PJ Featuring M&M
What surprised me most about the Roseanne Barr controversy is how swiftly she became a non-person. I noticed by yesterday evening ABC had already yanked her rerun from the air and replaced it with The Middle.
So let's go back to a simpler time, when TV stars weren't so contentious. In fact, it happens to be the birthday of Meredith MacRae of Petticoat Junction (and daughter of musical star Gordon MacRae). Meredith died fairly young in 2000, but otherwise she'd be 74 today.
In the world of popular music, not much attention is given to the gals of Petticoat Junction. But they would sing occasionally, usually with Meredith in the lead.
posted by LAGuy @ 10:30 AM
5 Comments:
I don't think she did it deliberately, but it's amazing that in 24 hours, Rosanne managed to offend nearly everybody in a relatively small number of tweets. It's like the guy who falls down the stairs and manages to hit every step on the way down.
Joss Whedon began his screenwriting career on the Roseanne show. Years later, when someone asked him about the experience, he said something along the lines of "Roseanne taught me how to write comedy, and how not to treat your employees."
It will be interesting to see if she remains a hero to Trump fans. It's interesting that a few pro-Trump comments caused them to forgive her for mocking the National Anthem at a baseball game, and running for president on the Peace and Freedom Party ticket in 2012 (after losing her bid to be the Green Party nominee).
Roseanne taught me how to write comedy, and how not to treat your employees.
A high school teacher and coach said you can learn an infinite number of things from someone who is doing it right and only one wrong way from the person doing it wrong. So Joss there are more ways to treat your employees badly.
I am neither a defender of Roseanne before or after this incident. I did find it intriguing that she saw the family comedy in our current social situation in which families are so divided over politics. To some extent this was done with All In The Family but that is a vein that could be tapped for more fun these days. And it might even have been a positive thing for this show to go on as we really need to laugh at our differences and not take all of this shit so seriously all the time. Alas, she killed that idea along with likely her second career.
oh and by the way, the very short-lived Jackie Thomas Show basically addresses comedically the terrible boss that is Roseanne and Tom Arnold. I like the physical comedy in the show and Martin Mull. Tom Arnold was a former prop comic and the physical aspects of the show seemed to evolve from that. I remember when prop comedy was really big (probably a blip on the map of comedy history but it was a blip I witnessed). It was interesting to see how clever comedians could be, just picking up an object and making a joke. In some ways it felt like watching a fine pianist practice their arpeggios. And yet when they developed a theme and carried it through many objects it was something special.
All in the Family would be hard to reproduce today. The creators and actors were all liberal, and attentive viewers quickly realized that Archie's views were wrong, and Mike's were (usually) right, in the eyes of the writers. So unlike Rosanne -- which had a lead and creator out of step with "enlightened" opinion of 2018, Norman Lear was in step with enlightened 1970s opinion.
On the other hand, Lear tried very hard to bring balance to the show. In his vision, the audience should never forget that Archie's bigotry and right-wing opinions were "wrong". Yet the audience was also constantly reminded that Archie works at hard labor 8 hours a day to put food on the table, and when he comes home, Mike -- who has been lounging about -- lectures Archie on why he's wrong. Edith is therefore the only truly admirable character on the show. (Gloria is just a cipher; her most common role is to sing background vocals for Mike so his voice doesn't get hoarse.)
Today, a political show like AITF wouldn't succeed with the politically correct, because they don't want to see any balance. One must not say "But Robert E. Lee had some good qualities, too." The character who is revealed as a racist in Act 1 will be seen beating his wife and children in Act 2; no one is permitted to have some virtues. The woke have irresistable grace; the unwoke are lost in total depravity.
The irony is the original ROSEANNE was beloved by the left. They saw it as a rare portrayal of the working class and the troubles they have getting though life.
The new Roseanne actually featured the same concept, except this time, mirroring the real world, Roseanne like so many other blue collar whites supported Trump as a politician who was speaking to their concerns.
Even then, there wasn't much political talk on the show, and it was generally balanced, but that was still too much take for those who run show business--as can be witnesses by the hate-Trump-beyond-reason-all-the-time attitude of pretty much all political humor on the air these days.
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