Tom Arnold was a showbiz joke in the early 1990s.
The unknown actor suddenly became a gossip mag regular in 1990 as Roseanne Barr's publicity-hungry husband. When she brought Arnold in as a writer on her hugely popular sitcom, there was a sense of coattail-riding. When she cast him on the show, and, two years later, convinced ABC to give him his own sitcom, this sense curdled for some into fact. And when several prominent TV critics shredded the series, Barr created a PR crisis by firing off nasty faxes to the naysayers (including a homophobia-tinged screed to USA Today's Matt Roush that brought her bigotry to the fore decades prior to her Trump-era meltdown). It was all terribly ugly. Barr had more than enough Nielsen ratings juice to weather this storm, but Arnold's fame seemed to be nearing its fifteenth minute.
For those who didn't care about the media maelstrom,...
The unknown actor suddenly became a gossip mag regular in 1990 as Roseanne Barr's publicity-hungry husband. When she brought Arnold in as a writer on her hugely popular sitcom, there was a sense of coattail-riding. When she cast him on the show, and, two years later, convinced ABC to give him his own sitcom, this sense curdled for some into fact. And when several prominent TV critics shredded the series, Barr created a PR crisis by firing off nasty faxes to the naysayers (including a homophobia-tinged screed to USA Today's Matt Roush that brought her bigotry to the fore decades prior to her Trump-era meltdown). It was all terribly ugly. Barr had more than enough Nielsen ratings juice to weather this storm, but Arnold's fame seemed to be nearing its fifteenth minute.
For those who didn't care about the media maelstrom,...
- 2/11/2024
- by Jeremy Smith
- Slash Film
Hard to imagine, but it’s 25 years ago today that Paramount released Tommy Boy, the road-trip comedy that featured the best representation of the movie star potential of Chris Farley. Paired with Saturday Night Live castmate and close friend David Spade, Farley’s athleticism and physical comic ability was used to maximum effect in a career cut way short as a life of excess caught up to him and he died at age 33 in 1997. Only two years after his breakout performance. Here, director Pete Segal recalls the unforgettable experience of working with him.
Deadline: Farley fans have his SNL skits and this movie to remind us of his combustible talent. How are you feeling on this quarter-century anniversary?
More from DeadlineBart & Fleming: How Pandemic Compares To Other Crises That Shook Hollywood; How Exhibs & Studios Can Use This Moment To Restore Moviegoing MojoCecily Strong To Star In Musical Comedy Nearing Series...
Deadline: Farley fans have his SNL skits and this movie to remind us of his combustible talent. How are you feeling on this quarter-century anniversary?
More from DeadlineBart & Fleming: How Pandemic Compares To Other Crises That Shook Hollywood; How Exhibs & Studios Can Use This Moment To Restore Moviegoing MojoCecily Strong To Star In Musical Comedy Nearing Series...
- 3/31/2020
- by Mike Fleming Jr
- Deadline Film + TV
The marriage of Roseanne Barr and Tom Arnold was a tumultuous affair that provided the public with a lot of raucous entertainment. For those working around them at the time, it was also a crazy adventure.
Emmy Award-winning producer and screenwriter David Fury worked with the former couple on "The Jackie Thomas Show," which they co-created in 1992 while "Roseanne" was still a top-rated program. On HuffPost Live Thursday, Fury said writing for that sitcom was one of his most memorable projects because there was "something really exhilarating about being in the eye of the storm that was the craziness of those two."
"It was insane," Fury told HuffPost Live's Jacob Soboroff. "Coke-fueled rages, people fired left and right, there were fights between Tom Arnold and Julia Louis Dreyfus parking in his spot. You can't be thrown into show business more violently than working for Roseanne and Tom."
"The Jackie Thomas Show...
Emmy Award-winning producer and screenwriter David Fury worked with the former couple on "The Jackie Thomas Show," which they co-created in 1992 while "Roseanne" was still a top-rated program. On HuffPost Live Thursday, Fury said writing for that sitcom was one of his most memorable projects because there was "something really exhilarating about being in the eye of the storm that was the craziness of those two."
"It was insane," Fury told HuffPost Live's Jacob Soboroff. "Coke-fueled rages, people fired left and right, there were fights between Tom Arnold and Julia Louis Dreyfus parking in his spot. You can't be thrown into show business more violently than working for Roseanne and Tom."
"The Jackie Thomas Show...
- 3/2/2013
- by Lindsay Wilkes-Edrington
- Huffington Post
It was the wedding that rocked Hollywood: Sitcom diva Roseanne Barr said "I do" to comedian (and Roseanne writer-actor) Tom Arnold on Jan. 20, 1990 -- a mere four days after she divorced her husband of nearly 16 years, Bill Pentland. At the reception, Arnold famously bellowed, "We're America's worst nightmare: white trash with money!" The couple's tabloid-ready antics -- out-of-control spending and tyrannical behavior on the Roseanne set, along with Barr's dabbling in plastic surgery -- were chronicled meticulously by the press, and the public happily devoured every morsel of the soap opera. Of course, fans were also eating up Roseanne, which was television's No.
- 1/27/2010
- by Tanner Stransky
- EW.com - PopWatch
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