I worked at Carsey Werner late 80s to 2001 (Grace Under Fire/Cybill/Townies/Roseanne)

Was Tom Arnold actually sleeping with Roseanne, was it a romantic relationship or was it just an arrangement for him? It sounded insane when those two were running the tv show.

Do you like penguins?

Did Rosie’s pussy stink as bad as Tom Arnold said? He said she couldn’t reach down there to wash it.

I put Roseanne last as that was at very beginning of my time there and least knowledge of it, but AFAIK they were 100% together and not any arrangement. Tom was liked by people "on the ground" apparently but long gone by time I was there

Who is crazier-Roseanne or Brett Butler?

Was Molly Ringwald a cunt on Townies?

How "difficult" was Cybill?

How did they recast Quentin?

R5 Roseanne, not to anyone's surprise I am sure. Apparently not so much "crazy" as just dead/emotionless. Trying to explain but almost autistic in personal dealings/chats.

Whats Brett Butler like?

R6 Lovely. I met her a few times. I'm originally from Scotland and she told me right away she had been and her friend's dad was Scottish and had I heard of him? I said yes, we know him well ! (Donovan/Ione Skye)

R7 OK so in the office/studios when I was there late 94, Cybill was a big push and first year it won a Golden Globe and it was a hit. After it, Cybill bought everyone on the crew a watch with an engraving on the back with her name and year. That sounds a bit egotistical but she meant well. I liked Cybill! She told me about her sister who was a lesbian and very closeted until she was in her late 40s/50s as it was not the done thing for a "southern lady" to not be married etc. From my experience there Cybill and Christine Baranski actually got on OK . After any cut or end of scene they would chat on the sides and go back on for a retake. If they made a new season, I am sure Christine would have been there.

R8 don't remember had no knowledge of that but I remember they were retooling it as it was struggling. They were going to bring in a "sassy" black neighbour but after a few meetings/rehearsals the actress was out of there. Won't name names but "Jackie Washington" didn't have time for that and deserved her own show!

Any lowdown on the Cosby show?

Cybill’s lesbian sister. I’ve met her brother —he’s a neighbor of a friend—total weirdo.

R14 no nothing really, apart from his face was on the wall everywhere in the LA and London office. Completely get it, he was huge and was their first major hit but no joke, he was everywhere. Pictures in the lifts, on walls on all floors etc. Understandable though I guess.

R15 couldn't tell you anything about the brother but thanks for the link to her sister. Cybill was "gay friendly" maybe at a time when it was not so accepted like now. Maybe her sister was in mind when she became active LGBT wise, but I remember she spoke highly of her

How bad was the Cybill / Alicia Witt feud?

Did you have any interaction with Chuck Lorre either on the “Cybill” or “Grace Under Fire” sets/offices?

R19 yes, definitely a smart guy but in Scottish terms, he was "nippy" haha . He would say now that he "created" Cybill but it was her life HOWEVER.... he or they clearly watched some Absolutely Fabulous. Anyone here can see that. Any 1990s gay will get me. Cybill and Edina both worked in media/TV, the fabulous lush friend but even down to the small details - 2 ex husbands each etc. Anyway he did "create" it and it was his show and if Cybill maybe if she went with him more the show could have ran 8/9 years and everyone would have loved it and had the money but she definitely wanted to make it more female story led and maybe too serious and "heavy" for a sitcom. If she let Chuck Lorre run it, as i said, could have ran longer and made more money for everyone but she didn't like his tone and he went on and became even more successful anyway of course.

R18 if I or any crew/office told you who was harder to work with out of those two, you might be surprised....

Her mother was a big influence.

I read Alicia's parents both died in unusual circumstances recently and that's a shame

Hey, OP, what was Julie White like? How did she handle all the Brett Butler craziness?

Was Brett Butler really as bad as the rumors make her out to be? To me, Chuck Lorre seemed more to be an instigator than a victim. Did the incident where Brett flashed her pussy to the little boy who played her son really happen?

Building on the "Jackie Washington" mention, were there other actors or actresses who got away for whatever reason?

If you saw the CSI episode Lorre wrote, was he just being an asshole or accurately presenting a gestalt of Cybil, Roseanne, and Brett?

OP, what can you tell me about Alan Rosenberg? I thought he was sexy on "Cybill" in a rumpled, intellectual way.

[quote]Won't name names...

Why not? You said you were retired, so 'fuck 'em'

[quote] After it, Cybill bought everyone on the crew a watch with an engraving on the back with her name and year. That sounds a bit egotistical but she meant well.

Wasn't it also the name of the show, though, R12?

I always liked DeeDee Pfeiffer as Cybil's oldest daughter. How was she to work with?

What can you tell us about Casey Sander (Wade) on GUF? I thought he exuded a very easy and sexy charm.

I don't understand why you start to thread that says f*** them but then you're so coy with all your answers.

R23. Not OP. It was her tits that she flashed.

Ask me anything!

I may not answer, but ask me anything.

Dear OP—if you are going to invite people to “ask me anything,” it is necessary to stick around and answer the questions.

I'm not the OP, but I had dealings with Cybill when she was filming a movie in my city for a few weeks. She would eat at the restaurant next door (practically every night) with some cast and crew, and then wander into my store with three sheets to the wind. She was a hoot ! I think she felt it was her (drunken) duty to come to my store and share gossip with me every night after she had dinner. Best gossip was that 'everyone hated Oprah' but Hollywood kissed her ass because she had power at the time (2000s). No one wanted to go on her show, but everyone did to promote their movie / album / TV show / book - only because she had power to promote you and reached a huge audience. (She was already booked to go on Oprah in six months when her movie was slated to be released - and she was already regretting it). I truly enjoyed her visits - she was quite entertaining without being too nasty.

