ROSEANNE reboot — what are your thoughts? (1 Viewer)

[MatthewA]

Back in 1981, The Brady Girls Get Married was filmed as a 2-hour movie, but NBC decided to chop it up into half-hour installments, and aired one episode every Saturday Night. It got decent ratings so that spun-off the series called, The Brady Brides. It didn't last very long. I think 6 episodes.

That movie is the only reunion where all 9 original cast members appear.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The revival's title sequence (without the titles):

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

The premiere of the revival got an insanely high 5.1 rating (18.2 million total viewers), the highest rating for a sitcom in nearly four years.

To put that number into perspective, the final season of the show's original run only averaged 15.9 million viewers, and that was a time when ratings for broadcast shows across the board were much, much higher than they are now.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The question, I think, will be what those numbers do in the following weeks.

The X-Files revival, for instance, had an insanely highly rated premiere in 2016 (16.19 million viewers), but it lost more than six million viewers the following week, and lost almost ten by the time the 2016 season ended. When it returned in 2018, it had a premiere with just over 5 million viewers, but even that number couldn't be held - it was down to under four million for the duration of the season.

I expected the premiere numbers to be big. But I have no idea what it'll do going forward. For better or worse, I think it'll probably follow a similar pattern and fall off in a big way - not as a reflection of the quality of the show, but just a reflection that live viewing is no longer the preferred method for most people to watch a TV show these days.

 

[Hollywoodaholic]

There was a big curiosity factor. I never watched the original series but tuned in because it was positively reviewed. I got some good laughs out of it and thought it was well written, but I just don't do sit-coms anymore and can't stand the laugh tracks (live or otherwise), so I won't be a regular viewer. I wonder if I'm part of a large boat on this one.

Without getting political, I will say that I was okay with the way they handled the tribal political differences between the two sisters. I did not see one particular viewpoint being overly favored in front of the other; there was a comical balance on both sides - for every tit there was a tat (if I can put it that way). Maybe they've found a good formula for detente... equal time mocking. It did make me fondly remember what All in the Family used to routinely have fun with (current hot topics of the day), without worrying about the PC police.

 

[KPmusmag]

I loved the show back in the day. I enjoyed the shows last night, but we will see how it goes.

 

[revgen]

I also have a theory about why so many old shows are getting rebooted and it has as much to do with lack of high-definition availability of the originals than the lack of new ideas in Hollywood and the lack of new excuses for the lack of new ideas.

*The original show's best years predated the Disney/ABC merger.

Will and Grace was shot on film, so high-def is available. Ditto with the original X-Files which was recently released on Blu-Ray.

My guess is that TV companies and advertisers are beginning to re-evaluate the "18-49" demographic philosophy.

The "18-49" philosophy was created in the 1960's, just as Baby Boomers were becoming adults.

http://awfulannouncing.com/ratings/how-abc-created-18-49-demographic.html

Some TV companies, like CBS, have been denouncing the "18-49" demo for awhile now.

https://www.thewrap.com/cbs-waning-18-49-viewers-fewer-number-living-mom-and-dad-106756/

 

[Josh Steinberg]

My guess is that TV companies and advertisers are beginning to re-evaluate the "18-49" demographic philosophy.

Here's hoping. To give one small, anecdotal example of why it's shortsighted - I'm in the 18-49 demo, but my parents are both older than that age range. Both parents have more financial resources and free time than I have. To completely write-off that demo seems enormously shortsighted to me.

 

[ScottH]

I caught about 10 minutes of it and thought it was about what I expected - painful. Didn't need to see anymore.

 

[Jim*Tod]

I agree with Scott. It was just awful. I have a feeling the audience laughter was sweetened. I am actually sorry to see fine actors such as Laurie Metcalf and John Goodman in this... though I am sure they got a nice paycheck.

 

[The Obsolete Man]

The question, I think, will be what those numbers do in the following weeks.

