Less than two weeks after ABC abruptly cancelled its revival of the sitcom “Roseanne,” after star Roseanne Barr was hammered by accusations of racism, network executives are reportedly trying to salvage something from the hit show.
According to a report in The Hollywood Reporter, ABC is involved in conversations to reboot the reboot—this time without its title character.
While popular television shows have pressed on without central cast members before, the idea of a”Roseanne” minus Roseanne may seem like a bridge too far. DeeAnn Sims, founder and creative director at the SPBX public relations firm in Los Angeles, said that the show is simply too heavily identified with Barr to simply re-cast her.
“[Barr] has always been such a brash, standalone presence, this would need to be a completely different show altogether,” she said. However, Sims did not rule out the possibility of a successful spinoff.
“I think a reboot around the family, rather than Roseanne herself, could actually work,” she said.
Actor Patrick Kilpatrick, president and CEO of Uncommon Dialogue Films and has appeared on such television shows as “The X-Files” and “24,” said that such a spinoff would undoubtedly have its share of hurdles to overcome. Yet it’s not out of the question that the formula could work, he added.
“In the case of ‘Roseanne,’ you have to first address the issue of the name of the show, and then re-cast,” he said. “The potential interest in the process by a huge audience could also more than offset the challenges.”
It’s anyone’s guess how a “Roseanne” spinoff might fare, but the television landscape is peppered with shows that attempted to move on without prominent characters. With that in mind, CNBC looked to history for several examples of how trying to resurrect a show — whether via spinoff, a reboot, or re-cast — might play out.