As for the OP saying Cybill could have run many more seasons, I believe it was Les Moonves who pulled the plug on the show - not because of low ratings (just the opposite), but because Cybill would not have an affair with him. Cybill talked about this a few years ago after Moonves lost his job at CBS during the 'metoo' movement. It had nothing to do with any of the stars, the cast, the crew, etc. It was Moonves.

[quote]so coy with all your answers.

I was thinking very demure, very mindful.

That’s rich, because Oprah would boast about how she felt Cybill was the only one who was honest about how her beauty gave her a leg up in her career.

I always thought Cybill got a bad rap. I do think she could be a real handful, especially after reading the Moonlighting book, but that Cybill cast in general seemed like it was a hotbed of dysfunction from the word go.

Any gossip about Home Improvement? I remember the rumors that Patricia Richardson was threatening to quit the show at one point because she was unhappy with her character. Richard Karn was such a hunky bear.

R28 Yes, you are right I guess, She could have got it without the name but it was a nice gesture that was not common. I remember they assumed Friends would win so it was a genuine shock and maybe why she went and did that.

R19 R23 Chuck Lorre I am sure does not need the money or the attention that it would bring, but I can see why he never wrote an autobiography thus far because if he told the truth he couldn't paint them all to be crazy bitches while he was the innocent put upon guy. Although I am pretty sure on Roseanne he probably was the lesser evil!

R31 No fair enough, you are right. OK the black neighbour on Grace Under Fire was going to be Jenifer Lewis but didn't happen.

Yes Brett Butler did indeed flash that young actor but her issues are obviously common knowledge. Again, like Cybill not a monster, just very troubled and being so famous was probably not good for her. Julie White was lovely but I remember she literally phoned up and just said i'm out, not coming back. No warning, not at end of her contract just gone. I think she basically said sue me if you want but i cant do this.

R29 Dedee was nice but definitely think there were cocaine or drugs issues at that time. Often late, or even not there for table reads etc.

R26 He did not like Cybill much and felt the show was a bit beneath him I think. Like Christine, he preferred theatre or saw himself as more a theatre person but obviously he stayed until the end and would have been back for more. Quite quiet guy but he liked it more when they had a studio audience. I think the first year or first 2 years maybe there was no audience, it was all canned laughter but then they did do it with an audience the last year or two. He liked interacting with them

Was it her full name on the watch or just Cybill so like you know the name of the show they all had just won for and would probably be expected to be engraved as such.

What was with that short gelled back hair Brett sported in the last episodes? That just made her inability to deliver lines seem worse.

R24 Bruce Willis was going to guest on Cybill but didn't happen but I am sure the script was written. Also Christopher Masterson was going to join or had the part but it something happened and his brother Danny ended up doing it.

Did you ever have any interactions with Alan autry and what did you think of him. Grace under fire was right about when I started really forming crushes on men and he was one of the first. I was usually babysitting at home on Wednesdays while my mom was out to bingo or the bar and usually watched Grace under fire and thought he was so f****** hot.

My favorite episode of Cybill is when Christine Baranski drops by after a date, Cybill is already in bed but she tells CB not to leave her date standing around downstairs so he comes up and it’s Tony Bennett.

I remember reading about that in Cybill's book, R43, that they wanted Bruce to appear as David Addison (his Moonlighting character). Later, I think he was also considered when they nearly had Dr. Dick appear.

I've heard Brett on a couple of podcasts and she clearly has a story to tell. Someone needs to get to her and tell her she has to go the Kathy Griffin post-Trump bloody mask tour route. Brett has a lot of fans who want to hear her story.

There have been stories that Roseanne and John Goodman were on the outs the last couple of years of Roseanne. Any truth to that? And that after Tom left, Roseanne practically became impossible to deal with on the set. Lecy's return didn't even last a full season.

Roseanne has always been a seriously mentally ill woman with rage issues. Working with her was tough for everybody.

R49 Roseanne was the textbook example of how 'bad behavior' gets rewarded, and 'good, professional behavior' does not. And that's where we are today. Disgusting.

OP, what did Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner do in regard to Roseanne's, Cybil's, Brett's or any other misbehavior? Did they try to 'fix' the individuals or the situation or did they simply ignore bad behavior?

r40 - He was Yale School of Drama after all. He was enamored of Meryl. I didn't realize that he and Marg were divorced.

Why did Leci leave in the first place? I read a rumor, probably on here, about something with some producer.

[quote]Lecy's return didn't even last a full season.

She did return for the full 8th season, which was intended to be the final season. But then Roseanne decided to go one more year and Lecy (and I assume Goodman) weren’t fully available so they only appeared in limited capacity the final lottery winning season

Who Jackie?

How did a pro like Metcalf manage to navigate the insanity for so long?

^^The huge paychecks helped a lot. People will put up with a LOT of bullshit if they're making a ton of $$$.

Did people on the show know what a bad idea it was when Roseanne had her character win the lottery? She completely doubled down when people criticized it and the ratings dropped precipitously, but she must have known it was a disaster pretty quickly, and I'm sure most of the people must have known it would be horrible even before it was implemented.

Why did the Carsey/Werner team like working so much with stand-up comedians with complex and pronounced emotional issues? I know it made them a lot of money, but each of these shows is notorious for having crazy control freaks with enormous social issues as the star and the boss.

Laurie Metcalf was primarily a theatre actress before Roseanne and theatre doesn't pay jack shit compared to television, esp. network television.

