‘Roseanne’ Episode With Muslim Neighbor Tries for Tolerance

This week’s episode of Roseanne features the Conners meeting the Muslim family next door, with the goal of teaching its audience about tolerance and compassion.

In the episode “Go Cubs,” Roseanne (Roseanne Barr) is afraid her neighbors are building a bomb out of the fertilizer piled near the garage.

“What if this is a sleeper cell full of terrorists getting ready to blow up our neighborhood?” she asks Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) in a scene shared by Entertainment Weekly. “Any time something bad happens, it’s always somebody who lives next door to somebody.”

However, Roseanne has to go face-to-face with the family because she needs their Wi-Fi password to help her granddaughter. In the preview scene, Roseanne and Jackie go to the family’s door, with Roseanne carrying a baseball bat. Jackie gets Roseanne to put the bat down before the door opens, only to find out that the family patriarch was also carrying a baseball bat!

Over the course of the episode, Roseanne will learn that they have more things in common than she expected.

In an interview released by ABC, co-executive producer Dave Caplan said it was Barr’s idea to do a story about a Muslim family in the new episodes. The writers quickly agreed to do it.

“She wanted to get a comeuppance for her own bias… that was her idea,” Caplan said.

In “Go Cubs,” the Conners need their neighbor’s Wi-Fi password because they cannot pay their own bills. Meanwhile, Dan (John Goodman) loses out on an important job and D.J. (Michael Fishman) admits that life after leaving the military is not easy. Father and son then work together to plan a new source of revenue.

“Go Cubs” was filmed long before the revival started on March 27. Although the show started off really well in the ratings, but has since lost 43 percent of its audience. Last week’s episode drew 10.3 million viewers and a 2.5 rating in the 18-49 demographic. Those are still impressive numbers for any network sitcom, but pales in comparison with the show’s premiere.

Even as the sitcom airs, Barr has continued to be a controversial figure on Twitter. Last week, she got into a feud with Stormy Daniels, the adult film star who claims she had an affair with President Donald Trump in 2006.

“She’s known for a— porn scenes,” Barr tweeted about Daniels in a response to Patricia Arquette.

“I don’t even do a— movies, you ignorant t—. That’s like saying you are known for your beautiful rendition of The Star Spangled Banner,” Daniels shot back.

When someone disputed Daniels’ statement, she quickly replied.

“I have done over 200 movies over last 15 years. Only 1 scene with my husband was a— so get the facts straight,” Daniels wrote. “But it doesn’t really matter. She tried using my job as a reason to discredit me. (Consensual) sexual choices does NOT make someone less of a human.”

Roseanne airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. on ABC.

Photo credit: ABC/Adam Rose