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criticism illustrates a fractured media landscape.
“When you get big numbers, you kind of have to expect some kind of extra scrutiny. And because of the way the internet works, and the clicks on news articles, the most negative stories get the most pickup,” she said.
“Overall, I’m so grateful that people are watching and supporting us,” she added. “Overall, I think the experience has been very positive.”
The show’s writers regroup May 29 to start working on the next season, which will have 13 episodes. Whitney Cum- mings, who had been co-show runner with Helford, will not return, but comedians Wanda Sykes and Norm Macdonald are back.
New to the staff will be comedian Ali Liebegott (“Transparent”), Emily Wilson
(“AP Bio”), Ted Jessup (“Family Guy”) and comedian Jena Friedman, who has written for “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.”
“We have a lot of new voices, younger voices, which I think is important on the show,” Helford said. “We run a democratic room, almost nobody has a stronger voice than anybody else; everybody’s input is there.”
Barr stressed that an unusual number of female writers were being added. “We have all points of view in our writers’ room. It’s kind of like conducting an orchestra of opinion. I like it. That’s what I do best,” she said.
Gilbert said she wants the new season to focus on the characters’ “emotional lives,” including Roseanne’s addiction and her own character’s romantic life. But both Gilbert and Barr said the show would not shy away from tough issues.
“I think we want to talk about the same struggles that we believe working-class Americans have, so we’re always going to address those. That’s inherently political on some level. That doesn’t mean we’re going to be talking about any particular candi- date’s policies. But we’ve never done that,” Gilbert said.
Barr agreed, saying that she and the writers are not finished discussing the big issues that were raised on the show this year. None have been wrapped up and put to the side.
“We tried to hit all the big ones that never make it to TV. And we’re going to continue to do that. Everything that we laid out in this season gives you a clue of where we’ll be going in the next one.”
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Mark Kennedy is at http://twitter.com/ KennedyTwits
Mount Rushmore to undergo $14M renovation
KEYSTONE, S.D. (AP) — The Mount Rushmore National Memorial is getting
a $14 million upgrade, though the carved heads of U.S. presidents won’t be touched.
Maureen McGee-Ballinger is chief of interpretation and education at the pop- ular landmark. She tells the Rapid City Journal that the construction is mostly overdue maintenance work.
The largest change funded by the $14 million congressional appropriation
will be a streamlined avenue of flags. McGee-Ballinger says the flags will be placed onto concrete structures along the walkway’s sides so people in wheelchairs can more easily access plaques memorial- izing states.
Other upgrades include removing part of the rock pergola to better reveal the terrace and installing lanterns to reduce light pollution.
The grand terrace will close during
the renovations, but the avenue of flags, bookstore and cafeteria will remain open.
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