[quote] stand-up comedians with complex and pronounced emotional issues? I know it made them a lot of money, but each of these shows is notorious for having crazy control freaks with enormous social issues as the star and the boss.

True. Stand-up comedians are almost always very damaged people with tons of issues. Ellen Degeneres being a prime example.

Just say it, you liked me more anyways!

Carsey/Werner worked with a lot of assholes, but I know someone who worked with Brett Butler's representation and of all of them, she seems like she was, generally speaking, a decent human being who was, unfortunately, had mental health issues. Seems like she started to become more manic/bipolar (plus had more severe addiction issues) somewhere between the end of S2 and the middle of S3.

Yes, Moonves was part of the impetus behind Cybill's cancellation as well as getting Linda Bloodworth Thomason off the network. See link - Linda BT wrote a scathing takedown of Moonves and he deserved every bit.

I always thought Casey Sander was sex on legs but I think he's a right winger, sadly.

Amazing Julie Chen still married to him. Was the prenup that unfavorable to her?

She has no talent, R63

R63 Some people stick it out til the kid(s) are 18. Their son turns 15 next month. Plus, he's 74; maybe inheritance looks better than dividing things now.

Young Peter Krause was adorable on Cybill.

R62 Who was the actress:

“Soon, I would hear how he had invited a famous actress to lunch in the CBS dining room. Coming off the cancellation of her iconic detective show, the star began pitching a new one. He informed her that she was too old to be on his network. She began to cry and stood up to go. He stood up too, taking her by the shoulders and telling her, “I can’t let you leave like this.” She reacted, suddenly touched. Then he shoved his tongue down her throat. I know this happened because the star is the person who told me.”

People in the past understood that difficult, mentally unstable people had brilliance, now we think pharmaceutically lobotomized, sarcastic SSRI girlies with stilted delivery are GIVING and should be boss babes in charge of our media! Yassss! Hence why most entertainment is stagnant and boring.

r67: it was Angela Lansbury just after the cancellation of [italic]Murder, She Wrote.[/italic]

[quote]Coming off the cancellation of her iconic detective show.

Angela Lansbury.

I hope Dame Angela kneed him in the balls.

Score any hot B list dick?

R4 something isn’t adding up. Tom Arnold didn’t join the show until the early to mid 90s.

Whoa. I had no idea how awful Les Moonves was. I thought he was a garden variety sexual harrasser/abuser. He was downright sadistic. How much abuse has Chen put up with?

That’s Julie Chen MOONVES to you, bitch.

R67 we discussed that when the article came out and it was most likely Sharon Gless, who'd just had The Trials of Rosie Whatsersnatch cancelled at CBS not long before that time period.

As hilarious as everyone thought it was to say so, I doubt very much fortysomething Moonves was macking on seventysomething Angela Lansbury.

[quote]How much abuse has Chen put up with?

I don't picture her as abused, especially after she introduced the first Big Brother back as Julie Chen Moonves with particular emphasis on the Moonves..

It's funny because she used to always rip Camille Cosby apart whenever they discussed the Cosby case on The Talk for being an enabling spouse and how she was worse than Bill. Maybe projection?

[quote] As hilarious as everyone thought it was to say so, I doubt very much fortysomething Moonves was macking on seventysomething Angela Lansbury.

Thanks for making that known, Captain Obvious.

[quote]I always thought Casey Sander was sex on legs but I think he's a right winger, sadly.

Not the OP but I knew Casey before he got the role. He was conservative in a live-and-let-live good-ole-boy way; no idea if he's now a Trumper. He either played for the California Angels or their farm team for a few years. When I knew him he was a bartender at the PCH restaurant Gladstone's and no doubt getting plenty of surfer girl tail. Nice enough guy.

OP here R67 and R76 is correct it was Sharon Gless who was really cool when I met her. She was "a broad" as you would say over there! And a great actress

R73 - Arnold showed up in S2.

[quote] Why did Leci leave in the first place? I read a rumor, probably on here, about something with some producer.

Howard Stern asked Roseanne about this (Leci getting involved with a producer). Roseanne said "wow, you have good sources," or something similar. I.e., Roseanne confirmed what Howard alleged.

So, that's a definitive answer. No need for coy OP.

R70 OP here, Angela Lansbury and Cybill were friends. Don't know what that surprised me at the time but actual good friends.

A very annoying thread

I thought Leci Goranson went away to school? I can’t recall the name. Something in New York?

R84 mate sorry ,thought people might like some of this on here of all places (which I love to visit). Sorry to annoy you but just giving some experience!

You are excused from the table, r84.

R58 OP here sorry catching up. I know Marcy was just done. Didn't bother them that Roseanne was going off piste and creating some crazy episodes, they just wanted out. From what I know/heard of Roseanne she was clearly nuts but of all people, Laurie Metcalf liked her. They were proper friends. That might by why Laurie went back for the reboot but i've never seen it or the Conners.

You were specifically asked what was the nature of the dispute between Cybil Shepard and Alicia Witt.

You answered "some people say it might have been the mother..... Didn't she like die"

Vague, simpering bs.

Shit or get off the pot.

Roseanne has borderline personality disorder. She should have been sectioned decades ago.

I think a lot of the crazy was put up with because not only were they making a lot of money but these shows were pretty well acclaimed and what actor would turn down that kind of praise while also making buckets of money. I mean to be an actor requires a lot of ego and I can only imagine how it feels when you're part of a show like Roseanne that was constantly being lauded as a real and fresh look at what it was like to be lower middle class in America.

[quote] Roseanne was going off piste

What now?

