The Roseanne revival will soon tackle a brand new issue, which is prejudice in America. In an upcoming episode, Roseanne will realize that she has Muslim neighbors, and through comedy, a new dialogue will be born on the series.
According to a May 7 report by Entertainment Weekly , Roseanne Barr insisted on writing an episode that featured the Conner family having Muslim neighbors. In the episode, Roseanne’s internet connection isn’t working, and her granddaughter Mary needs to get online to video chat with her mother, who is deployed overseas. Jackie will urge Roseanne to ask the neighbors if they can borrow their WiFi password so that Mary can speak with her mother. Of course, Roseanne will be skeptical due to all of the media reports she’s heard about Muslim people.
EW says Roseanne fans will see a lot of “ignorance covered up with punchlines” before the show’s lead character finally realizes that there is much more to her neighbors that what meets the eye. “[Barr] wanted to get a comeuppance for her own bias, that was her idea,” co-executive producer Dave Caplan told the site.
In a preview for the episode, Roseanne’s neighbors tell her that people had been yelling nasty things at them, causing some turmoil in their family. Later, Roseanne seemingly apologizes to her neighbor for any bias she may have had before meeting her. The two women run into each other in the grocery store, and it seems that a heartfelt moment is in the cards. In an interview, Barr says that her television character is “frightened” of living next store to Muslims because she’s “heard so many things on the news,” adding that she has “a lot of pre-conceived notions.”
When these three laugh I can’t help but #laugh @RoseanneOnABC #Roseanne pic.twitter.com/DAFU8FSGnL
— Michael Fishman (@ReelMFishman) May 1, 2018
Though the subject matter may not be well perceived by some viewers, Roseanne says her “main focus” is that the content is funny and that it makes people laugh, adding that she thought it would be “relevant” to feature a storyline about “immigrants and prejudice.” Barr promises that the show found a way to “cut to the humanity” of each other, and that is something she very much likes to see on her show.
Roseanne currently airs Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. on ABC.
