It’s now clear there are some boundaries in the age of Donald Trump as President. Yes, there are limits to hurling partisan invective and indulging in public displays on Twitter of outright racism. Perhaps not (yet) for Trump, but for others like comedian Roseanne Barr’s reboot of Rosanne. After a remarkable morning on Twitter that ended in her giving what many felt was an apology forced on her by her corporate bosses, Disney-owned ABC announced it was giving her show Trump-era adapted show the boot.

Then her talent agency gave her the boot.

Then the company syndicating her re-runs and the cable channel running them gave her the boot. If this keeps up, she’ll have more boots than the Texas Boot Store. And the (half) joke now is: so when will Fox pick her show up?

In reality, the Ros3anne saga is one about branding as well as extreme racism and all too familiar 21st century political boorishness. Her show was hated by many anti-Trumpistas, but had been largely considered to have been adapted to the Trump era without being screamingly ideological. Her Tweets destroyed her branding, and her show’s because she came across on Twitter as a cross between Info Wars and a Fox News polito-entertainer in full foaming-at-the-mouth mode.

The story has been the big breaking media/political story all day.

The Washington Post had the best summary:

ABC announced Tuesday that it canceled “Roseanne” after the show’s star, Roseanne Barr, went on a vitriolic and racist Twitter rant.

Barr appeared to take aim late Monday at Valerie Jarrett, a former adviser to President Obama, in a tweet that identified the administration official by her initials: “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.” Though she later claimed it was “a joke,” she issued a fuller apology Tuesday after more intense criticism was directed toward her and ABC. “I apologize to Valerie Jarrett and to all Americans,” she wrote. “I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks. I should have known better. Forgive me-my joke was in bad taste.”

But Channing Dungey, the president of ABC Entertainment, did not consider the tweet a joking matter.

“Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show,” she said in a statement released just hours after the comedian’s offensive social media rant.

Barr was also dropped by her talent agency, ICM Partners, who announced in a statement that her “disgraceful and unacceptable tweet” was “antithetical to our core values, both as individuals and as an agency. Consequently, we have notified her that we will not represent her.”

Jarrett addressed the comments in an “Everyday Racism” town hall that will air later tonight on MSNBC, saying that Disney chairman Bob Iger had called her before the announcement. “This should be a teaching moment,” Jarrett said, according to an MSNBC preview of the session. “I’m fine. I’m worried about all the people out there who don’t have a circle of friends and followers who come right to their defense — the person who’s walking down the street minding their own business and they see somebody cling to their purse or walk across the street. Or every black parent I know who has a boy who has to sit down and have a conversation, ‘the talk’ as we call it… those ordinary examples of racism that happen every single day.”

The news capped a day of online furor over a tweetstorm that also included false conspiracy theories, as well as attacks on former first daughter Chelsea Clinton.

And, just to complete The Hometown Buffet of brand-destruction, she threw in some falsehoods about billionaire George Soros as well.
The Washington Post’s Eugene Scott noted that Barr seemed to undercut the very Trump-supporters who she was trying to portray in a new light than usually seen on television:

Roseanne Barr, arguably the face of “pro-Trump” Hollywood, has seen a recent career boost built on giving a voice to the millions of Americans who support the president. But a Tuesday morning Twitter rant is the most recent example of how her efforts to provide a more nuanced portrayal of Trump supporters may be doing more harm than good.

Barr invoked racist and Islamophobic stereotypes that triggered so much outrage that ABC canceled her successful sitcom. The most offensive tweet has been deleted, one combining a common anti-black racist trope with a conspiracy theory referring to former Obama White House senior aide Valerie Jarrett.

She also retweeted pieces accusing Jarrett’s mother of being a communist, among dozens of other retweets Tuesday. Other topics included falsely claiming that Chelsea Clinton was related by marriage to billionaire liberal activist George Soros, prompting a brief back-and-forth with Clinton, capped by Barr’s sharing of a false but widespread conspiracy theory about Soros.

…..ABC reaped the benefits of having one of the only shows on network television to try to shed light on a Trump-supporting household — it was the highest-rated broadcast show of the entire season, according to the Hollywood Reporter. In giving voice to Roseanne Conner, the network planted a flag in territory that few in Hollywood have been willing to occupy. The new statements by Roseanne mean they must now reckon with having given a voice to Roseanne Barr and the beliefs she displayed Tuesday.

CNN:

“Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show,” ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey said in a statement.

Disney CEO Bob Iger added on Twitter that “there was only one thing to do here, and that was the right thing.”

The cancellation stunned Hollywood. Industry veterans said they’ve never seen anything quite like it. The revival of “Roseanne” premiered to huge ratings just three months ago. Pre-production was already underway on a second season, which was scheduled for Tuesdays at 8 p.m. this fall.

But now the show is over. ABC was planning to air a repeat of “Roseanne” Tuesday night, but a rerun of “The Middle” will air in its place.

Barr’s talent agency, ICM Partners, also dropped her on Tuesday. “What she wrote is antithetical to our core values, both as individuals and as an agency,” the agency said in a statement. “Consequently, we have notified her that we will not represent her. Effective immediately, Roseanne Barr is no longer a client.”

Barr had no immediate comment on Tuesday afternoon.

Barr has a long history of controversial tweets, including posts about pro-Trump conspiracy theories. But even by her low standards, Tuesday’s remarks were egregious.

“Beyond the pale” is how one Disney (DIS) source put it.

In a series of tweets, Barr attacked Valerie Jarrett, Chelsea Clinton and George Soros.

ABC went silent for several hours as it decided what to do. While it took some time to announce the decision, executives pretty quickly decided to boot the reboot.

When asked why ABC ultimately decided to cancel the show, a Disney source said, “It’s a question of right and wrong. And it’s a question of our company’s values.”

Meanwhile, Barr seems to have descended into a place in Pariahville that had seemingly been given to only a few once beloved entertainers, such as Bill Cosby.

Her past work will largely vanish from various platforms:

Viacom is pulling “Roseanne” reruns from its Paramount Network, TV Land and CMT channels, a person with knowledge of the decision told TheWrap on Tuesday.

The syndication scheduling change, which follows ABC’s cancellation of the hit series’ recent revival, will go into effect on Wednesday.

Additionally, Laff, a digital network that programs reruns of sitcoms spanning the past few decades, has made the same call.

“While we believe viewers have always distinguished the personal behavior of the actress Roseanne Barr from the television character Roseanne Conner, we are disgusted by Barr’s comments this week,” a Laff spokesperson told TheWrap. “Therefore, we are removing the original ‘Roseanne’ series from the Laff schedule for the time being, effective immediately.”

Later Tuesday, Hulu confirmed it would be dropping episodes of the “Roseanne” revival. “We support ABC’s decision and are removing the show from Hulu,” a spokesperson for the streaming platform said in a statement to TheWrap.

All of this comes about after star Roseanne Barr tweeted some (extra, even for her) foolishness on Tuesday: “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj,” Barr wrote in response to a Twitter thread about Valerie Jarrett, a former adviser to Barack Obama.

But it’s likely you’ll still be able to get DVDs of Barr’s sitcom.

In the DVD discount bin at Walmart.

JOE GANDELMAN, Editor-In-Chief

Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.

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