R66 oh yes listen, he was lovely but another person who I think thought it was beneath him somehow. His part was not a main character but at least you are working. He had a thing with Alicia which I think is already known but he got on well with everyone else, no big drama

Roseanne no longer speaks to Laurie or John. Roseanne was trashing John as a cokehead and threatening to tell all of his secrets before the reboot happened. Laurie and John should have said no the reboot.

[quote]A very annoying thread

[quote]You were specifically asked what was the nature of the dispute between Cybil Shepard and Alicia Witt.

[quote]You answered "some people say it might have been the mother..... Didn't she like die"

LoL, r89, this thread isn't the one for you. Take your rancor somewhere else.

[quote]Vague, simpering bs.

[quote]Shit or get off the pot.

Done with your simple ass

R89 You answered "some people say it might have been the mother..... Didn't she like die"

Certainly didn't say that?!

No major feud but Alicia was not that liked. Talented yes but her mother was very active . Dont want to say "stage mother" but that type. I read recently they died frozen and alone. A shame. I didn't say "Didn't she like die" haha.

R94 OP here, have not seen the reboot but I know Laurie and Roseanne were close, for a time at least.

I watched the reboot but when Roseanne was fired I tried two eps of the Conners and gave up. As fucking crazy as she is, Roseanne made that show.

[quote] No major feud but Alicia was not that liked. Talented yes but her mother was very active .

So, Katherine Heigl before Katherine Heigl?

Rose Hovick wasn't even the first, r100.

Roseanne was fine with everyone until she was fired, then she started lashing out against John, Laurie M and especially Sara "Lez Be Friends" Gilbert.

Was Roseanne going to out Goodman?

If so, someone must have convinced her it would harm her more than him.

I agree that as crazy as she was Roseanne made that show. The Conners is a drag with Roseanne’s ghost hanging over the proceedings

I know I'm in the minority but I don't think what Roseanne did made her the Antichrist or something, and made a lot of people infuriated. I'm not a fan of Roseanne the person but the Tweet wasn't worth getting canceled over, imho. She claims she didn't know Plame was black.

It was the last in a series of problematic tweets that she'd sent. She had agreed with ABC that she'd turn her Twitter over to her children and broke the agreement.

She did it to herself.

Yes she did a stupid thing but I don't think it should've gotten her canceled.

Again, she'd done it repeatedly. She finally went too far.

FAFO.

Did you have the pleasure of interacting with a young Ben Browder when he guest starred on Grace Under Fire?

R63, r64. Asian. Yep I said it. They are loyal as fuck.

VOTN is right.

If that had been the first time she'd tweeted something or said something that veered into that territory, she MIGHT have gotten away with a slap on the wrist.

But she was already on thin ice when they revived the show. Her team was begging her not to text. She did it anyway.

I agree, R108. She had been getting away with shit for a long, long time, and it was time to see that she wasn't untouchable. I like to think that there were plenty of former or long-time Carsey Werner/ABC executives who ordered champagne that day.

I’ve always thought S10 of Roseanne was set up to kill her off if she did something like that Tweet she made. They gave her knee problems needing surgery and a drug habit. There were episodes that almost seemed to foreshadow her death. I think she was on thin ice.

Haven't they in fact told her that one more slip up and she was gone and that's why she went to the office to beg them not to fire her because she knew but she had crossed the line one time too many.

She was fired because she embarrassed her employers, r107. Stop banging on about cancel culture like Roseanne is the victim of an elaborate conspiracy. This isn't a David Brooks column from 2021. You too, r105.

No one said she was the victim of a conspiracy.

It’s sad to me about Laurie and Roseanne as they were friends for 30 years until the tweet thing happened

Let us not forget "Downwardly Mobile" a failed 2012 sitcom co-created by Roseanne & Eric Gilliland, co-starring John Goodman. Not a Carsey-Werner production (though it filmed at Radford) . Point is that they were willing to work together in 2012.

[quote]Coming off the cancellation of her iconic detective show, the star began pitching a new one.

I remember Sharon Gless wrote about this in detaul in her memoir "Apparently There Were Complaints" from a few years ago. He ended up canceling her show 'Trials of Rosie O'Neill' after two seasons and solid ratings. Les Moonves wanted to have an affair with her, despite knowing her husband for years, and being quite friendly with the couple.

It's disgusting how one person can have that much power in the Industry. Moonves was such a monster.

R120

"Love One Another."

She had a long history of tweeting inflammatory stuff before the revival even happened R108

ABC was stupid for thinking a mentally ill woman with no self control was all of a sudden going to do a 180. They’re just as much to blame.

True r122. If you're going to give Roseanne a show you'll have to expect that she'll bring the crazy. She was fucking nuts all the time on her original show. Did they think she'd change?

Roseanne could de-crazy in those early days, though.

She made a lot of wild claims against her family, but I think initially most people thought they might be true, since her behavior tracked with what an abuse victim might do.

She was also not terrible political early on.

It was later years, once she got involved with the Green Party and then went more right wing, that her more wild remarks started getting darker and more ugly.

Was Delta Burke difficult? Did the other ladies get along? What about Dixie Carter and Jean Smart?

R124, she claimed she remembered what happened when she was 1 1/2 and her father molesting her while changing her diaper.

R126 And then years later, she retracted her 'memories' and said none of it was true, and blamed her therapist for making her 'believe' it really happened. By then, no one gave a shit about any of it.

[quote] It’s sad to me about Laurie and Roseanne as they were friends for 30 years until the tweet thing happened

I gotta say, I lose a little respect for Laurie Metcalfe reading about her friendship with Roseanne. During the original run Roseanne was a bully to the writing staff and others in production who didn't align with her vision for the show. Her behavior back then is well documented. Even if I acknowledge that Roseanne had mental problems back then I have a hard time respecting someone who wants to surround themselves with such an unpleasant and spiteful person.

