OPINION:
Roseanne Barr may have been sent packing by ABC, head down in disgrace, after she tweeted that Valerie Jarrett was born of the Muslim Brotherhood and the “Planet of the Apes.”
But the show apparently lives on. ABC has worked it so they’ll get their money’s worth from this whole Barr fiasco with a spin-off called “The Conners.”
Or will they?
Let’s just say that a Roseanne show minus the Roseanne isn’t going to make the most-watched list any time soon. Roseanne, in real life and in TV land, was prickly, obnoxious, sometimes funny, always blunt — and conservative. A President Donald Trump supporter. Her cohosts? Not so much.
It was the pro-Trump aspect of the show that drew the crowds, remember.
Take away Roseanne and what’s left is a cast of characters who either play a left-leaner, like Laurie Metcalf’s Jackie character, who donned a “Nasty Woman” shirt and pink cat-eared hat in the premiere “Roseanne” episode, or who are card-carrying liberals in real life and on the show. Sara Gilbert, for instance, serves as left-leaning co-host of “The View” and as resident sulky social justice-type queen of tolerance, liberal style, on the show.
ABC isn’t even letting Roseanne advise or consult on the script.
“Roseanne Barr will have no financial or creative involvement in the new series,” ABC made clear, in a written statement.
Granted, the reboot of “Roseanne” into “The Conners” is good news for the cast and 200-plus crew members who were overnight out of jobs.
But “Roseanne” without Roseanne is just another sitcom. And wait for it, wait for it — “The Conners” will have none of the political tension that made the new “Roseanne” worth watching in the first place. It’ll turn into yet another Hollywood platform to push liberal-minded ideas as ideal, and conservative thought as inferior — and that all Trump supporters belong in the camp of “deplorables.”
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley.
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