Six Things We Can Learn From Roseanne

It would be obvious to start out with the controversy, but I had started this article before the tweet that almost made this wasted work.

There was an amazing thing that happened on ABC TV in the off cycle of NBC's This Is Us, and that is that the Conner family returned to prime time with explosive results; as Roseanne became the number one show on television.

The success didn't happen by accident, but with meticulous thought, clear vision and a commitment to implementation and execution, flawless or not.

Recipe for Purposeful Prevailing

We can apply some of the ingredients of the Conner family's successes to any job, but for radio shows and broadcast talent, the takeaways are too obvious to ignore.

1. Timely & Personal Content Matters

In one of the episodes of the reboot, the show opens with Dan (John Goodman) and Roseanne running into the house and to the table to swap prescription medications, while more sad than funny, the reality of this in our culture is so spot on and easy to relate to that the most prudish or conservative couldn't help but guffaw. This story line continued all season with the revelation that Roseanne has an issue with the abuse of prescription medication.

2. Real is More Powerful than Put On

In another episode, the Conner's new neighbors are Muslim, and the episode begins with the family being falsely profiled as potential terrorists, but an internet issue creates a need for Roseanne and crew to have to confront the Yemeni neighbors, all for the favor of having to use their internet. While this premise is made up for a TV show, it is a real scenario happening every day in America.

3. You Can Go Back

It can be scary to go back to a job we once had, where there was a lot of success, as the truth is most times when we go back we don't get the same results we once had but Rosanne indicated that you can return; and you can succeed even though the world has changed a lot since you last occupied that position.

4. Your Past Has Value

Roseanne was the same base character that she was in the original, but now she was a grandma and with that, things changed--mostly the inability to be so mobile, as age brought on aches and pains and bad knees. In one episode Roseanne threatens the grandkids, who are misbehaving upstairs, and as she heads upstairs, she yells, "I mean business," which is made funny by the fact that she's riding the rail in one of those chair lifts, which takes forever to take her up and out of view.

Also noteworthy in the continuing saga from the original sitcom to the reboot is the youngest child, DJ Conner, played by Michael Fishman, who in the original won't kiss the girl in the school play because she's African American, but who in the reboot ends up married to that same person.

5. One Tweet Can Do You In

It's ironic that in the first item above, we're dealing with prescription meds and in the second we're dealing with Muslim prejudice, and ultimately the backlash in real life turned out to be a merge of those two things.

I am not personally good with the fact that one tweet can do you in, and that the loudest portion of the public can take you down for what could be poor judgment or opinion. In 1992, I was the marketing director of 93-3 WFLZ, The Power Pig in Tampa and there were so many complaints calls about Bubba the Love Sponge that Marc Chase assigned them to me. I listened to every person, addressed their concern on the phone which turned out 90% of the time to be all that they wanted anyway, but in the end, Bubba stayed, and without reprimand.

This is a different day. Social Media can bury you in a millisecond, so there is an extra layer of responsibility that is necessary to exercise unless you like to live dangerously with the mobile gauntlet poised loosely overhead.

6. They Can Succeed Without You

The cast of Roseanne is now slated to return, but as The Conners, minus Barr. It's not a guarantee that they will hit the marks that they had with her, but when you tweet, and you are sitting on a successful team of winners, you put that entire team at risk, which is what happened, ultimately causing what appeared to so many as betrayal and lack of loyalty when the other cast members spoke out.

Here's why it isn't. This reboot may have been the first time these actors have communicated with each other since the last time a talk show did a reunion.

And as actors, not as characters, it is possible that not all these players are necessarily sitting pretty financially, so Roseanne who is worth millions, put at risk other actors old and new, who may have needed this moment to get themselves back to square one.

Sometimes in radio, the removal of a player whose ego creates the negativity in the room frees up the vibe so much that the team that is left, wins bigger than the one that is no longer.

It's a big risk, however, and as of press time, there is word that Roseanne will also return to TV with options for a new project.

Personally, I was surprised how well I enjoyed the reboot, and how unlike the reboot of Full House, I could watch beyond just one episode, and once past the nostalgia, I could still be entertained. If I had it my way, ABC would rethink this. The cast would come together and realize they're better with her, and the loud voices of social media would be silenced by the uptick of ratings, which would be explosive. And then we'd have one more lesson we learned from the Roseanne show.

7. Forgiveness