Having gushed about comedienne Roseanne Barr a year or so ago—how I’ve seen every episode of her original series so many times I could teach a college course on the subject—I figured it best to address her latest controversy. About the only good thing may be this will be her last public controversy, if at all possible. I mean, we’re talking about loud-mouthed and ornery-tweetin’ Roseanne here. Perhaps she didn’t realize the times have changed. At least her fan base has evolved during the past twenty years, those of us who cheered on her former show’s blue-collar character. That Roseanne was authentic and in many cases reflected the hard-luck working ranks of the lower-middle class. But as we all change while growing older, becoming more curmudgeon and often more conservative than our radical youth and moderate middle age, so has Roseanne.
Still, how could she not have realized tweeting racial slurs about famous political people of color would be socially unacceptable; a career killer; just plain wrong; reprehensible; and to put it in Roseanne’s own vernacular of understanding, uncool? How did this Baby Boomer, hippy, Grateful Dead-listening, product of the Woodstock Generation evolve into a renowned bigot? Good thing Roseanne was nowhere near one of her former co-stars from the old show: singer Bonnie Bramlett, who is righteously notorious for having punched Elvis Costello in the face after he called James Brown AND Ray Charles the ‘n’ word. That’s how you change white folks a lot of the time. Throughout our own American history, white people en masse have proven to be quite hard headed when it comes to race relations and progress.
So not only was the new “Roseanne” series summarily canceled by ABC, where the network’s boss is a black woman, Roseanne’s former highly-rated and very entertaining and often poignant original series has been wiped from TV land altogether. Wow. But hold on a minute. So was “The Cosby Show” some years back. Yet it’s still listed for viewing today. And Bill Cosby is a convicted criminal awaiting a possible prison sentence. The old double standard, eh, Roseanne? No doubt she’s cooking up some wise-crackin’ counter to her fate. She was even dropped by her agent. Now that says a lot about today’s entertainment world.
Roseanne was quick to blame her late-night racist tweet on prescription drugs. Just like Mel Gibson blamed his anti-Semitic tirade against the police on alcohol or alcoholism. OK, we’ll go there. Let’s not blame an inebriated person for whatever comes out of his mouth or her tweets. But, see, the sober can’t go there. People believe at some level anything said or written while under the influence is really lurking in the back of one’s mind, a little insight into how the individual really feels or thinks. Is this true? Maybe. When you’re rich and famous, though, it doesn’t wash. Bad behavior is even more inexcusable. Word was that Roseanne’s grown children kept her away from tweeting while her new series was taping. They must have known something. Perhaps as a new generation, they realized the times had changed, and even brash Roseanne can’t get away with popping off a tweet anymore especially with comments meant to disparage another person racially.
Take Roseanne, please
Maybe she thought she was the female Don Rickles. Remember how we all laughed and laughed at anything the guy said, no matter what? He made a career out of making fun of everybody and anybody for any reason including looks, speech or physical limitations—just like our president does and Roseanne thought she could do. If Don Rickles were alive today, he may very well have toned down his act a bit. He was beloved for putting down people, all people, usually because the rest of us couldn’t do so and get away with it. But I’m not sure he harbored any racism. Roseanne will go down in modern history as a famous entertainer who was racist even though she says she isn’t and never has been.
It is telling that Roseanne thought there would be people, most of us in fact, who would chuckle along at anything she said or tweeted. She has a sharp wit and is dead-on in her comedic musings about ‘life and stuff.’ But in the tweet of an eye, she lost everything. Sure, she apologized and then came up with an explanation. She’s done this before: referring to herself as an incest survivor, telling Barbara Walters she suffers from serious mental illness including multiple personality disorder. It was at a moment when the media and the Hollywood suits loved to hate her while millions of loyal fans remained supportive. The big star was trying to explain her penchant for erratic behavior and troubling unruly opinionated mouth. In the spotlight she seemed not to give a damn what anyone thought about her. Yet deep down, she really did care and was often hurt by rough treatment mostly by the tabloid press almost always involving her weight, looks and marriages.
This time, however, she crossed the line, the race line. She knew better. Her old series covered American white racism in a couple of episodes, with Roseanne the hero of sorts, the supporter of all people, claiming blacks are just as good and bad as the rest of us or if rephrased white people are no better than black people. She remained a working-class hero for decades in reruns. But she allowed that damn 2016 election to sway her and in so doing turned into the TV character she most despised: Archie Bunker. If there is anything to learn from Roseanne’s fall from grace, it should be a concern for sensory overload with technology devices in the palm of our hands bringing us Facebook, Twitter and the internet—where word now travels at the speed of sight not sound.
As was the Cosby Show, so’s Roseanne; unlike spontaneous tweets, the monologues were scripted and scrutinized before going on the air. In the words of the great Homer Simpson Doe! She was widely hated for botching our national anthem too.
Maybe she thought she was the female Donald Trump? (Elvis Costello used the “N” word??!!