ABC Dumps ‘The Real Roseanne Show’

Roseanne Barr’s attempt to make a TV comeback has died a painful and pathetic death. On the heels of her comedienne’s announcement that she had scheduled a hysterectomy for August 19, ABC Family yanked their commitment to air Domestic Goddess, the cooking show that forms the foundation for The Real Roseanne Show airing on ABC. Now ABC has announced that they are canceling the reality show as well. And Roseanne, well she’s postponed the surgery until next week.

Ah, ABC, the evil network that cancelled Roseanne’s sitcom after it had finally lost all resemblance to its former self. Can you blame them? The reality show was supposed to document the making of the cooking show. Without Domestic Goddess, The Real Roseanne Show is about as valid as a lace tablecloth on a picnic table. And of course there are the ratings for the show, which have gone from bad to horrendous in the short two-week history of the show. Maybe it was too much reality! It certainly wasn’t entertaining.

The Real Roseanne Show was, in Roseanne’s words, a train wreck. Her interaction with friends, family and various hangers-on was schizoid at best, tyrannical at worst. Despite her constant references to her therapy and how much better she is, it is obvious that this woman is still just as crazy as ever. She seemed incapable of making a decision on her own and was constantly being led around by the nose by this band of sycophants that surrounded her. Watching this show, I had some serious mixed emotions ranging from total disgust to pity.

This disaster can only destroy what little credibility the woman had left and certainly is a blow to her obviously fragile sense of self-esteem. What makes it all so much worse is that her family and so-called friends were all part of this mess but were so intimidated by her that they lacked the chutzpah to clue her in that this show was heading for the dumper. Yes Roseanne, No Roseanne… it was enough to have me yelling at the TV screen. “Take some control,” I said, but still she wandered around as though she were in a coma most of the time.

Roseanne still has her supporters. All you have to do is go to her website and read some of the posts. These people are hanging on her too and are boo-hooing with her about this sad turn of events. Again, no one dares to say anything negative and if they do, she deletes their posts. “R,” a poster who is either Roseanne or someone very close to her, just can’t understand why this is happening. It’s sure no mystery to me!

Roseanne will survive this and undoubtedly, eventually she will try again. She’s had success in the past and it has to be difficult to have lost it. But maybe the next time, she’ll listen to someone who might see things differently and perhaps avoid another catastrophe. This debacle should have taught her that much.

Donna Reynolds is a freelance writer and technical writer from Syracuse, NY. You can e-mail her at dlrturtle@earthlink.net.

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