To the Authors, to Make Much of Time

Last week ABC's hit television sitcom Roseanne was canceled abruptly after its creator and star made racist remarks on Twitter. Much has been said about her conduct, and the only thing I have to add is that I found it somewhat disappointing. I saw the lightning response before I saw the tweets, and with it being Roseanne I expected something epic, even if it was horrible. Instead her comments were rather pathetic and pablum.

I do want to talk a little bit about the show, though. Roseanne returned in early 2018 for a tenth season following a twenty-year hiatus. There are only ten episodes, and though they were extremely successful it now looks like there won't be any more. And what I'm thinking about today is how little they accomplished.

It's a tough trick to bring any show back after twenty years, especially when you have a large set of established recurring characters, most of whose actors were able to return to the show. But Season Ten of Roseanne, though it made good use of the iconic characters it has, often seemed like the parade of old friends took priority over going anywhere with the writing of the show.

In and of itself that may not have been a bad plan. In some ways Roseanne's heart has always been lower-middle-class inertia and the way that this family always ends up in the same place, centered on the same house, no matter what they try. Roseanne has been a factory worker, a hairdresser, a waitress, co-owner of a restaurant, and now an Uber driver without ever changing their circumstances. Dan has owned a motorcycle shop and a drywall company, as well as working at many different jobs over the years, again without noticeable progress in his life. Jackie has tried almost everything available to her, from trucker to police officer to life coach, without getting anywhere.

The new season really pushed that theme hard, as Dan and Roseanne's kids, having each tried a different method to get out, all converge on Lanford and that old house again. Becky, Darlene, DJ, even David have all tried in their own way to make progress in their lives, and have found themselves right back where they started, with a new set of kids to repeat the cycle. It's a powerful theme, especially in today's America, and through those ten episodes runs a sense that the writers were just getting warmed up.

But there's the problem. Roseanne Season 10 is an establishing shot for a movie that will never be made. They set up some nice plots for progress into Season 11, with Roseanne's addiction to painkillers, Darlene's willingness to humble herself to get her kids health-care, and government disaster relief bailing out Dan's drywall business at the last moment. But in Season 10 itself they neglected to do very much of anything.

And now they don't get to. As an author, it's easy to get caught up in what you're going to do later on in a series. But be careful. Tomorrow is never guaranteed, so if you've got a chance to take your work somewhere now, take it. It's easy to say Roseanne Barr was a high-risk person to depend upon, but all sorts of other unexpected things can happen to take that opportunity away. By all accounts Anton Yelchin was one of the lowest-risk actors around, and his accidental death certainly derailed the rebooted Star Trek series if it hasn't ended it completely.

As it is, Season 10 of Roseanne was much better work than the unlamented Season 9, whose events the new series was quick to disavow. But it serves no better as a final season of the show. And that's a shame.

Gather ye Roseannes while ye may,
Society's patience is taxed;
The sitcom that you write today
Tomorrow may be axed.