Roseanne Arnold, whose ABC sitcom was feted Saturday night by the Museum of Television & Radio, reiterated her dissatisfaction with recent contract negotiations and made it clear that she finds CBS a more hospitable net.
"They actually respect me more at CBS, and I like that," Arnold said at the sold-out event at the L.A. County Museum of Art, where the New York-based MoTR is holding its 11th Television Festival.
It wasn't the first hint she's dropped that CBS is courting her; during an appearance last month on "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," Arnold referred to interest in her show from the Eye web, which just launched the series "Tom," starring Roseanne's husband and exec producer of her show, Tom Arnold.
Referring to her own series' 75-episode extension by ABC and Carsey-Werner, Arnold said Saturday, "They never asked me, and I didn't ask them for three more years.
"If they don't ante up," she quipped, "I guess the show's going to be about a couple of white people who live on Cape Cod."
"Roseanne" producer Carsey-Werner and the Alphabet web announced in mid-February a three-year renewal of the high-rated se-ries, but the Arnolds maintain that they were not included in pact talks and are signed with the production company for only two more years.
While acknowledging that she doesn't consider ABC "the enemy," Arnold is still unhappy with the net's cancellation of "The Jackie Thomas Show," Tom Arnold's first series. She contends ABC never intended to do more than 18 segs of the comedy show.
But the evening was devoted mainly to laughter, not griping, and to kudos from the actress' faithful. Arnold was joined onstage at LACMA's Bing Theater for a Q&A session by fellow cast members John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, Sara Gilbert, Estelle Parsons, Sarah Chalke, Michael Fishman and co-exec producer/head writer Rob Ulin.
The discussion followed screenings of two "Roseanne" episodes.
Arnold acknowledged that it isn't always easy to be controversial. Regarding the recent flap over a same-sex kiss on the show, she said, "When you have to fight so hard to get two girls to kiss, it kind of makes you want to go back to fart jokes."
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