With all the reboots coming down the pike – Roseanne, The Office, 30 Rock, ER, West Wing, more Gilmore Girls, more Full House… – it’s starting to feel like we’re slipping backwards in time. (I blame Trump). It’s hard not to be a bit cynical and wonder how on earth any of them can do anything fresh.
Roseanne, at least, plans to get with the changing times. Pink Star News reports that her new show will include a “gender creative” child in its reboot – the first in network TV history!
Key word: network.
Showtime drama Billions was the first program to do so, introducing super-intelligent hedge fund intern Taylor – played by Asia Kate Dillon, who is also non-binary – on the cable show earlier this year.
The talented Dillon’s rise to prominence led the Emmy Awards to allow Dillon to choose which gendered award category they would prefer to be considered for. Organizers took the step after the Dillon wrote to them with the concern that as it stood, there seemed to be, as she put it, “no room for my identity”.
When Roseanne comes back (in early 2018), Darlene and David – still played by Sara Gilbert and Johnny Galecki, thank God – have had a son and a daughter. Their nine-year-old son Mark is non-binary.
The showrunners’ casting call is requesting children who can play a “sensitive and effeminate” part which “displays qualities of both young female and male traits.”
Roseanne, of course, has always been about pushing societal boundaries, featuring multiple gay and lesbian storylines throughout its original run in the ’80s and ’90s.
This is one reboot I’m actually excited for.
