Why Did Chuck Lorre Take the Roseanne Rip-off?

After Chuck Lorre left Roseanne, the owners of that show brought an idea that was strangely like Roseanne: a heavyset unhappy housewife, a domineering husband, and problems with her kids. They took it to his boss, Bob Meyer, who saw a rip-off of Roseanne and said no. They then came to Chuck Lorre. He knew it was a rip-off of Roseanne and took it anyway. The two people who owned The Cosby Show and Roseanne were gigantic in television, and he wanted to work for them.

He worked with the British actress Miriam Margolyes, who tried hard to play an unhappy American housewife from Staten Island. Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner were powerful enough that the network did not pass. It ordered six episodes and put the series on at 8 o'clock Saturday night. Chuck Lorre called that the worst slot on network television, like making a show and using it for landfill. The network aired five episodes and did not air the sixth. He thought his career was over. A few days after the cancellation, Tom Werner came into the office, called the series the noble failure, and said to try again. Chuck Lorre had never put noble and failure in the same sentence.