What lunatics are running the asylum formerly known as the Entertainment Division of NBC? Have Oprah’s folks — the one’s responsible for trying to foist Rosie O’Donnell on the few people who watched OWN — somehow infiltrated the Peacock Network in an effort to set back this broadcasting giant even further than Keith Olbermann did? Have the usually talented folks at CBS sent over the mole that was the brainchild behind hiring Janeane Garofalo for the ill-fated Criminal Minds spin-off? It would appear that way. How else to explain NBC’s decision to order pilots for sitcoms starring Roseanne Barr and Sarah Silverman? The Network, which once prided itself on stellar shows like Family Ties and The Cosby Show in the 1980s and Seinfeld and Friends in the 1990s, has apparently hit bottom. My how the mighty have fallen. I guess the Biblical maxim is true: pride cometh before the fall.
The people “in charge” of programming at NBC must be so desperate and so far removed from reality that they would be willing to even consider greenlighting shows for either of these two women. What were the suits at NBC thinking? Oh, that’s right. Most of NBC’s leadership — from corporate to news to entertainment — are so out of touch with the vast majority of Americans that they simply cannot comprehend why no one would watch — unless forced to do so as part of some torture program — anything “starring” the aforementioned “comediennes.”
Describing Barr and Silverman as comediennes is being charitable. From the moment that a fraternity brother “introduced” me to this new female comic on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (the real thing, not the Jay Leno or mercifully short-lived Conan O’Brien incarnations), I knew that I would never be a fan of Roseanne Barr. Vulgar. Vile. Hateful. Obnoxious. Loud. Rude. Idiotic. Clueless. I could go on, but you get the point. I can honestly say that I never sat through more than about five minutes of Roseanne, a putrid excuse for a sitcom. I love both John Goodman and Johnny Galecki (The Big Bang Theory rocks), but the thought of me having to glimpse Roseanne Barr for even a split second, much less 22 minutes, would make me want to gouge my eyes out! Same with Sarah Silverman.
Not only are both Barr and Silverman completely and utterly devoid of talent that would appeal to anyone but rabid feminists and self-loathing people in general, but they are the very definition of ugly. No. I’m not talking about ugly from an outward appearance — although I would not object to anyone who presented that slam-dunk case — but rather ugly and vile from that which emanates from somewhere deep inside the souls of Ms. Barr and Ms. Silverman. From her intentional butchering of the National Anthem to her slams against any and all conservatives to her most recent inane (and dangerous) tweets about George Zimmerman, Roseanne Barr has shown herself to be a real piece of work. Unfortunately, that work is gross and deformed. Why anyone would waste their precious time watching anything with Roseanne Barr will perhaps be one of the greatest unsolved mysteries of our time.
Even more mysterious is why anyone would think that there is an audience — outside of L.A. and NYC — for Sarah Silverman. With each passing day, she shows herself to be just as vulgar and vile as Roseanne. And, that’s saying something. For a so-called comedienne to make a joke out of having an abortion (she posted pictures of her distended stomach and joked about eating a burrito that she joked was taken care of through an “aborsh”) is offensive and ugly. One can only imagine what kind of humor that Ms. Silverman and the writers would come up with in her new sitcom. Perhaps they will go after Down’s Syndrome babies. After all, since Sarah Palin has a child with Down’s, that is considered fair game by those on the “tolerant and compassionate” left.
But, not to worry. Apparently test audiences are not as enamored with Ms. Barr or Ms. Silverman as the braindead executives at NBC or the leftist sycophants that adore Barr and Silverman and their ilk. These test audiences must be located in flyover country where reason, common sense, and decency still prevails. For my friends and readers on the coasts, I believe there are small pockets of reason, common sense, and decency where you live, but they are simply not the prevailing norm in places like Hollywood, San Francisco, New York City, and Boston. Of course, I’m not so sure that even pockets remain in our nation’s capital. There are simply too many examples to list. That is a post for another day.
Notwithstanding the test audiences’ distaste for the new Barr and Silverman sitcoms, the powers-that-be at NBC will probably go all in with these two “talented” ladies. If they do, the National Broadcasting Company’s descent into madness will be complete. There will be no coming back from the abyss. Where’s Brandon Tartikoff when you really need him?