Questions like: Could the erstwhile Aunt Becky really have done this?
What does it mean for her freedom?
And what about the futures of her children, whom she and husband, fashion designer Mossimo Giannulli, are accused of paying $500,000 in bribes to secure their admission to USC as members of the school's rowing team, despite neither girl ever having participated in the sport?
And then, of course, what happens next for her various TV commitments, including the upcoming final season of Netflix's Fuller House and the just-debuted sixth season of Hallmark Channel's When Calls the Heart?
It's a question that producers and executives working on both projects were no doubt asking themselves as well, in those first few hours after Loughlin's world was forever turned upside down.
And oddly enough, they weren't even the first this year to find themselves in such a rare predicament.
A day after Loughlin's news broke, the Fox drama Empire returned with its midseason premiere, in which all the scripted theatrics involving the Lyon family were completely overshadowed by a turbulent few weeks of press involving one of the show's leads, Jussie Smollett. As you'll recall, in less than a month, the actor-singer, who's starred as Jamal Lyon since the show's debut in 2015, went from self-reported victim of supposed racist, homophobic hate crime to alleged mastermind behind a staged attack, arrested on February 20 for filing a false police report, followed by a 16-count felony indictment on March 7.
In the time since public sentiment has turned considerably on Smollett, who once had the full support of his cast and crew, not to mention activists and fans nationwide, he's maintained his innocence. And yet, creator Lee Daniels, his team of producers, and the powers-that-be at Fox were forced to contend with what, exactly, to do with him. He has the presumption of innocence until proven guilty, of course, but with the court of public opinion already seemingly rendering its verdict and the media circus that had swallowed Smollett whole, there were still the careers of everyone else attached to Empire to think about—not to mention the bottom line for the network footing the show's bill.
Daniels and Co. no doubt looked back on what little precedent there was for such a situation in the recent annals of TV history as they made their decision regarding Smollett's future on the series. And while there is truly no situation quite like Smollett's in the record books—or Loughlin's, for that matter—there have been moments in the past few years where producers have been forced into the unenviable position of policing their stars' bad behavior—alleged or otherwise—to the point of eventual termination.
There was, of course, the great Roseanne Barr debacle of 2018, wherein the sitcom icon's uncontrollable tweeting, rife with its conspiracy theories and repeated offensive taunts, took the single best success story of that TV season and brought it all crumbling down. ABC's revival of Roseanne had been one of the highest-rated shows of the season, a major ratings win for a network that needed one, earning a renewal just three days after it premiered.
But when Barr tweeted her now infamous tweet at former President Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett on May 29, a week after the season finale aired, likening the African-American woman to someone out of Planet of the Apes, ABC and their parent company Disney sprung into action and swiftly canceled the series. "Roseanne's Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show," Channing Dungey, then-president of ABC Entertainment, said in a statement.
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