‘The Conners’ plans live episode to watch N.H. presidential primary – By Fred Toppel (UPI) / Jan 21 2020
LOS ANGELES, Jan. 21 (UPI) — The night of Feb. 11, many newshounds will be glued to the television for live results of the New Hampshire primary in the 2020 race for U.S. president. So will the fictional Conner family, who will perform a live episode of the ABC sitcom as they watch.
The Conners showrunner Bruce Helford aims to keep the show apolitical, but capture the live energy of a funny family reacting to the day’s news.
“The idea is to show the real perspective of real people who live in Lanford,” Helford told UPI in an interview. “We’ll still maintain a level of balance like we would have at any time before. There’s no agenda to it.”
The Conners features the cast of Roseanne without its title character. After ABC canceled the successful revival of Roseanne when creator/star Roseanne Barr tweeted a racist joke, the producers resurrected it as a new sitcom without her.
Like on Roseanne, the cast of The Conners still struggle to make ends meet in Lanford, Ill. Now in its second season, producers of The Conners were looking for a way to create a water cooler event.
“What made this compelling was that we were going to shoot it on a night in which something interesting was happening in the world and be able to comment on it live,” executive producer Tom Werner said. “We’re going to shoot the first show at 5 o’clock [Pacific] which is 8 o’clock after the polls close in New Hampshire and be able to comment on what other people are talking about.”
Executive producer Bruce Rasmussen said regardless of who wins the primary, the theme of the episode is to encourage voting.
“It’s more just about just a certain cynicism about do you matter as a voter?” Rasmussen said. “We’re trying to make the point that it does matter. A lot of us start to get cynical about it. You can’t complain about things if you don’t engage.”
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