Original Roseanne writers say they are having a hard time recognizing her character in the reboot
One of the most striking attributes of the Roseanne reboot has to be the politics of the show.
Especially because of the contrast it bears with what the lead character of Roseanne Conner has stood for over the years.
But of course, things had to be aligned with the real-life Roseanne Barr's extreme right-winged and conspiracy theory enthusing beliefs, and this seems to have infected the onscreen Roseanne's values as well.
This dichotomy has nor been lost on the writers of the original Roseanne series which ran for nine seasons between 1988 and 1997, to the extent that four of them have said that they don't even recognize the show anymore.
Speaking to BuzzFeed, the writers shared that they are practically having a hard time from recognizing the character that they had known all this while.
“I don’t think that Roseanne Conner would’ve voted for Donald Trump,” said Miriam Trogdon, who worked on the show for two seasons.
Stan Zimmerman, who too worked on the show for two seasons, shared: "A lot of people involved in the show were surprised when she turned right-wing,” because “that was just not the person or her character that we had known.”
The show tried to justify Roseanne's new found love for Trump as expressed in the reboot, explaining that she was drawn to him because he “talked about jobs.”
Of that, Trogdon said that the absurd change looks a lot like the new writers had simply “picked an aspect of what Trump was saying that would fit into the original Roseanne character” in an attempt to align her with Barr's beliefs, despite it completely ignoring stuff that the old Roseanne “would’ve questioned”.
“But the original Roseanne, I think, would have been more upset at his attitude toward women and his misogyny,” Trogdon said.
“I think that the original Roseanne would’ve questioned how a super-rich guy like this would have any sense of what a lower-middle-class family like the Conners were going through. She would at least question it, but they don’t dwell on that. They picked an aspect of what Trump was saying that would fit into the original Roseanne character.”
Lois Bromfield, who worked on the show for four seasons, said she thought it was a hoax when she first heard about Barr’s recent politics.
“It bothers me. There are times when I go, ‘What the fuck?’” she said, adding, “I don’t know her that way. I know her as a really open, liberal person,” said Bromfield. “I don’t know what the deal is with [her current politics]. I don’t quite get it. I guess something changed in her life or maybe I just didn’t know her that well.”
“Roseanne is a really big supporter of women and human rights and animal rights,” Bromfield said. “Roseanne is not a bigot, she’s not a backward person at all, so her liking Trump is just so odd. It comes out of left field.”
Another writer, who chose to remain anonymous due to ties with TV, also mentioned that ABC recently refused to air a Black-ish episode that took on the issue of NFL players kneeling during the national anthem but no issue with the Roseanne reboot.
“That was too political for them and then they’ve got Roseanne spewing her love of Donald Trump on the show, and the real Roseanne spewing conspiracy theories about Hillary Clinton and Pizzagate,” the writer said. “I don’t know why they’re giving this woman a platform.”
Even though four writers who worked on the old Roseanne did return for the new show, the other four who spoke to BuzzFeed seem to be pretty disappointed with the recent political infusion the show is undergoing.
As for everything else, they seem to be all smiles and happy about the show.