R122 The Roseanne reboot was pulling in unprecedented numbers for scripted television. Something like close to 20 million viewers a week. Money talks. I’m just saying.

Unprecedented in this day and age I’m saying.

R123 I doubt they thought she would be blatantly racist and then tweet about it. It’s not just the tweet. Roseanne got the original creator of the show fired after 13 episodes during season 1. Can you imagine how problematic she is from day to day filming and what not. The tweet was the last straw.

R128. So you never had a friend who was an asshole? That somehow you just became their friend but you realize over time they are complete pieces of shit. I know I have. I’m human. And at some point you cut that friend off just as Laurie did.

OP, I was at Grace Under Fire's final wrap party. I worked at the venue, which hosted several Carsey-Werner wrap parties. That was a weird one. It had been cancelled, Brett's problems well-publicized. She arrived an hour or two into the party, alone...and then sat a table in the bar, alone, watching crew members sing Karaoke. She smiled, clapped along, and offered a high-five as singers left the stage...which they returned. But no one spoke to her, or sat with her. She stayed maybe an hour.

That sounds pretty sad, r133.

R76 I thought she was coming off an "iconic detective show"?

[quote] So you never had a friend who was an asshole? That somehow you just became their friend but you realize over time they are complete pieces of shit.

Not for thirty years, no. In terms of realization, I would have that when she starts humiliating writers at the table-read thirty years ago. Roseanne wasn't an asshole just recently. She openly bullied people rather early on during the show's original one. Roseanne being an ass wasn't a hidden secret. If the story is true Metcalfe befriended Roseanne at that time, and the friendship continued for thirty years before it broke down. If you call Roseanne your friend for thirty years I'm wondering what's wrong with you, too.

R136 I take it you don’t have very many friends. And no shade but it’s hard to explain if you aren’t a social person.

R137 I agree with R136. If it takes 30 years to realize someone you know is a POS you're not very perceptive or you're the type of person who can ignore the other person's behavior to others because they're nice to you.

R138 No but I know people and you don’t know what other variables were involved. Life is not so black and white. You don’t know what lies Roseanne told maybe about being on drugs, or an abusive marriage to explain away her bad behavior. Things are not so simple like some you introverts like to think. I’m actually an introvert, I’m just a social one. Furthermore I could never judge someone unless they committed a truly heinous crime. One of the tenets of being Christian is not to judge because you don’t know the makeup of that person’s heart. Only God knows that and has the wherewithal to make such a judgment.

R139 I'm not an introvert. I know plenty of people. Sorry, that was my opinion and I'm stickin' to it.

R140. Cool beans. We can agree to disagree. Happy Sunday.

When Morgan Fairchild says pretty much the whole cast acted like assholes to you, doesn’t say much about people like Metcalf anyway. They were probably all pretty far up their own asses by that point.

R139 By the way, I wasn't referring to you, I only was talking about Laurie Metcalfe and Roseanne. Re-reading what I wrote I don't think that may have been clear.

The way they fucked Roseanne out of residuals and rights was a predatory business move that took advantage of the insane political climate at the time.

Fuck Roseanne R144. She's got plenty of money and she needs a good deal if to get treated for mental health. Where the fuck is her family?

R145 you’re nasty and full of hate.

The big surprising thing is that Roseanne got canceled as she is…

Spare me, R146. She's a vile cunt. Any sympathy I once had for her is gone.

Somebody can be a cunt and still get fucked out of residuals and rights and it's not still ok.

ABC was predatory in that situation, I don’t care what she did or anyone thinks.

Roseanne cooking in a dingy, ugly kitchen and her son referring to the "Libtards". Vile family.

She had a choice when she waived the right to residuals. She could have kept the rights to the characters and the show would have been canceled right there. Or she could get a one-time payment. Considering that The Conners were not guaranteed to become a success without her, Roseanne took the money and ran. Had The Conners be a failure and been canceled within its first season, her lump sum would have been a great deal.

Lecy didn’t appear in all of the season 8 episodes and Chalke filled in for her a few time (when they end to Disney world for example) but Chalke came back full time as Becky in season 9 as Goranson and the rest of the cast thought it would be the final season.

Season 8 was to start with Dan and Roseanne having one last hurrah before their daughter was born. They were going to go to a Grateful Dead concert and Roseanne would go into labor and give birth at an outdoor dead show. Jerry Garcias death derailed that so it got changed to that horrible Halloween episode where a Jerry Garcia ghost appears.

Lecy had an affair with a married crew member that started when she was 16 and it ended badly and led to her leaving the show after the 4th season. She went to Vassar and the show was willing to work around her schedule like they did with Sara Gilbert a year later but she didn’t budge and only did a few guest appearances in season 5.

NYT magazine or the New Yorker did a feature on Goodman because he was appearing in a broadway show. The article quoted Tom Arnold who was noted as being one of goodmans closest friends. Nothing about Roseanne at all, but she went ballistic going off on Goodman and tweeting about him having a drug problem on the show and being nasty on the set. She quickly deleted the tirade and Goodman stayed loyal to her and never said a word about her and worked with her on the downwardly mobile pilot.

Roseanne wanted a season 10 in 1997 with her and DJ leaving Lanford and moving to a trailer park on Las Vegas. The network passed.

She will never admit to it but the Tom Arnold years were the best years of the show. When Ben Thomas took her to court after they divorced asking that she pay more towards their sons travel from Hawaii for visitation it was noted that Roseanne was getting a minimum of $500k a month from residuals alone from the show.

