The Jackie Thomas Show

Critics drew many comparisons between the premise of The Jackie Thomas Show and Roseanne and Tom Arnold's real lives. Like Jackie Thomas, Tom Arnold had worked at a meatpacking plant and as a nightclub comic before realizing fame and fortune in the sitcom world.[2][6] The Arnolds were also notorious for quarreling with Roseanne's writing staff and firing writers on a whim, much like the fictional Thomas.[2][7] The couple acknowledged the similarities; Tom Arnold was quoted, "We wanted to take the show-business end of our lives and mix the public perception of us and the reality of us and put them into the show--the images of what people think maybe we did or what they've read that we did."[2]

Roseanne said, "All the work we do is personal. It's based on my kids, my family. You just take it from real life. That's the funniest stuff."[2]

Such comparisons were bolstered by a BBC documentary, Feeding the Monster, which depicted the backstage activity behind the writing, rehearsal and filming of the season four Roseanne episode "Santa Claus."[7] Although the documentary didn't mention The Jackie Thomas Show, the Los Angeles Times' Jeff Kaye said that "the documentary unveils a real-life, parallel universe to the new series."[7] Kaye wrote that "the show's writers live in constant terror, their exhausting work-weeks punctuated by Pepto-Bismol swigging and all-night writing sessions. They are emotionally battered and their life expectancy on the show is short."[7] The segment aired in Britain but was omitted from the documentary's American broadcast on the Showtime cable channel, due to Roseanne Arnold's relationship with Showtime's rival HBO.[7]

Soon after the show's premiere, Roseanne Arnold received widespread attention when she faxed vitriolic, profanity-laced messages to three television critics who had reviewed Jackie Thomas: Ray Richmond of the Los Angeles Daily News; Matt Roush of USA Today; and Rosenberg of the Los Angeles Times.[9][10][11] Roseanne told the media that the messages were sent in "self-defense" and that the critics in question had chosen to make personal attacks on the Arnolds instead of responding to the show itself.[9] She said, "Generally what emerges in these reviews is fear and loathing of women. It's very misogynistic. Something needs to be done. These people are affecting the revenues of the work Tom does and I do."[9] She defended her use of the anti-gay epithet "faggot" in her letter to Roush, saying that her comments were "based on personal things I know about him."[9][11] In a later interview, Tom Arnold said he supported his wife's efforts and said the epithet was an "anti-[Roush] term."[6]

In January 1993, the Arnolds began to publicly discuss a potential renewal from ABC for a second season of The Jackie Thomas Show, despite the network's repeated refusal to make a decision before May.[22] ABC did order four more episodes of Jackie Thomas in early February, a few days after an ABC spokeswoman said the network was "very happy" with the show's ratings, which at that point had averaged a 15.7 (ninth among 121 series) since its December debut.[23][24] Later that month, Tom Arnold told multiple sources that ABC had told the Arnolds that the series would be renewed; ABC declined to confirm the report.[25][26]

During an April 13 appearance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Roseanne Arnold told Jay Leno that she was considering taking Roseanne to another network following the 1993-1994 season if ABC did not renew Jackie Thomas.[27][28] Such a possibility had been previously mentioned—but immediately dismissed—by Tom Arnold on the talk show Charlie Rose in January.[22] The morning after The Tonight Show interview, Roseanne repeated the threat in a phone interview on the KTLA Morning News, saying "We don't want to be in business with people who make bad decisions."[29] Tom Arnold told KTLA that if Jackie Thomas were cancelled, he would star in a new sitcom on CBS, the same network that had wooed David Letterman from NBC a few months earlier.[28][29]

In the KTLA interview, Roseanne repeated Tom Arnold's claim that ABC had previously told the couple that Jackie Thomas would be renewed. "I feel I deserve to be treated more honestly," she said. "Coming over to my house and promising me that the show is going to be on and then acting like they didn't ever say it...I am hurt, and I have given them a good show and product."[28]

ABC president Robert Iger responded to the Arnolds in an April 21 news conference, where he maintained that the network would make no commitments until May and stated that the power to move Roseanne to another network rested with the show's producers, Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner of Carsey-Werner Productions, and not with the Arnolds.[30] Iger expressed his resentment that the Arnolds had made the issue so public.[30][31] He also assessed Jackie Thomas as having performed "reasonably well under the circumstances" in terms of ratings.[31] Although it placed 16th among 142 prime-time network shows for the season, The Jackie Thomas Show had lost about a quarter of Roseanne's viewers on average, garnering a 23% audience share compared to the 31% share brought in by Roseanne.[30][31][32]

In an interview published in the April 23 issue of The New York Times, Roseanne said that her relationship with ABC was "absolutely over."[32]

On Friday, May 7, Tom Arnold announced that he would wait no longer for a decision from ABC and was quitting The Jackie Thomas Show to develop a new sitcom for CBS.[33][34] Both networks declined to comment.[33] The following Monday, ABC debuted its fall prime-time schedule and officially canceled Jackie Thomas along with nine other shows.[35] "The cancellation was made solely on the basis of ratings performance in the time period," ABC spokesman Steve Battaglio said.[36] Less than a week later, the Arnolds announced that ABC Entertainment had signed a multi-series deal, including "on the air commitments," with the couple's production company Wapello County Productions.[37]

On May 20, 1993, CBS confirmed that Tom Arnold would be starring in a half-hour sitcom, titled Tom, about a blue-collar worker living in a trailer with his five children.[38] CBS committed to a 12-episode on-air commitment for the new show, which was later scheduled for a March 1994 debut.[39] Tom Arnold convinced his former Jackie Thomas co-star Alison LaPlaca to leave her commitment to another series in order to play his wife on Tom, replacing another actress who had already begun work.[39] Tom did not garner high ratings and was cancelled in May 1994.[40]

In November 1994, Tom and Roseanne Arnold divorced.[41] Roseanne remained on ABC until the show's finale in 1997.[42]