“The Conners” to premiere October 16th 2018 on ABC

ABC’s Channing Dungey On Canceling ‘Roseanne’ & What To Expect From ‘The Conners’ – TCA

ABC’s Channing Dungey On Canceling ‘Roseanne’ & What To Expect From ‘The Conners’ – TCA


by Nellie Andreeva/Deadline
August 7, 2018 5:30pm

In one of the fastest meteoric rises and falls for a TV show, ABC’s Roseanne revival burst onto the scene last spring, breaking ratings records to quickly establish itself as broadcast television’s No. 1 show. Just a couple of months later — and days after ABC had unveiled its fall schedule with Roseanne on it — the revival was abruptly canceled, hours after a racially insensitive tweet by star and executive producer Roseanne Barr.

“It was actually made very swiftly, and what I’m going to have to say is that it was nice that it was so clear to everyone that there wasn’t a lot of debate and discussion about it,” ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey told Deadline at TCA on Tuesday, regarding making the decision about canceling Roseanne instead of putting Barr on leave and launching an investigation. “We knew what we wanted to do, and we did it. For us, we have had multiple instances with Roseanne, and certainly this tweet crossed the line that cannot be crossed, but it was for us a sense of enough is enough and something had to be done.”

While she feels it was the right decision, “it was disappointing to think about what was going to happen to the cast and crew in the wake of that, and so what I’m so thrilled about is that we were able to bring the whole cast back and most of the crew to work on The Conners, so that feels like a real victory.”

The Conners came together almost as quickly as Roseanne was canceled, Dungey said.

“Literally the next day I was on the phone with (executive producer) Tom Werner, and he was asking whether we would be open to the idea, and about a week later, I was on the phone with Tom and [fellow executive producers] Bruce Helford and Sara Gilbert, talking about the general shape of what they might want to try to do, and we had a real conversation in another week or two after they had time to break it out. But it was one of those ideas that they came in with [a clear intention to make it work]. I was very excited about the idea of keeping people working, and I also thought there were more stories in that universe in Lanford for us to tell.”

As to what stories they will tell on The Conners and whether Roseanne Conner is dead in them, Dungey remained mum, noting that the show employs heavy security, with everything hand-delivered and no email used.

“What I can tell you is that thematically we will be focusing on a lot of the same themes that we were in the first nine episodes — what it’s like today for a family to make ends meet in a world where they might be going into foreclosure, where work is scarce, where there are a lot of different challenges in terms of raising children as a single parent. All these issues are going to still be at the forefront,” she said.

Can there be a Roseanne spinoff without Roseanne Conner?

“Obviously remains to be seen — I have seen three outlines for the new season, and I’m really encouraged by the creative material and what we wanted to do is, we wanted to be able to put a lens on a certain type of working class family in America which we are still able to do,” she said. “I’m excited about it. I think the audience will be too.”

Because the pickup for The Conners came later than all the other fall series, the series was late in getting into production, which was behind the decision to not hold a panel at TCA.

Looking back at the experience, was it worth getting into business with Roseanne Barr in the first place and doing the revival?

Dungey has no regrets.

“We obviously knew that she had a slightly volatile history in the previous incarnation of Roseanne,” she said. “She had come to us very clear that she wanted to make the show a priority, really wanting a second chance at this and we took that at face value. I don’t regret it, I am never going to regret waking up that morning and seeing the ratings from that first season, amazing. It’s been a journey with ups and downs but I’m very excited about what we’re going to have with the Conners in the fall, I think its going to be great.”

On the new show, after a sudden turn of events, the Conners are forced to face the daily struggles of life in Lanford in a way they never have before. This iconic family – Dan, Jackie, Darlene, Becky and D.J. – grapples with parenthood, dating, an unexpected pregnancy, financial pressures, aging and in-laws in working-class America. Through it all, the fights, the coupon cutting, the hand-me-downs, the breakdowns – with love, humor and perseverance, the family prevails.

And while ABC had a rocky experience on Roseanne, Dungey remains open to reboots, with some caveat.

“I don’t necessarily want to dive into rebooting for the sake of rebooting,” she said. “In the case of Roseanne, I felt there was a real story to tell there, and it was focusing on a segment of the population that was not being showcased on TV, and that was important to us. I’m certainly open to a reboot if something comes to me with the right creative or a spin on the creative that makes sense.”

 

Hmmm, 1o episodes, why not just make it 13 episodes?

 

John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, and Sara Gilbert (and Roseanne Barr) had a pay-or-play deal for the first ten episodes of the second season of the Roseanne reboot that gave them all a guaranteed $350,000 per episode, whether the episodes were filmed or not. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the new show’s episode order increase if the first few episodes do well.

 

Also, it's a double negative - he couldn't care less. Therefore, he could care more. Which is true.