I am of two minds about Laurie Metcalf. Maybe she genuinely liked Roseanne and agreed with her point of view, regardless of how insane others may have thought it to be. Or, maybe Laurie is a theatre actress who wanted to make a lot of money, so she has enough money to do theatre and other special projects that didn't pay as well, so she played the game.

Laurie is a Yassss Kween Icon that has been lionized and deified by brats. They’re blind to any flaws and think she doesn’t poop.

I know this isn't a Roseanne thread, but what happened to their son Jerry Garcia? Was he retconned as non-existent, or has he appeared on The Conners?

[quote]I’m actually an introvert, I’m just a social one.

Introverts aren’t social.

R156, I think he was basically retconned as non-existent. Same with Jackie’s kid. They may have been mentioned on the season where Roseanne initially returned but have been ignored on The Conners. I haven’t watched every episode of the revival or spin-off so I could be mistaken but since they couldn’t even figure out what to do with DJ’s adult character I can’t imagine they’d spend time developing 2 barely remembered babies from the later, lesser seasons of the original show

How did the original show end? I didn't make it past S2.

Any interesting gossip about 3rd Rock from the Sun?

[quote]How did the original show end?

It ends up that the show had been taking place in a snow globe.

OP hasn’t contributed much to this thread, unless I’m missing something.

[quote] I doubt they thought she would be blatantly racist and then tweet about it.

That's crap. Roseanne made her Susan Rice racist "ape balls" comment a couple of years before the reboot. She also did the offensive Hitler photoshoot for a magazine that generated a lot of media controversy around the same time.

She had a well-documented history of racism, antisemitism and transphobia for years, so if ABC didn't think she would do anything offensive, shame on them.

But like another poster said, money talks, and the idea of reboot of one of their biggest shows was too much $ to resist.

No one is an innocent party in any of that.

R163 Roseanne is a Jew, dumbass.

Seinfeld and Larry David (Curb) have done Hitler humor too. Jews laugh at lots of things and ourselves.

I know I'm probably in the minority, and I know that it doesn't make it right what she said, but I believe Roseanne when she said that she didn't know that Susan Rice was black.

[quote]r164 = Seinfeld and Larry David (Curb) have done Hitler humor too

Did it involve an oven and dressing like Hitler?

Metcalf, no second e.

Just like Newsom, no second e.

[quote]I know I'm probably in the minority, and I know that it doesn't make it right what she said, but I believe Roseanne when she said that she didn't know that Susan Rice was black.

It wasn't the Susan Rice comment that got her booted, it was one about Valerie Jarrett.

And the fact that she'd already made a racist tweet about Susan Rice just shows there's a pattern.

Don't forget, she tried to blame Ambien.

R166 damn you’re searching

[quote] Lecy had an affair with a married crew member that started when she was 16 and it ended badly and led to her leaving the show after the 4th season.

Yep, I think that's what happened.

[quote]Seinfeld and Larry David (Curb) have done Hitler humor too.

The Curb Your Enthusiasm with the swastika pillowcase was one of the funniest things they ever did.

Roseanne was Laurie Metcalfe's employer. It's a workplace "friendship" and Survivor-type alliance. If you've every worked in a dysfunctional workplace with a shitty boss, you've observed this dynamic. Seemingly OK/cool people (Metcalfe) will align themselves with the boss in order to be more comfortable in their own jobs. Does it make you lose respect for that person (Metcalfe)? Yes. Does it make you lose trust? Yes.

It sounds like R164 is saying mainly Jews were victims of Hitler, so they have a right to decide what can be mocked or not. Hitler started WWII, he caused the suffering of millions and millions, not just Jews. Roseanne doesn't get a pass because she's Jewish.

R173 Amen.

R173 you don’t understand how the Jewish community works. Obviously she does get a pass because that’s not what got her cancelled, it was saying something about a POC.

The hitler photoshoot she did was for a Jewish satirical magazine called Heeb.

The last two seasons of Roseanne saw her becoming the highest paid woman in show business. Not television, but all of entertainment.

1. **Seasons 1-2 (1988-1990)**: Roseanne Barr initially earned about $40,000 per episode.

2. **Season 3 (1990-1991)**: Her salary increased to approximately $60,000 per episode.

3. **Season 4 (1991-1992)**: Barr's pay was around $75,000 per episode.

4. **Season 5 (1992-1993)**: She earned approximately $100,000 per episode.

5. **Season 6 (1993-1994)**: Her salary rose to about $125,000 per episode.

6. **Season 7 (1994-1995)**: Roseanne Barr was making around $150,000 per episode.

7. **Season 8 (1995-1996)**: Her pay increased to approximately $200,000 per episode.

8. **Season 9 (1996-1997)**: Barr earned about $250,000 per episode.

OP, what football team do you support?

Da Bears

Damn, I was so out of it. I thought she'd only commented about Valerie Jarret. But Susan Rice, too?

They're both highly accomplished women from well-educated and connected upper-middle class families. I think Roseanne's lower class envy shines through. It's the same envy that powers unaccomplished white Trump supporters, regardless of their income. They see themselves as the "rightful" inheritors to the keys of the Kingdom for no other reason than mere Caucasianness.

Nope. Doesn't work that way. They don't like a Meritocracy because deep down they know how lucky they got despite themselves.

[quote]I think Roseanne's lower class envy shines through

You can't buy class.

R178 according to her Memori she was making a million dollars a season for season 8 and 9

There is something with Roseanne because even like the early 2010s she was still a liberal. Y’all remember her support for Trayvon Martin and then her crazy ass tweeted George Zimmerman’s address. I think she is just the greatest troll in show business.

I think the MAGA movement is very appealing to the mentally ill, and she's one of many.

