Roseanne, 7th Heaven and The Cosby Show: All the TV Shows Pulled Because of Their Stars' Scandals
Roseanne isn’t the only beloved show to suffer because of a lead actor.
From reruns being pulled to shocking cancellations, PEOPLE is looking back at the scandals surrounding 7th Heaven and The Cosby Show.
Roseanne
On Tuesday, ABC canceled the return of its reboot — the no. 1 scripted series of the season with a 6.4 rating in the key demo, according to The Hollywood Reporter — after Roseanne Barr posted a racist tweet about former Barack Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett on Monday.
The actress compared Jarrett, who is black, to an ape before deleting her tweet.
“Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby = vj,” she wrote, using Jarrett’s initials in response to a tweeted conspiracy theory about the Obama administration.
Barr tweeted Wednesday morning that she “mistakenly thought [Jarrett] was white.”
“Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show,” president of ABC Entertainment Channing Dungey announced in a statement Tuesday.
7th Heaven
After 11 seasons, audiences said goodbye to the Camden family in 2007. Following the wildly popular family-friendly show’s cancellation, the series continued to air reruns on cable channels — until news broke of Stephen Collins‘ inappropriate behavior toward minors.
In October 2014, Collins, who starred as father of five and Reverend Eric Camden, was investigated for child molestation due to revelations he made to his estranged wife Faye Grant.
Following news of the scandal, Entertainment Weekly reported that both UP TV and TVGuide Network pulled reruns of the show.
Caryn Moss, a mother of two young actors who had parts on the show years ago, said at the time that her children would feel the financial effects of this scandal. According to TMZ, Niki Saletta and her brother Sam Saletta, who were both child actors in non-starring roles on the show, stopped receiving residual paychecks for their appearances now that reruns are no longer airing.
As for the major stars of the show, including Jessica Biel, experts estimated that each likely earned upwards of six figures annually in residuals from the show’s reruns.
Two months after news broke, Collins released a lengthy statement to PEOPLE in which he admitted to inappropriate sexual conduct with three female minors. In vivid detail, Collins explained how there were three victims from 1973 to 1994, and how “I have not had an impulse to act out in any such way” in the last 20 years.
“Forty years ago, I did something terribly wrong that I deeply regret. I have been working to atone for it ever since,” he said.
He also addressed the recording that surfaced in October in which he is heard admitting to the allegations during a therapy session with his then-wife Grant.
“On the recording, I described events that took place 20, 32 and 40 years ago,” Collins told PEOPLE. “The publication of the recording has resulted in assumptions and innuendos about what I did that go far beyond what actually occurred. As difficult as this is, I want people to know the truth.”
He also revealed that he had since met with one of the victims. “I did have an opportunity to do so with one of the women, 15 years later. I apologized and she was extraordinarily gracious.”
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The Cosby Show
Last month, Bill Cosby was convicted of drugging and sexually assaulting former Temple University employee Andrea Constand in January 2004.
Cosby was convicted on three aggravated indecent sexual assault charges, each of which carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years. The comedian, who did not testify during his trial, denied similar allegations from more than 60 women.
Prior to his April 2018 conviction, the image of the eight-season sitcom, which aired from 1984-92, was tarnished as a result of Cosby.
In November 2014, TV Land pulled its reruns of The Cosby Show. And one day after court documents revealed Cosby admitted in a 2005 deposition to giving drugs to a woman he then had sex with, Bounce TV and BET’s Centric Network pulled the plug on the show’s syndication.
Tom Werner, who helped create The Cosby Show, opened up to several media outlets in July 2015 about the scandal and the effect that the rape allegations will have on the show’s legacy.
“I certainly think that at the moment, the show is tarnished,” he admitted to TV Insider. “But hopefully people can distinguish between the show and Bill. I think about all the great episodes that we’ve done and the impact that it had. I’m certainly hoping that people can continue to watch it.”
