Initially I had been predicting a few Emmy nominations for the enormously popular reboot of Roseanne, especially for the well-liked and frequently nominated John Goodman and three-time Roseanne Emmy winner Laurie Metcalf, but after the star’s Twitter meltdown and abrupt cancellation of the series by ABC, I deep-sixed those thoughts, with the idea that no one is going to want to touch that show with their vote in these circumstances. But with ABC’s widely publicized announcement that the show will go on after all, now known as The Conners and starring everyone except Roseanne Barr herself, I now am hedging those bets. ABC’s release came with four full days of voting still to go, and that is an eternity in a competition where more than enough members are waiting until the final hours to finally turn in their ballot. Could the fact that Goodman and Metcalf are coming back in September give their own Emmy chances this season a boost? I won’t place money on it, but I think there is still enough time for a possible turnaround in their case.
Television Academy
As for the idea of going ahead with the series without its namesake star, it will be interesting to see what the writers and producers come up with. All along in this process I thought calling it The Conners was the way to go. Earlier rumors it was going to be built around, and named, after Sara Gilbert’s Darlene character made me cringe. This is a comedy and Darlene was probably the least funny character in the cast, at least the way it has been written so far (with no offense to Gilbert, who is fine in the role and was the actual mover and shaker in getting the series revived in the first place). There is plenty of precedent here, particularly in the case of the NBC sitcom Valerie starring Valerie Harper, which had to be renamed The Hogan Family after Harper, like Roseanne, got fired from her own series after its first season in 1986. The series went on to have a healthy life with remaining cast members like Jason Bateman and with the prime addition of Sandy Duncan to take up the slack from Harper’s abrupt exit. It ran for 110 episodes, and Bateman told me recently that before Arrested Development came along it was his favorite TV experience, and he only had kind words for both co-stars Duncan and Harper.
If you ask me the newly named The Conners should follow that example and consider bringing in a new star, a funny new star, to replace the hole left by Barr’s exit. In fact they wouldn’t have to look much farther than the writing staff and a stand-up comedy star by the name of Wanda Sykes. Just sayin’.
