An epidemic of gun violence in America struck near home on Wednesday Connors.
Written by TV star Lesie Goranson, the dramatic episode interrupted Louise’s return home with the word that someone had been shot at Lanford Woods Mall, where Emilio had just taken Beverly Rose. Locked inside, helpless Becky stood in frozen panic while the rest of the family clung to the news.
Eventually, Emilio called and informed Becky that he and their daughter were healthy and healthy. Moments later, the family witnessed the shooter, identified as a former classmate of Harris James McNulty, shot dead on live television. Prolonged trauma sparked a wider talk of gun violence, as well as Dan’s insistence on holding a firearm in case he ever needed it for protection.
Below, Goranson and executive producers Bruce Helford and Dave Kaplan break up the intense episode …
TVLINE | Lesie, you have a previous “Story by” credit for “Season Throwing Christian”, but this is the first episode you wrote. Tell me how this opportunity came about.
GORANSON | Well, the opportunity was created by itself. [Laughs] Although, you know, we had to get some guys to sign it. In fact, I put it in my contract [this season]. Since I’m a Chicago resident, my ear is always on… I don’t know, John Hancock Center or something. Just like the Bears [episode] He came out of me and said, “Hey, wait a minute! Is this the Chicago area or what? If we’re in this area, we need to talk about sports, “gun violence is so prevalent in Chicago that everyone is talking about it. It’s everywhere – in the suburbs, in the center, in the bad neighborhoods, the good neighborhoods, it’s everywhere – and I had the feeling that we can’t talk about Lanford without talking about it, unfortunately.
TVLINE | I understand that this episode was inspired by a conversation you had with a teacher you met in Chicago?
GORANSON | I sat with my father and watched the Northwestern production Joseph and the amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat. There was a woman with her daughter next to me, and she said, “I know who you are, I’m watching the show. I teach at Elgin, where Lanford is based, and if you want to write something, write about gun violence because it happens. That was two years ago, before COVID, and look what happened in the last two years. More weapons have been bought and sold in America than ever before. Gun violence is on the rise, gun-related suicides are on the rise, gun accidents are on the rise … The first day I was in the writers’ room, I was getting texts from my friends in Evanston because there were guns found in Evanston High School. I don’t know how much more on the nose you can get out of this, but it’s true. This is happening in our country.
TVLINE | Did you approach the outlines of this episode differently? For example, did you start by making sure you hit all the dramatic punches first before going back and seeing where the jokes fit?
CAPLAN | This is always our approach The Connors familywhich is, “What is it that we want to say is fair and can be filtered through Connors’ working class?” funny in a way.
HELFORD | The manta is: “We do the real thing funny. We’re not trying to make it funny real”
GORANSON | However, this was complicated because this is a topic that no one wants to talk about. And that’s something I’ve really been coming home to since this process started for me. When I mention it to friends and talk about the process, it’s remarkable to hear how many people have to say and how many people have experienced it. This is just an example of how widespread it really is. Interestingly, there is this “liberal Hollywood” against people who love guns. But when you look at Hollywood, there are weapons everywhere – and it’s not like they’re used [in media] and then whatever happens is reflected [in the story]. Usually it’s just “Bang! Bang! Bum! ”
TVLINE | The shooter is revealed to be a former classmate of Harris’s, a child named James McNulty. Why did you decide to identify the shooter?
HELFORD | Mostly to find out what the reaction was … It’s easy to dismiss when it’s just a random person no one knows. When that happens, there are a lot of people who have a story with the shooter, a person who has parents and loved ones, no matter what disgusting thing they may have done.
CAPLAN | This is also our way of saying that you may not have been personally touched by gun violence yet, but it is so widespread and so ubiquitous in every community and it ultimately comes to you because we really don’t do too much. on the issue. He came to Connors this particular week, but yours is next, or mine is next, and we want everyone to feel that it’s not a problem that you can say is “there a problem.” This is a “problem everywhere and everywhere.”
