Does anybody know if Season 9 was originally supposed to be the last one, or had they planned to do 1 more? I had read somewhere that Roseanne herself wanted to do 1 more, but John Goodman, whose movie career had just begun to take off, said 9 would be his final one regardless. Don't know if that's true or not, obviously. It would help to explain some things about that awful final season, though.
Anybody know?
I think season eight was supposed to be but Roseanne decided late in the season to do another. So, yeah, season nine was actually the additonal season.
shareRoseanne has claimed that at some point during Season 9 she wanted to do another season afterwards, but it would've required a "significant pay cut" due to the declining business her show was pulling from advertisers—so she opted not to. Thank gosh!
I'm presuming Roseanne was basically just out of her mind at that time as we all know, drunk on her own craziness—and willing to drag out her show for even longer in spite of the steep drop in quality.
Anyway, I'm too lazy to provide the source, but I swear it's true. Look it up yourself if you want.
P.s. re: the other post here that said Season 8 was initially intended to be the last—yes, it was intended to be. But mid-way through, the show was renewed 'cause it was still doing decently in the ratings (Top 20 still, in spite of noticeable decline in contrast to previous seasons)—so it was renewed. This is not unheard of: sitcoms are often renewed well past their creative ripeness, strictly for business. That's why most shows draw the ire of oh-so-savvy fans who claim "I stopped watching that show after Season ___".
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The cast had contracts through s8, with an option to renew after that.
Roseanne waited until the last possible minute to decide to go ahead with s9, but John and Laurie had both signed contracts for other projects. Not sure about Sara? or Sarah?
(Michael only has a cameo in AI after Roseanne, and pretty much quit acting after that.)
Laurie managed to work hers around (Toy Story 2?), but John wasn't able to, as he was lead or co-lead in several of his projects. BB2K he managed to complete over the summer break, and some voice work was easy to work around, but Fallen kept him away from LA during most of the season, plus you'll notice his beard in the last few eps was growing out for his (arguably) most famous role besides Dan Conner, Walter Sobchak, in Big Lebowski. He did flm several insert scenes they could plop in anywhere, so he only misses a handful of episodes..except in syndication, where they get cut for timing.
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#HowardWasRight