible that Johnny Galecki will at least make a short cameo appearance... idk how the filming lines up with Big Bang theory... but I'm sure they'll at least try.  It's kinda funny that of all the characters, if anyone had told me when Roseanne ended that they would do a reboot 20 years later, and one of the characters would be hard to get due to being on a hit show, I would never have guessed it would be David. 

I'm happy to hear that they are using Lecy and Sarah... it was always funny how they worked both of them in and thinly veiled acknowledgment of each other. 

It's kinda morbid I guess, but I kinda hope that given the real life death of the actor playing Mark (I blanked on his name and when I scrolled up he wasn't referenced on this page) that they kill off Mark instead of explaining him away as divorced or something. I don't know why... it's just my gut reaction.

I'm curious with the youngest actors (jerry, Andy, Harris etc) if they will try to get the original actors even though they were really little/babies... or if they'll be recast. I don't know if any of them are still acting, but fuller house has shown even if they aren't that they could potentially be brought back (i.e. Jodi sweetin or Andrea barber) 

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I mean, it's not unrealistic that they would have lost all their money, but if anything, I can see this show just ignoring season 9 like the Gilmore Girls reboot ignored season 7. They're already come right out and said they're not going with Dan's death.

Although there are many documented cases of lotto winners who pissed everything away, so it's not unreasonable.

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They don't have to retcon anything in order to have the lottery money be gone, though, because in reality they never won the lottery -- that was just something Roseanne made up for the book (any semblance of financial security she'd felt evaporated when Dan died, so she imagined herself as having the kind of money the characters she watched on TV did).

They might just do the revival as if the book never existed, and what we saw - except for season nine - really happened, which would mean (for the big things) Dan is alive, Jackie is straight, and Becky was with Mark and Darlene was/is with David without any need to explain how any of these things are true when the finale had told us the opposite.  I think most fans would prefer it that way, and I probably would, too - even though I'm one of the handful of viewers who like the "it was all a book" reveal.

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(edited)

If Mitch Buchannon can rise from the dead, then so can Dan Conner.

On ‎5‎/‎20‎/‎2017 at 2:48 PM, leighroda said:

ON 5/20/2017 AT 4:20 PM, LEIGHRODA SAID:

Quote

I'm curious with the youngest actors (jerry, Andy, Harris etc) if they will try to get the original actors even though they were really little/babies... or if they'll be recast. I don't know if any of them are still acting, but fuller house has shown even if they aren't that they could potentially be brought back (i.e. Jodi sweetin or Andrea barber) 

 

Never mind those two, they actually brought back (in supporting roles) Blake and Dylan, who (like you have inquired about Andy and Jerry) portrayed Nicky and Alex, Jesse and Becky's little toddlers!!

Edited by Twilight Man
(edited)
On 5/20/2017 at 4:47 PM, TheGreenKnight said:

I'm hoping that any revival includes Roseanne and Dan having spent all their lottery money and now being back at rock bottom. I always hated that storyline. Well, I hated most of the last couple of years.

Here's the thing. Whatever mechanism they use to get Dan back on the show, and them poor, those both need to happen for this to have a shot.

To compare... why is the Will & Grace revival a total shit idea? Because the world has moved on. Merry Manhattanites living the life those people represent resonates with very few people now, except as nostalgia. 

But the Connors, the version we saw for most of the show's run, resonate now more than ever. The actual world we wake up in every morning now is like a bad alt-future the show might have shown as an alternative future. But it's ours. Rosenanne makes SENSE now, if it's well done. At the very least we need to explore why people LIKE the Connors turned to Donald Trump for their answers in the last election. Even if Roseanne insists on writing the Connors as having stayed as true-Blue Democrats (I bet she will) there's still plenty of room to explore her having to deal with being in the minority among her friends, neighbors and maybe even extended family in having done so. The possibilities for the show to explore not only current economic realities, but also the current political divide? It's huge. I'm generally anti-reboot about most shows, but this is one I totally support. IF (and this is a big if) it's done right. Roseanne's own ego has to take a back seat in a lot of things for this to work properly. Her fictional version can't be right about everything, or have all the answers. Roseanne Connor has to be there to ask questions. Not answer them.

