Ever notice how every now and then you stumble across a news item where you read the first paragraph or two, shake your head, do a double-take, and go, "Wait, what?"
This is one of those times. I rarely read Variety, mostly because it's a show-biz rag, and I don't give two hoots, or even one, about show-biz. But a friend of mine, in the course of teasing me about my redneck background, sent me this piece; it seems Roseanne Barr, aiming for a television comeback, is planning something... different.
The new series, which will star Barr and be four to six episodes in line with the U.K. comedy format, is “a cross between ‘The Roseanne Show’ and ‘The Sopranos,’” she says, and centers on a small-town farmer in Alabama who is “saving the United States from drug gangs and China.” The protagonist dabbles in growing and selling drugs like cannabis and magic mushrooms.
“It’s silly and out there,” she says. “[It will contain] very offensive ideas and a lot of swearing. I live with my daughter and her husband and their six children on a farm. And they have goats running through their house and stuff. It’s based on my life as a farmer in Hawaii. They save America with guns, the Bible, petty crime and alcoholism. It’s kind of like the Coen brothers thing.”
Yeah, that was the part that triggered the "Wait, what?" reaction. But wait! There's more!
“There’s a scene where I have to strap myself into a corset. My granddaughter helps me, and then I go into town to flirt with all the shopkeepers that are just grotesque people,” she teases. “It’s just kind of a cartoony kind of thing.”
A corset? I mean... maybe?
If done the right way, mind you, this could be side-splittingly funny. This could be a social satire on the level of "South Park," which for years was the best social satire available. But this would have to include some genius scriptwriting that makes this family of crazy rednecks believable while being about as subtle as being run over by a turnip truck.
Granted, if anyone can pull this off as an actress, it would be Roseanne. She does have a knack for this sort of thing.
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However, in the course of the article describing her new show proposal, Roseanne makes one very good point that Hollywood and TV producers should pay attention to.
Barr says the recent presidential election results prove that viewers are eager for content that Hollywood has been loath to make.
“Hollywood has made itself irrelevant to the American people,” she says. “If they want to survive, they should work with the new president. American people elected him in an overwhelming victory. They should get back in touch with [them] and make some money, which I don’t know if they do or not ’cause they’ve proven to be ideologues rather than [business people]. What shocks me is the fact that they prefer to lose money and then explain that to the shareholders who apparently have no problem with that.”
This, right here, is a natural-born fact.
From what little I know about Roseanne Barr, it wouldn't surprise me overly much if she was floating this rather odd show proposal as a way to illustrate just how hungry American viewers are for something new and different. We've seen remake after reboot after sequel upon sequel, and all too much of it is crap, although I confess I'm looking forward to the "Nosferatu" remake. There is so little that is new, different, and engaging that Roseanne's idea of a family of Alabama rednecks saving America with booze, drugs, guns, the Bible, and petty crime might just take off.
I mean, we're Americans, which means pretty much all of us have a horse thief in their family tree somewhere. So maybe enough people will find it engaging for this new show to take off.
At any rate, were I to send a message to Roseanne herself, it would be, "Heck yeah, go for it, and good luck! I'll watch the first episode because at least it's something new."
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