R185 you are on to something. The Maga movement is also very appealing to anybody who feels like they got the short end of the stick, in very quantifiable ways. It’s the reason why Trump is the first Repub in centuries to poll in double digits with black males. You aren’t just going to erase 50 years of conservative racism but something about Trump appeals to those who feel they have been slighted in like a pathological way. White males- Dam immigrants took out job or over educated Muslims are buying our property, Black men — black woman has been put a on a pedestal by the white man and therefore I can’t get ahead.

I watched the recent comedy special on Brett Butler (It's on Youtube, but now you have to pay for it).

It got so bad towards the end of Grace that they weren't even trying to sober Brett up anymore, they just threw her out there for taping. The last episode she was so fucked up the director and staff decided to stop taping and leave the show as was. The episode doesn't even run 20 minutes, and that's with five minutes of bloopers padding the show out so it could be aired.

Brett Butler's stand up was very funny and had no relation to her sitcom.

The premise of her sitcom was ill-suited for her, imho. She didn't have kids and her stand up was not kid-friendly at all. She was a single woman from the Deep South who moved to NYC and had a gay/camp sensibility to her humor. A sitcom that was true to her real life woudl've been much better.

r187...

If she's so rich why does her kitchen in that video look like it's in a suburban split level home from the 70s?

I found the final Grace Under Fire episode here. Brett Butler looks and sounds like shit.

Poor Julia Duffy. She couldn't save Grace any more than she could save Sugarbaker designs.

R183 If she was making $1M per season for season 8 and 9 (according to her memoir), then she was making only $40,000 per episode - which is what she was making when she first started in Season 1.

The first scene of the final GUF episode (in the drugstore) looks like they couldn't even persuade her to get her greasy hair brushed or, indeed, get out of her street clothes and into costume.

Apparently they were adding Julia Duffy to bring some professionalism and stability, but it was far too late. Has Julia ever commented on that?

Come to think of it, I'd love to see her do an audience Q&A "A Chat With Julia Duffy" in metro areas with a good percentage of gay men. It'd be a hit.

[quote]Come to think of it, I'd love to see her do an audience Q&A "A Chat With Julia Duffy" in metro areas with a good percentage of gay men. It'd be a hit.

I say this with love, but there aren't enough eldergays.

And we'd have to launder our good caftans.

And most of us don't care.

Julia Duffy needs a Jean Smart career renaissance (to be fair, she's much more limited than Smart)!

OP is a fraud. We are answering our own questions. There is not a dribble of good tea on this thread.

[quote]Julia Duffy needs a Jean Smart career renaissance (to be fair, she's much more limited than Smart)!

Not to mention half her size.

Coming to a college town near you ... Julia & Judith, a two-woman show with the ladies Duffy & Ivey, dishing about the last two years of Designing Women. They pay tribute to Jan Hooks, Alice Ghostley and Meshach Taylor, but not necessarily Dixie Carter.

[quote] Julia Duffy needs a Jean Smart career renaissance (to be fair, she's much more limited than Smart)!

She had a fun if bizarro part on Palm Royale this past season.

[quote] They pay tribute to Jan Hooks, Alice Ghostley and Meshach Taylor, but not necessarily Dixie Carter.

I have a feeling Dixie told them that their mops stank, and that she wasn't going to stand for it.

I binged Newhart and holy shit, Julia Duffy was brilliant. So great with her lines but still managed to make Stephanie lovable. interesting that they got rid of the unlikable Kirk and added Duffy who might have been the same but was such a strong actress that she really made the show.

I'm the map of Datalounge.

Adding Duffy to 'Designing Women' was a great example of how to completely ruin a great show. And if that wasn't enough, replacing her with Ivey is the best example of how to ruin it further.

Great documentary on the set of "Roseanne" in 1992. You can almost taste the cocaine.

Jean Smart does the voice over on a health care site.

Roseanne started becoming unraveled during the 2008 election. She was a big Hillary supporter and turned on her after she took a position in his administration.

Her parents and siblings all passed lie detector tests after she made the abuse allegations. She patched things up with her mother and siblings but her father never forgave her and would have nothing to do with her.

Her allegations of sexual abuse came at least a decade before the 2008 election during that phase when crackpot therapists pushed the idea of "recovered memories." Her claim was that her father sexually abused her during infancy while she was in her crib.

Her anger towards her family and her mental problems likely stem from this incident.

[QUOTE]At age 16, however, Barr was hit by a car, and the car's hood ornament impaled her skull; the incident left her with a traumatic brain injury.[9] Her behavior changed so radically that she was institutionalized for eight months at Utah State Hospital.[13][14]

Off topic (sorry) but Julia Duffy's son Danny Lacy killed himself at age 29 in 2019. He jumped off the Cold Spring Canyon Bridge in Santa Barbara County. She has one other child, a daughter. Their dad's Jerry Lacy who played Reverend Trask in Dark Shadows (and Humphrey Bogart in a Woody Allen movie.)

Sad.

That last part must always be mentioned when discussing Roseanne, r209.

My mom absolutely hated Roseanne like loathed her. I always wondered if somehow they might have known each other either because my mom grew up in the same area or the fact that she also was institutionalized at the same hospital in her teen years and they're about the same age.

Has the practice ended yet of reviving old sitcoms?

^ Oh just wait. I'm sure New Blossom is just around the corner.