Edited by Kromm
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9 hours ago, Maharincess said:

I hope you're wrong, I would hate to see Roseanne turn into a political show.  I get enough of that crap elsewhere, I don't want it on my sitcoms.  Roseanne was never a political show so I don't see why they'd go down that road now. 

Sure it was political. There's more than one way to be that. It didn't talk about parties or politicians, but it talked about social mores that split down the same lines as those parties and politicians. And that's what it can do again. Nobody has to say "Trump" or even "Republican". The show just has to talk about how they can't pay for their insurance now, how their neighbors with brown skin are hiding out from the Feds for fear of being deported, and how Jackie started a business and it's being attacked by nutters because it's lesbian owned. Or how about a plot about how all the manufacturing jobs in the fictional town of Lanford, Illinois have dried up. I could keep going, and I doubt I'd have to name a party or a politician, and they'd still be in the mode of the original series, Roseanne's own well known ideologies, and also current reality in Illinois.

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On 5/20/2017 at 1:55 PM, methodwriter85 said:

Because Johnny Galecki is busy with The Big Bang Theory, yes.

 

Ron Howard returned for The Andy Griffith Show reunion TV movie Return to Mayberry in 1986, just as he was on the cusp of becoming an A list director. If he can do that, I can easily see Johnny at least making a brief appearance on this show. And even if he doesn't, it won't be for any hard feelings, I'm sure. The cast has stayed incredibly close over the years.

Natalie West is the one I'm curious about. I know not everyone here likes Crystal, but she was as important a character as anyone else in the earlier years--and the only cast member added to the opening credits (although that changed after season 4)--and it seems like whatever happened between her and Roseanne, it wasn't good. The last time I saw her, though, was in 2000, when she was interviewed for the Roseanne E! True Hollywood Story. I don't even know what she's up to now. 

And frankly, I can see Roseanne being petty enough over whatever may have happened between herself and NW that there is no mention of Crystal whatsoever, despite curiosity over what happened to her, Ed, and her son Lonnie/their kids together. 

Edited by UYI
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I am so on board for this. Like most of you here, Roseanne is my favorite show of all time. Well, at least of my lifetime. The Bob Newhart Show may be a close second/tie but that was before my time. 

I loved everything about it and slogged through the later seasons because, even though they were terrible, I loved having these actors on my TV. I watch the older seasons on a regular basis. 

Laurie Metcalf is an acting superhero, truly one of the greats. John Goodman and Estelle Parsons (if she returns) are legends. I can't wait to see them together again! I do still have a soft spot for Roseanne, I cant' help it. 

All this to say, I'm excited!   

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If they're going to erase memory of the lottery year and Dan's death, can they go back further and erase the birth of Jerry Garcia? Roseanne having a baby added nothing to the show.

Since they are planning on bringing back Lecy as original Becky and Sarah in some creative way, maybe she can play Jackie's grown-up transgender son-turned daughter, Andy. It's Roseanne's world so anything is likely at this point.

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(edited)
On 5/24/2017 at 9:26 PM, Not4Me said:

If they're going to erase memory of the lottery year and Dan's death, can they go back further and erase the birth of Jerry Garcia? Roseanne having a baby added nothing to the show.

Since they are planning on bringing back Lecy as original Becky and Sarah in some creative way, maybe she can play Jackie's grown-up transgender son-turned daughter, Andy. It's Roseanne's world so anything is likely at this point.

2010 Trans Andy actually did look a lot like Sarah Chalke, so other than her being 20 years too old it's not a bad thought. I can definitely see the show adding in a transgender character- it's been a pretty hot topic the past couple of years.

I agree this can be done really well, but it has to be done right. It has to echo actual reality like the original series did. (At least, the earlier seasons.) Like, Rodbell's could be closing or something, echoing the retail collapse.

Edited by methodwriter85
Quote

 agree this can be done really well, but it has to be done right. It has to echo actual reality like the original series did. (At least, the earlier seasons.) Like, Rodbell's could be closing or something, echoing the retail collapse.

