John Chuckman
COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE IN CBC NEWS
“Roseanne (the show) could go on without Roseanne (the performer)
“Cutting the lead actor on a hit show is rare, but it has been done”
This Roseanne stuff keeps swirling around in the news, and that does seem odd for such an inconsequential thing as a rehashed long-in-the-tooth sit-com.
The truth is - and I grew up in Middle America, so I know something about the environment - the Roseanne of the old series was exactly the kind of American who you would expect to speak the way the current Roseanne just did.
That kind of language in real life certainly went along with the kind of semi-slovenly and slack-mouthed character of the original show. It would not be unusual, at all, to hear that kind of speech in the kind of household portrayed in the original show. And they would all be laughing at the remark, not expressing horror at it.
I always regarded the liberal pretensions of the original show as quite unrealistic and out-of-place. And I am a "small-l" liberal.
I never liked the original show and never understood its popularity, but it seems a great irony now that we have this situation over such a point.