The X-Files revival, for instance, had an insanely highly rated premiere in 2016 (16.19 million viewers), but it lost more than six million viewers the following week, and lost almost ten by the time the 2016 season ended. When it returned in 2018, it had a premiere with just over 5 million viewers, but even that number couldn't be held - it was down to under four million for the duration of the season.

I expected the premiere numbers to be big. But I have no idea what it'll do going forward. For better or worse, I think it'll probably follow a similar pattern and fall off in a big way - not as a reflection of the quality of the show, but just a reflection that live viewing is no longer the preferred method for most people to watch a TV show these days.

Yeah, for all the hype over the premiere numbers, I figure by the debut of season 11 at the latest, it'll be another ABC standard 1.5 demo, 6 million viewer show.

And that's not a bad thing, that's ABC standard for their most successful sitcoms now. The only bad thing I see coming out of it is this one monster rating will convince the networks that further stripmining the past is the way to go.

 

[Dheiner]

I liked it. A lot. I found it to be timely, and intelligently written.

The first episode seemed to be an introduction to the characters, most of whom I knew already. And the second was very timely, dealing with school violence & the isolation of "The Weird".

Overall, it reminded me very much of an episode from the middle of the original run, when the show was huge in the ratings.

 

[Richard V]

Didn't like her then, even less so now. Absolutely a NO GO for me. A pity, since I'm a big John Goodman fan.

 

[Stan]

I caught about 10 minutes of it and thought it was about what I expected - painful. Didn't need to see anymore.

Agree with you 100%. I actually watched the whole episode, but will not watch the rest. Painful is probably the nicest word to describe it.

 

[GlennF]

I enjoyed the first two episodes mainly because of the writing and Laurie Metcalf, John Goodman and Sara Gilbert. Barr's acting has never been great and seems even worse now. She is basically just walking around "barking" out lines. I also agree with Jim above that there was something strange about the audience response. Considering it was filmed in front of an audience it sounded completely "canned". I will, however, give it another chance.

 

[Jimbo64]

The whole white trash mentality never did much for me, I made it thru about 20 minutes before I changed the channel.

 

[sidburyjr]

Here's hoping. To give one small, anecdotal example of why it's shortsighted - I'm in the 18-49 demo, but my parents are both older than that age range. Both parents have more financial resources and free time than I have. To completely write-off that demo seems enormously shortsighted to me.

I think that’s true (older people and disposable income) b it I believe the 18-49 demographic is favored is because they are more easily influenced by commercials than we old wiley people.

 

[Stan]

The question, I think, will be what those numbers do in the following weeks.

The X-Files revival, for instance, had an insanely highly rated premiere in 2016 (16.19 million viewers), but it lost more than six million viewers the following week, and lost almost ten by the time the 2016 season ended. When it returned in 2018, it had a premiere with just over 5 million viewers, but even that number couldn't be held - it was down to under four million for the duration of the season.

I expected the premiere numbers to be big. But I have no idea what it'll do going forward. For better or worse, I think it'll probably follow a similar pattern and fall off in a big way - not as a reflection of the quality of the show, but just a reflection that live viewing is no longer the preferred method for most people to watch a TV show these days.

I'm guessing the ratings will drop considerably. She's rude and just obnoxious. Maybe I'm wrong, but I certainly won't be watching.

 

[Xphile620]

I really enjoyed the revival. It's already been renewed for another season.

I'm a huge fan of the OS, own all the seasons on DVD (some from the original Anchor Bay, some from the Mill Creek re-releases) and thought the quality pretty well held up. Eager to see so many of the original guest characters return.

 

[Francois Caron]

I'll probably watch it, but I won't rush it. I didn't follow the show that closely when it first aired, and most of the episodes were very mediocre. But I do remember some very clever and insightful bits that occurred on occasion.

Here's hoping the comments about the first episode of the reboot indicate that this is more of a pilot than a regular episode. Pilots are usually the most tiresome episode of any new show. You only know if the show will actually be good by the third or fourth episode.