Very good point, you can even go a step farther talking about outsourcing and how Roseanne's original factory job closed down in the late 90s do to that or how independent businesses like the hair salon were able to boom due to entrepreneurship and that helped the Lunch Box. Or how data entry became a normal in businesses. Be a nice way for the Connors to see that if they wouldn't have set themselves in: "Don't live above your raising." They could have done fine in life. 

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(edited)

Rodbell's definitely seems like it probably would have closed, with something like Wal-Mart taking its place. Lanford seems like a prime place to have seriously rusted away in the past 20 years, unless it got a better road connection to Chicago and became an exuburb community.

For that matter, Lanford Mall could be gone, too.

Edited by methodwriter85
  • Love 6

The way Lanford's economic collapse played out over the course of season four was masterful.  Wellman being all but shuttered (meaning few residents had union jobs anymore), Rodbell's replacing the diner with a bargain bin (reflecting the community's altered spending habits), etc. - economic conditions changed so much from when Dan opened the bike shop, making its closing inevitable.  And it all played out so naturally, and sometimes in the background.  Here we'll be catching up with changes that happened while we weren't watching, rather than seeing it play out over the course of a season, but the show was so great at this sort of thing, I'm optimistic it will once again be a refreshing look at such issues. 

This is what I said upon re-watching the entire series a couple of years ago; it's why I'm not cringing in fear of this the way I do most revivals (and did with the reunion TV movies of the past):

I’m just so thankful to Roseanne Barr for this show.  To the other actors who helped bring it to life and to the writers who wove her stories into such wonderful episodes, too, but primarily to her.  She had a vision, she stuck with it, and she made sure that for nine years we had a show on American television told from a feminist, blue collar viewpoint.  A nine-year exploration of class in America; with the popular narrative being that the so-called American Dream (work hard and you can pull yourself up the socio-economic ladder) is the norm, here was someone pointing out that the reality is if you are born poor, you are most likely going to die poor.  Nine years of speaking truth to power, exploring issues often misrepresented, shallowly addressed or ignored altogether, and showing us the lives of people often disregarded.   Done through comedy that is - far more often than not - intelligent, honest, and downright hilarious.

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(edited)
7 hours ago, Bastet said:

 

 A nine-year exploration of class in America; with the popular narrative being that the so-called American Dream (work hard and you can pull yourself up the socio-economic ladder) is the norm, here was someone pointing out that the reality is if you are born poor, you are most likely going to die poor.  

So true and I think that was best personified by Becky. There was no reason marrying Mark should've delayed or thwarted her plans to finish college but she ended up basically right where her mother was: working dead end jobs back in Lanford. Out of all the Connor kids, she was the one with the most potential and she blew it.

Edited by BitterApple
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On 5/20/2017 at 0:55 PM, methodwriter85 said:

I think one of the babies from the show is going to end up GLBT. I always thought she would have done that with one of Roseanne's 3 older kids if she could have gotten away with it. (On the other hand, I don't want Darlene to come out as a lesbian. Sara Gilbert is perfectly capable of a playing a straight woman. Besides, the outspoken Darlene we knew in the show would have come out by 18 or 19 if not earlier.)

Yeah, I don't want Darlene to be gay just because Sara is. It would honestly be more realistic to me if Becky came out. I think she was Dan's favorite so I'd like to see how he'd handle it. 

21 hours ago, MSterling said:

Here's my wacky idea for the two Beckys, since both actresses are up for this. Since Mark can't come back, why not have Sarah/Becky play Lecy/Becky's girlfriend named Becky, or some variation on the name Rebecca. Hey, it made my sister laugh, and my sister loves this show more than I do.

This is exactly what I was thinking and it would be a good way to use Sarah Chalke.

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(edited)

Going back to the question in the original post, if it's about a working class family, hell, yes, I will watch. Tired of stuff focused on 20something singles and their sex lives. Roseanne applied to me then, and that focus still applies to me. 

@Bastet, you put everything I love about Roseanne perfectly. 

@methodwriter85, I don't see the trans issue, as the current politics go, getting play. Roseanne Barr is not totally on board with the politics of it, from stuff she put out on Twitter in 2012 or so. 