Why would OP bother when this thread, like all threads on here at this point, gets hijacked and turned into a Trump thread? Also, for the snowflakes on this page, Sasha Baron Cohen used Hitler and ovens to make a fantastic rip on stage parents in Bruno. Yes, Jews do get special dispensation to use holocaust humor. You don’t get to change the rules of comedy when your own balls drop, children. Jews in particular have traditionally used humor to deal with oppression. If R/173 and R/174 have their way, victims will be revictimized constantly by having their ability to speak through satire completely “cancelled.” The current hand-off of power from the greedy soulless boomers to their clueless faux-liberal millennial children is painful.

R215 Don't use a slash between the R and the post number. It won't be seen in notifications. I was talking about R164 and how he seemed to think that the problem was just between Jews and Hitler and no one else and Hitler. I mean how many non-Jewish Americans or people of other countries died fighting Hitler or because of Hitler? I guess you either get it or not.

[quote]I'm sure New Blossom is just around the corner.

"Blossom, you're so beautiful."

R210 I remember reading that.....very sad for Julia.

I liked Roseanne when I first saw her as a stand-up comedienne in the 80s on Johnny Carson and her HBO special, when she called herself a 'domestic goddess' who hated cooking and cleaning. She was actually funny back then. I don't think (for me) it transitioned as well for her into a sitcom star.

But the late 80s / 90s is when the big push was to turn stand up comics into sitcom actors, with varying degrees of success. I think 'Seinfeld' was the clear winner (#1 in the ratings forever, and surrounded by a talented cast), 'Roseanne', 'Ellen DeGeneres in 'These Friends of Mine' and the revamped 'Ellen', 'Grace Under Fire', 'Home Improvement', etc.

My mom used to watch Blossom but when I mentioned it to her years later she had NO recollection of it at all, even after I described it in detail (she had no memory issues).

R191 God, she was slurring so much, I could barely make out any of her dialogue.

R214 More Ted Wass? You say that like it’s a bad thing.

Your only post, r215?

r151 That video shows that Roseanne uses Penzy's spices, which are the superior spices, but it's a very liberal company. Interesting.

The Larry Sanders storyline where he finds Roseanne attractive was absurd, drug addiction or not.

R205, Julia Duffy is a very good actress, and Judith Ivey is a superb one. Blaming them is silly. Blame the writers, who saddled Duffy with a charmless character whom everyone else on the show actively hated (Delta Burke's character annoyed everyone, but it was repeatedly made clear that they all loved Suzanne at heart) and gave Ivey an equally ill-conceived character who didn't make sense as a regular.

R214, Seriously? What have you heard?

Was there deliberate decision to make Darlene the cuntiest character ever on television or was it simply because Sarah Gilberts incapable of portraying anything but. She didn't seem to have one single redeeming quality and it got worse and worse throughout the series.

Sara Gilbert admitted in an interview a while back that she bullied the original DJ that was in the pilot, and the parents were so pissed they went to the network brass to complain. Unfortunately, the actor grew a lot during the hiatus, so it was decided to let him go and bring in Michael Fishman. Gilbert realized she had to make nice with the new DJ or she was the next one fired.

I HATED how they made Darlene and David into some big couple. They had zero chemistry with each other, and it got to a point where there was no reason why they had to keep breaking up and getting back together.

Most everything after season five was terrible to be honest.

Sara Gilbert was such an obvious lesbian it was ridiculous for them to pair her with a male love interest.

Yes I know network television was not ready for a lesbian relationship back in those days, but Gilbert was so dykey her being with a man looked unbelievable.

[quote]Sara Gilbert was such an obvious lesbian it was ridiculous for them to pair her with a male love interest.

Johnny Galecki isn't exactly the most butch guy.

If Darlene/Sara G. had to be paired up with a male, someone as schlumpy as David made perfect sense.

I liked Darlene and David.

It made a lot more sense than the rest con where Darlene was with Mark and Becky was with David. That was incredibly stupid and insulting yo the audience who had invested in these characters.

I think Julia Duffy is an underrated actress. I watched a couple of seasons of Newhart once Bob Newhart died and she makes Stephanie vulnerable and appealing, which would not be an easy task. It’s a crime she never won an Emmy for that role.

I believe Julia Duffy was nominated every year or close to every year of Newhart and never won the Emmy.

Oops! My bad.

I think David/Darlene could have worked if written differently. David had no spine and was a pushover. Darlene could have been the biggest cunt if David had been a good balance to her. But he wasn't.

R226 Julia Duffy is indeed a very good actress (I agree) but let's face it - once 'Newhart' ended, she had trouble developing characters outside of 'Stephanie', no matter how well or poorly they were written. She had a string of TV shows after 'Newhart' as she was much in demand, but all of them flopped with her as a costar.

Im curious - does anyone know why she only stayed one season on 'Designing Women' ? Did she leave on her own at the end of the season (if so, why?) or was she let go by the producers ?

Duffy was fired, R239. They were planning on replacing her with Jackee before things changed and they went with Judith Ivey.

R240, Jackee also said she couldn't stand Dixie Carter. She said she was a Republican and acted like it. Jackee also loathed Victoria Jackson, so there's a theme.

Julia thought she was coming back on DW and was apparently blindsided by being fired.

I think as someone else said, the writers made her a bitch without any likable aspects, and while I love Duffy's work, she was basically playing Stephanie again. DW was a show that had some heart and Duffy was sorta playing as if she was still on Newhart, a much more wry and surreal show with dry humor.

Yes R215, I'm sure MAGAt GenX is the salve we all need

R242 She discusses it here...

I was the REAL star of Designing Women.

R231 not every ugly, dumpy woman who doesn't wear makeup or care about fashion is gay, you know

Any timestamp where we could find that, R244?

R247. I ended up watching the full hour. It's a pretty interesting video. Julia seems comfortable and shares a lot.

Psycho Ro bump