TVLINE | Harris points out that McNulty’s kid “has problems, but we all have them” and he’s not the first of her classmates she’d expect to go and do. Why was it important to make this distinction?
GORANSON | I think there is a myth that anyone who shoots with a gun must have a mental illness. This is also a problem, of course. I think the question here is, “What’s different? this person with a gun? “There are a lot of people who have twists in their lives, for whatever reason. I’m not saying that is the case with James McNulty, but a lot of people just have a bad day fighting and shooting someone. People who are annoyed. people who lose their jobs … All these things in life that are really highlighted and exaggerated by COVID are real, you can’t just attribute everything to mental illness.
TVLINE | I found myself saddened by Mary’s initial response to the shooting. Here is this young woman you expect to show fear. Instead, she initially showed readiness after going through countless active shooting practice at school …
GORANSON | We show someone who is so prepared to go through these exercises, which are very common – a burden that is placed on the majority of our children, which is really pathetic and sad. But what happens when gun violence does happen, then what? How prepared are these children for this? What about the trauma? How about fear and a sense of security, just going to school or going somewhere?
CAPLAN | This is one of the important conclusions of the show. Connors’ working-class community does not have enough resources to deal with the trauma of gun violence, so it takes Mary weeks to come in and see a school psychologist because there is only one school psychologist for every 1,500 children in this school district, which is typical of many of these school districts. And then, when Becky has to go talk to someone, she has to wait three hours on the sidewalk to go to a counselor. And Dan would probably like to sit down and process his thoughts, but he has to get up and go to work. So what about the resources in these underserved communities? Where are they when the headlines fade from the violence and people deal with it [trauma] for days, months and years? Where is the help for them?
GORANSON | There is something ironic in the fact that these children are ready to save their lives, but there are no tools to recover from this violence.
TVLINE | Becky is dealing with a rather severe injury – and as she admits here, she can no longer drink to deal with her problems. Has there ever been a discussion about researching Becky’s desire to drink more in this episode?
GORANSON | We said it was a potentially bigger moment, yes. I mean, the episode is called “Triggered,” and if something is going to recur, thinking that your daughter might be shot is a good candidate. In my outline, I initially made her call her sponsor because she didn’t have any other resources … but I think it’s really reasonable for her to admit that she usually handles the situation that way.
HELFORD | We felt it was important to admit [her sobriety]because the American saying “I need a good, hard drink” is still quite common – people just grab a beer or anything in a traumatic situation – and so we thought, well, that’s something Becky would do and we would we wanted him to admit it. We try to be as honest as possible, and that would be the moment she thought about it – not a moment of weakness, but certainly a moment of thought.
TVLINE | The first episode of Roseanne The Revival found that Dan had a gun in the house, but it has not reappeared. Did this always seem like the most logical way to debate the gun ownership?
HELFORD | Even further back than that, in the fifth season of Roseanne, we found out that Dan wants Rosie to have a gun in the lunch box. Steve Jones of the Sex Pistols [played a customer who] he was threatening her, and Dan wanted her to have a gun … He felt it needed protection, so he always felt it would be a natural part of this story. We wanted to comment on gun ownership and have a balance on both sides of the ongoing dispute. [among the family].
TVLINE | At one point I had planned to ask if you were considering keeping Louise back home for another episode, but the more I thought about it, the more logical it was that the two events would coincide. You can’t predict when something like this will happen …
HELFORD | This is difficult. You know, we didn’t expect Katie [Sagal] to be hit by a car, and we didn’t know when she would return. We had to keep writing the episodes [in her absence]not knowing when he would rejoin us, and he just happened to fall where he felt comfortable enough to be on the show and be mobile, so that was about it. [one]. We definitely wanted this element of “These things don’t happen with sinister winds in front of them.” It usually comes from clear skies and that’s how we wanted it to feel when it hit.
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