Edited by azshadowwalker
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I am a long time Roseanne fan but have ultra low expectations for this revival. From what I've read, Roseanne wants it to be political satire like season 9 tried to be. 

The show was best when it was about the Conner family. I can't see how they could pull off an interesting arc like that in only 8 episodes.

Seasons 1-7 you got the impression they all got together and decided on where the show was going through that season. Like they planned it out.

Seasons 8-9 felt like they were just "bottle" episodes. You could watch them all out of order and it wouldn't matter. There was no common thread.

Edited by Mmmfloorpie
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On 5/24/2017 at 0:47 PM, Bunky said:

I am so on board for this. Like most of you here, Roseanne is my favorite show of all time. Well, at least of my lifetime. The Bob Newhart Show may be a close second/tie but that was before my time. 

I loved everything about it and slogged through the later seasons because, even though they were terrible, I loved having these actors on my TV. I watch the older seasons on a regular basis. 

Laurie Metcalf is an acting superhero, truly one of the greats. John Goodman and Estelle Parsons (if she returns) are legends. I can't wait to see them together again! I do still have a soft spot for Roseanne, I cant' help it. 

All this to say, I'm excited!   

I could have written your entire post myself. (Except Bob Newhart - liked it but not a close second for me.) I cannot wait! And my daughter is excited too and she wasn't born when the original series aired either. But she knows the episodes by heart through reruns. 

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1 hour ago, Aja said:

When Dan's port-o-potty got nailed by the wrecking ball: "It was really an awkward moment, nobody knew what to do. Fortunately, I had the presence of mind to start the applause."

I liked Arnie too. :) 

Those were great scenes. It was when they had Arnie taking advantage of people's good nature like Dan giving money for what was suppose to be an engagement ring and was a boob job instead. Or the entire sleeping with Jackie was: "Jackie would have had to been so hammered she didn't know what year it was." Was the parts with Arnie that were too much. Let's not get into how they wrote him off with the alien bits and then returning him, which was a big joke later on.

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59 minutes ago, readster said:

Those were great scenes. It was when they had Arnie taking advantage of people's good nature like Dan giving money for what was suppose to be an engagement ring and was a boob job instead. Or the entire sleeping with Jackie was: "Jackie would have had to been so hammered she didn't know what year it was." Was the parts with Arnie that were too much. Let's not get into how they wrote him off with the alien bits and then returning him, which was a big joke later on.

I didn't mind Arnie until they put him with Nancy, whom I could not stand. I hated their relationship, everything about them was icky.

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11 hours ago, Dee said:

I didn't mind Nancy, until the show ditched Anne Marie and Bonnie, thus making Nancy Roseanne's permanent third best friend. After that she veered from occasionally amusing to nails on a chalkboard.

Yeah, it was like as they started ditching Dan's group of co-workers and friends and their weekly poker games. Apparently it got to expensive so all of a sudden, Dan had no friends. 

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On 6/7/2017 at 6:44 PM, Mmmfloorpie said:

I am a long time Roseanne fan but have ultra low expectations for this revival. From what I've read, Roseanne wants it to be political satire like season 9 tried to be. 

The show was best when it was about the Conner family. I can't see how they could pull off an interesting arc like that in only 8 episodes.

Seasons 1-7 you got the impression they all got together and decided on where the show was going through that season. Like they planned it out.

Seasons 8-9 felt like they were just "bottle" episodes. You could watch them all out of order and it wouldn't matter. There was no common thread.

I believe the show was always political, or at least socio-political, but the difference was between it being overt, and thus intrusive and clumsy, and it being implied.

It's likely correct that 8 episodes isn't enough time to be subtle. Even worse is that it's on network TV and not Netflix. If it had been Netflix, they could have just made the episodes no fixed length and reaped the benefits of that. Instead, they're chained to 21 minutes (or whatever a current half hour of network TV actually is this year). 

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2 hours ago, Kromm said:

I believe the show was always political, or at least socio-political, but the difference was between it being overt, and thus intrusive and clumsy, and it being implied.