 

Since it seems like they were already basically doing a Fuller House-style reboot (before Barr opened her stupid mouth on twitter), where the next generation of adults takes the center stage, I don't really see this as a bad thing.

 

“I couldn’t care less” is correct; “I could care less isn’t.”

 

Bad luck?

Are bookies in Vegas taking bets on how the show deals with Roseanne's absence? What are the odds on "Eaten by rabid wolverines"?

From the article AKA posted, I'm not getting a sense of a lot of heartbreak from the creative team on her no longer being part of the show.

 

Well, if you say it's cromulent then it's cromulent.

 

Its cromulence is embiggened by proper grammar.

 

"An unexpected pregnancy"? I bet that's Darlene, after her "reunion" with David last season.

 

It almost has to be, because isn’t Becky infertile? Maybe it’s DJ and his wife.

 

Unless it meant as an ellipses as in "I could not (possibly) care less than I do now."

 

Not at all a surprise, but still…

John Goodman Hints at the Fate of Roseanne Barr's Character on Spinoff

John Goodman Hints at Fate of Roseanne Barr's Character on 'The Conners'

9:15 AM PDT, August 27, 2018

Looks like John Goodman just let the cat out of the bag when it comes to what will happen to Roseanne Barr's character on Roseanne's spinoff, The Conners.

Roseanne was shockingly canceled in May, after Barr was fired due to a racist tweet against Valerie Jarrett, a former senior adviser to Barack Obama. In a new interview with The Sunday Times, Goodman -- who played Barr's onscreen husband on the show, Dan Conner -- says the cast will have a lot of work to do for the spinoff to be successful.

“It’s an unknown," he says, before referring to his beloved character, Dan, and what's to become of Barr's character. "I guess he’ll be mopey and sad because his wife’s dead.”

Goodman says he hasn't been in touch with 65-year-old Barr, but did thank her for clearing the way for The Conners to move forward with ABC.

“She had to sign a paper saying that she relinquished all her rights to the show so that we could go on," he shares. "I sent her an email and thanked her for that. I did not hear anything back, but she was going through hell at the time. And she’s still going through hell.”

He later remembers the good times he shared with the controversial comedian.

"We laughed our rear ends off," he says of their first audition together. "My whole existence was to see if I could get her to wet her pants.”

“She was a force of nature when it came to getting what she wanted,” he adds.

Goodman also reflects on what made Roseanne so successful in the first place.

“There’s not a lot of people scraping by on television,” the 66-year-old actor notes. “[The Conners] love each other very much and that’s what gets them through, the humor and the love.”

In the penultimate episode of the Roseanne revival, Roseanne revealed on the 45th anniversary of her and Dan's wedding that she was seriously addicted to painkillers as a result of a bad knee.

A synopsis for The Conners reads, "After a sudden turn of events, the Conners are forced to face the daily struggles of life in Lanford in a way they never have before. This iconic family -- Dan, Jackie, Darlene, Becky and D.J. -- grapples with parenthood, dating, an unexpected pregnancy, financial pressures, aging and in-laws in working-class America. Through it all, the fights, the coupon cutting, the hand-me-downs, the breakdowns -- with love, humor and perseverance, the family prevails."

Last month, Barr appeared on Fox News Channel's Hannity and commented on The Conners, and said ABC would "be so lucky" if the spinoff is anywhere near as successful as Roseanne was before it was canceled.

"I'd tell more jokes about myself than I do anybody else, because to me, comedy is very personal, and that's what makes it funny," she explained. "That's what made people like the Roseanne show -- because they saw themselves in [me], or have an aunt, or their mom or their sister, somebody in their family was, you know, a loud, outspoken woman who loved her family."

"That was what I brought to television and what kicked everybody's ass in the ratings," she continued. "[ABC] should be so lucky that they'll ever get anywhere near that. And they can't take that away from me, no matter what's happened."

As for Barr signing off on the spinoff despite getting fired, she said she didn't want to "try to argue or win."

"I thought it was part of the -- you know, what was put before me to do. What God puts before me, I do," she said. "I just do what's in front of me."

 

I thought maybe he’d win the lottery.

 

Can't wait for it to fail.

 

Yeah, you do have an audience that sees themselves in you. It's a shame for the rest of us, though.

 

from the pictures... the characters look old and depressing. I'll pass.

 

I hope they use one of the Police Squad! opening causes of death to kill Rosanne off.

 

Old? Well, John Goodman is 66... Depressing? Not to me. I very much enjoyed the new season of Roseanne and I'm looking forward to this, too.

 

OK

 

You do mean, "Can't wait for it this fall!", correct?

 

I thought last season was great ! I will still watch this but without Roseanne it might be a bit of a drag!

 

They ought to do it ala ‘Garfield Minus Garfield—‘ Keep the scripts as is and just delete the character.

 

I liked everyone on it except for Roseanne back in the day, so I might watch this...at least the first episode.