Roseanne vs. ABC: Who’s Got the Clout?

What price “Roseanne”?

Rarely has a feud between a network and star raised more basic questions of show business relationships than the face-off between ABC and Roseanne Arnold, TV’s highest-rated weekly entertainer.

The best dramas on television this season have involved the shootouts between top performers and their networks. First, David Letterman decided to take a hike from NBC after he didn’t get “The Tonight Show” and signed with CBS.

And with Arnold’s threat to quit ABC when “Roseanne’s” commitment runs out next year--and her related full-court press for the network to pledge its allegiance to her husband Tom’s new series, “The Jackie Thomas Show”--a battle of money and egos was joined that titillated the public anew.

Was it worth it for a network to be entangled in such a messy public encounter--even with its biggest star? Would the controversial performer really give ABC the heave-ho because she felt insulted by the negotiations? With its new fall schedule due shortly, would ABC bite the bullet and risk the perception it was caving in to Arnold’s demands? Would she set a precedent for stars by firing a network?

Or didn’t Letterman just do that--except funnier?

In Hollywood’s upside-down world, the perception to many working folks that ABC is Arnold’s employer because it airs her series is not realistic, says David Davis of the media analysis firm Paul Kagan Associates.

“Any employee who makes more money than the company cannot be considered an employee,” he says.

Much of Arnold’s popularity comes not only from her show but also as an outsider thumbing her nose at the entertainment industry’s power structure, even though she and Tom Arnold have hired some of the most powerful agents and publicists in that very same power structure.

The flip side is that she has also drawn the ire of others through some nasty encounters with columnists and her highly public, in-your-face negotiating style, which reached a kind of zenith when she told Jay Leno and his “Tonight Show” audience that she intended to take her series off ABC next year.

Suddenly the ball was unmistakably in ABC’s court. Would the network take the remarkable step of kissing her off--in response to her stated intentions--to avoid further grief? Would it cancel “The Jackie Thomas Show”? Would it give in and make accommodations for the show somewhere on the schedule? Would the star and network come to a compromise, perhaps involving other programming, to settle the dispute in Hollywood’s favorite way--with dollar signs?

Few stars have polarized fans and enemies more than Arnold. And while the ratings of “Roseanne” may well benefit this spring from the latest contretemps, audience reaction to Arnold’s fight with ABC may give her popularity its toughest test since the negative reaction following her screechy rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” at a 1990 baseball doubleheader.

Arnold is not the first performer to use clout to make demands on a network. But an indication of the confrontation that would follow came when she and Tom Arnold stated openly, before “The Jackie Thomas Show” aired, that they had used their clout to get the series on ABC. Network officials, publicly at least--and hoping to avoid the impression that they were being buffaloed--said that they would make their own decision on a renewal.

“The Jackie Thomas Show,” which followed “Roseanne,” finished in the Top 20 series this season, but lost a sizable amount of the audience of the smash-hit lead-in. From the beginning, Roseanne Arnold expressed pride in “Jackie Thomas”--which spoofed television and revolved around an obnoxious sitcom star--and thus it became an even more personal matter.

As pressure in the ABC-Arnold negotiations mounted this week, there wasn’t much doubt that the comedian could take “Roseanne” elsewhere if she wanted, in conjunction with the Carsey-Werner Co., which produces the show. A CBS spokeswoman said, “I’m sure we’d love to have her. She’s wonderfully talented.” An NBC spokeswoman said, “If she were available, NBC would be interested in talking with her.” The Fox network declined comment.

Nonetheless, the “Star-Spangled Banner” incident made clear that the star is not invulnerable. Ratings slipped for a while but ABC stood by her and a damage-control campaign helped revive the series, which then rebounded spectacularly. According to demographics, the only audience where “Roseanne” slips sharply is the over-50 crowd.

While detractors are resentful that Arnold placed ABC in a face-saving predicament--choosing between profits and corporate pride--the money issue is particularly urgent to the network. “Roseanne” is a magnet for ABC’s entire lineup.

During its run, “Roseanne” has been the linchpin for ABC in Tuesday prime time, helping sew up the 18-to-49-year-old audience the network targets, even though CBS won the night in total households this season.

Throughout the ABC-Arnold dispute, some TV experts could not believe that ABC would really let the star get away--even after her threat to leave. “The economic realities are more important than the public-relations aspects,” said Davis. “I think it’s much more personal on her side than on ABC’s,” said Joel Segal of the McCann-Erickson ad agency. “It’s a hit business and they don’t come along very often,” added Betsy Frank of the Saatchi & Saatchi agency.

Indeed, according to a Kagan analysis last June, “The average age of the top 10, prime-time network program was seven years in 1991-92. . . . New programs clearly have had trouble breaking the barrier in recent seasons.”

Frank, who favored ABC renewing “The Jackie Thomas show,” said that people soon “will forget this ugly incident.” The question is how the public will view both ABC and Arnold after such an oddly unpleasant scene over programming that is supposed to make people laugh and feel good. Everybody knows the whole issue is clout and that some performers are more equal than others, for better or worse.

Arnold has had amazing resiliency, breaking the rules and going her own way. At the height of her fame, she changed her name from Roseanne Barr to Roseanne Arnold without missing a step. She thrives on controversy, which is exactly what The Suits at the networks studiously avoid.

There’s no business like show business--thank God.