It's likely correct that 8 episodes isn't enough time to be subtle. Even worse is that it's on network TV and not Netflix. If it had been Netflix, they could have just made the episodes no fixed length and reaped the benefits of that. Instead, they're chained to 21 minutes (or whatever a current half hour of network TV actually is this year). 

It was political but it was just stuff like this:

Dan: Stupid system, run by stupid people, thought up by stupid people, hired by stupid people. 
Roseanne: Who were elected by even stupider people
.

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I guess political in the sense that it advocated for one side or the other. It was from the perspective of the "working class" but in the early seasons at least there was no overt or subtle reference to party. It wasn't mentioned if that Congressman was Republican or Democrat. 

In a revival series I can see it being explicitly anti Republican/conservative.

The later seasons had the abortion clinic episode and all the talk about "choice". That to me is clearly political. Just a passing comment about politicians all being incompetent isn't in my opinion.

There were definitely feminist politics in the show. Not just the abortion issue, but the domestic violence story. Hell, I remember her playing Bikini Kill in one episode. 

The politics of how the system crushes working class people was the most important part of the show to me. Even those who get far enough ahead to buy a house are still just a paycheck or two from having the utilities turned off. I don't remember other shows that represented that life, which is how I grew up. That's very political, but most people in the U.S. buy into the idea that there's some kind of merit system at work allowing those who work hard to get ahead, instead of seeing the political system that keeps the vast majority down. Roseanne showed that political system. 

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Mike Summers: We can't let this area's work-force lay idle. That's why bringing in new business is my number-one priority.

Roseanne: How?

Mike Summers: Through tax incentives. See, we're gonna make it cheaper for out-of-state businesses to set up shop right here in Lanford.

Roseanne: So they get a tax break?

Mike Summers: Yeah, that's why they come here.

Roseanne: Well, who's gonna pay the taxes that they ain't paying?

Mike Summers: Well, you... you will. But you'll be working... good, steady employment.

Roseanne: Union wages?

Mike Summers: Well, now, part of the reason these companies are finding it so expensive to operate in other locations is...

Roseanne: [Roseanne cuts him off] Soooo, they're gonna dump the union, so they can come here and hire us at scab wages, and then for *that* privilege... we get to pay their taxes?

Mike Summers: [pause] Is your husband home?

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(edited)

I love that scene (including the beginning, when he says he's going door-to-door to talk to his constituents, and she suggests he go down to the unemployment office where he can talk to everyone at once).  The times they explicitly talked politics like that may not have been numerous, but they showed it for nine years.  The old adage "the personal is political" is true, and so is the reverse -- the political is personal.  This was basically a nine-year exploration of the rigged economy, class, sexism, etc.

Edited by Bastet
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I can't find the quote but in the episode Couch Potatoes the Conners become a Neilson family and Roesanne says something to the effect that they are going to have to start watching more educational programming because if they watch trashy junk the advertisers who sponsor those types of shows will give more money to "right wing politicians, who cut school lunches and education to make sure that people like us stay people like us."

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16 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

I can't find the quote but in the episode Couch Potatoes the Conners become a Neilson family and Roesanne says something to the effect that they are going to have to start watching more educational programming because if they watch trashy junk the advertisers who sponsor those types of shows will give more money to "right wing politicians, who cut school lunches and education to make sure that people like us stay people like us."

"They just wanna hook up some poor, uneducated slobs, so the country has somebody to blame America's Funniest Home Videos on ... That Nielsen box is a conspiracy ... they wanna make sure that people like us watch crap like tractor pulls and Jerry Springer so the advertisers can sell us all this stuff that we don't really need. And then they take our money, and they give it to these right-wing Washington politicians that cut school lunches and all these other budget cuts, you know, to make sure that people like us have no choice but to stay people like us."

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53 minutes ago, TheGreenKnight said:

I don't remember the later seasons being any more political than the earlier years. The series was about the same on that front beginning to end. Of course, Roseanne's politics have changed, so who knows about the revival.... I'm not exactly excited to hear anything from her on that front these days.

Boy howdy, have they ever. I don't want to hear from her on that front at all.

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