‘Roseanne’ Showrunner on Revival Taking on Social Issues: ‘We Have No Agenda’

Roseanne revival co-showrunner Bruce Helford is speaking out about the show’s perceived political overtones, saying, “We have no agenda…“

During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Helford was specificity asked about a comment in ELLE that suggested the Roseanne revival “ignores the very real racism of many white working-class families’ and exists to monetize Trump’s base.”

“I’ll just say keep watching the show. We certainly deal with some of those things, but monetizing Trump’s base? No. We have no agenda, one direction or the other, in terms of anything regarding the show, but we do deal with aspects of how the Conners perceive people who are different than they are,” Helford replied.

The outlet then asked if ABC has had any conversations with Helford regarding Roseanne Barr’s personal conservative views and the way she shares them on social media.

“I’m not familiar with any conversations regarding that. There may have been some, but I’m not familiar with it,” he fired back.

Helford also spoke about “people who are turned off” by Barr’s politics and who it takes to get them to watch the show.

“There should be an understanding that there is a difference between people’s personal politics and what you present onscreen. We’re hopefully presenting a wonderful, balanced show that doesn’t have an agenda. But beyond that, anybody can dig into anybody’s stuff and find stuff. But if her politics bothers them, then they shouldn’t watch the show,” Helford asserted. “That’s okay. Nobody is making anybody watch the show. We consider ourselves guests in the public’s home and as guests we know that people have the option to turn it off if they don’t want to watch.”

THR asked Helford how he felt about President Donald Trump taking credit for the revival’s debut ratings.

“I remember back in the day on Family Ties [which he wrote on], President Reagan wanted to appear on the show. And [creator] Gary David Goldberg, who was a staunch liberal Democrat, said, “No way.” The network [NBC] was like, “Are you kidding us? It’s the President of the United States who wants to guest star,’ ” Helford recalled.

“I remember Richard Nixon, before he became president, was on Laugh-In. It’s always weird when someone at that level weighs in on these kinds of things. In any case, everybody wants to be part of a winner, so everybody sort of jumps in,” he concluded.