As that old saying goes, caveat emptor. And that’s why I don’t feel ABC or its executives deserve any praise for the actions they’ve taken in cancelling the Roseanne Show after its main actor tweeted racist and ignorant tweets over the weekend. At one point, she accuses George Soros of complicity with the Nazis in WW II, stealing Jewish wealth and turning Jews in to the Nazis. Soros was 14 WHEN THE WAR ENDED. If he did any of those things she accused him of, he would have to have been the most inspired pre-teen in history given that the war started when he was about 9 years old. And she had already started the weekend with a very racist tweet aimed at a former Obama aide. It concerned the aide’s looks. Seriously? Has Roseanne looked in the mirror recently? Because she sure as hell is no Miss Universe.
But I digress. ABC and their president, Channing Dungey, knew exactly who they were hiring. They knew her humor. They knew her politics. They knew who she supported.
I have to guess that they thought they could control the vileness that seemingly spills out of her mouth whenever it is open. They thought they could muzzle her enough to reap the financial rewards while ducking all the other issues that made her a problematic hire. They were all kinds of wrong. You can’t muzzle that level of hate and ignorance. If it isn’t allowed to spew forth it might poison and kill the person holding it in.
So no, ABC and Dungey. No kudos. No praise. No back pats. You brought this horror back to life twenty years after it died a natural death. You are responsible for her reappearance on the national stage. So you get no points for firing her ass when she went over a line she’s crossed time and time again – a line you mistakenly thought you could keep her from crossing.
Next time you want to resurrect a show, see what Erkel is doing. It would have to beat hell out of what Roseanne has done.