An Important Life Lesson
First published June 3, 2018
Rereading this old post, and knowing in hindsight what came later for these actors, (the show was brought back WITHOUT Roseanne), really drives home my point: we never can know what’s going to happen. Good often comes from bad, and bad sometimes comes from good. We can’t control everything. In fact, we can control very little. So why worry? We can only deal with each issue as it presents itself. (This is what is getting me through these dark days in our country.) — Adrienne, 8/5/19
As most of my American readers undoubtedly know, the new Roseanne Show (a revival of the long-running hit sitcom which ran from 1988-1997) has been canceled after the star and creator, Roseanne Barr, tweeted some hateful racist comments. (It was hardly her first time.) So hateful were her remarks, that not only did the network immediately cancel the new revival, but stations which, for decades, have been broadcasting the reruns of past seasons have pulled them off the air. Financially speaking, that means the end of residuals (i.e. TV royalties) for those original cast members.
I’m not going to get into the politics of this however it does illustrate one of the themes of this project: “Be careful what you wish for.”
While some of the original cast members have gone on to play great roles and garner professional acclaim (i.e. John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf) there are others who haven’t been seen much since the end of the first run. Certainly, the cast members who re-upped with the new show were happy about its revival but I assume it must have been particularly great news for those who haven’t found much steady industry work these past few decades.
I can imagine some of them feeling overjoyed and relieved that they would finally be back in the saddle, making good money again. But now, not only do they go back to whatever career (or lack thereof) they had before, but they have also lost the income stream from the old show.
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As they say in Yiddish, “Mann tracht, un Gott lacht” (Man plans, and God laughs)
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