It would be entirely reasonable for Roseanne Barr, 73, to pack up and retire. But she feels she still has a show in her – even if she has to pay for it herself. The question remains whether anyone will buy it.
At her peak, she was the most powerful woman on television. Her “domestic goddess” stand-up persona became a favorite of Johnny Carson. She eventually earned $1 million per episode from her groundbreaking sitcom. Roseannea ratings juggernaut for ABC in its original run from 1988 to 1997.
Controversy has never been far from Barr, who has spoken openly about her own mental health struggles and been open about her politics, which have become increasingly right-wing and conspiratorial.
But nothing has compared to 2018, the year ABC abruptly canceled a highly rated show. Roseanne reboot after Barr posted an offensive tweet about former Barack Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett, who is half-black, saying she looked like she had “a baby between the Muslim Brotherhood and the Planet of the Apes.” The show was reorganized as The Connerskilling off Barr’s character via a drug overdose, and aired for seven seasons. Eight years later, Barr maintains that the tweet was not racist and that she criticized Jarrett for his sympathy for the Iranian regime.
Shunned by Hollywood, Barr is now going the independent route, with a self-financed single-camera sitcom called Meemaw: a modern-day fable. In the series, loosely based on her life in Texas Hill Country, she plays the matriarch of a mixed-race family (Drea de Matteo plays her daughter, Omar Gooding plays her son-in-law) who breaks the law while trying to raise money for her granddaughter’s bat mitzvah. Randy Quaid is also there as the local sheriff.
The Hollywood Reporter I had a glimpse of Meemawwhich sees Barr go wild in thrift store furs during cockfights – closer to a trailer park comedy like My name is Earl that the three-camera distribution of Roseanne.
Barr called THR for an in-depth conversation about his career, his cancellation, and his comeback hopes.
What is this Meemaw: a modern-day fable about?
She’s about a patriotic grandmother who is the matriarch of a mixed-race family of preppers in Texas.
What are the races?
Black and white. Her son-in-law is black and her daughter is Jewish and Cuban.
What is a preparer?
Someone preparing for the end of the world.
Is it based on your own life?
Yeah. I’m a prepper. I live in Texas. Everyone is a preparer here.
I heard there was a bat mitzvah involved in the plot?
She knows she must give her granddaughter a bat mitzvah because it is part of their Jewish culture. So one day, she receives a message from the Good Lord telling her that she must take matters into her own hands if she wants to be able to afford the greatest bat mitzvah that has ever taken place in Bovine, Texas.
Which probably wouldn’t cost that much.
And she uses everything at her disposal, namely her multi-faith prayer group and her once-dormant sexuality.
Is he no longer asleep? Who is she sleeping with?
Well, you have to watch. But Randy Quaid plays my romantic interest.
This is not filmed in front of a live studio audience like Roseanne was?
No, that’s not the case. I haven’t really shown it to anyone yet. But it’s so funny. It’s the funniest shit I’ve ever done, and I had a lot of fun and I’m playing a really wacky old lady this time.
Randy Quaid is pretty wacky on social media. What is he like on set?
I am in love with him and I wish he would leave his wife and marry me. I enjoyed kissing with him so much that I wrote additional scenes where we would kiss.
What is the plan now with the show? Where can we see it?
Anyone who wants a number one show and is smart enough to win a number one show. I don’t know why they don’t want a number one series, why they hate a number one series and why they would destroy a number one series. But if they want a number one series, I’ve got it.
How did you pay for that? Did you pay out of pocket?
I prostituted myself on Hollywood Boulevard. (It was actually a co-production between Barr and Just the News founder John Solomon, who also shared production costs.)
You mentioned contacting Elon Musk about this project.
I don’t know why he didn’t call me or call me back. I mean, of all the people on earth, I’m the one he should call, but I don’t know.
Did you use a union team?
Oh, damn, honey, I’m still talking about the union and the wages of American workers. Hell yeah. I never changed on that. This is why I am no longer a Democrat.
Let’s go back to when Roseanne returned to ABC in 2018. It premiered to 18 million people.
No, that’s not the case. Bitch, it ain’t, bitch. It premiered to 28 million people.
Sorry, I was talking about same day viewing. Viewership increased significantly when delayed viewing was taken into account.
You better update your files, Mr. Man.
Honestly, I’m glad I was wrong just to hear you call me a slut.
Oh my God. I haven’t even had my morning cocktail yet. I’m nervous.
Did these audiences give you the impression of justifying your appeal to the general public?
I didn’t think of things that way. I thought about it and said, “Oh my God, the American people want to see something that speaks to them again.” » I aligned myself with the, what do we call it? The spirit of the times. I exploited the spirit of the times again. I knew I hadn’t lost my connection to people’s hearts.
I was so excited to go back and say something new that hadn’t been said about the workers in the backbone of this country. And they never liked it, the network people, and they tried to derail me. I see that now. They tried to derail me every step of the way. Meemaw That’s all they wouldn’t allow me to do.
Seems like this series lets you heal from a lot of the pain caused by what happened with the Roseanne restart.
Absolutely. And a lot of the healing happens through my scenes with Omar Gooding, who plays my son-in-law. He’s also a stand-up comedian and he’s a black man. I encountered a lot of resistance when casting black actors.
You mean black actors didn’t want to audition for you?
We had a lot of really great black actors audition for the role. A lot of people said no, they wouldn’t do it. “How could a black person work with me? » It hurt me.
Let’s talk about the Valerie Jarrett tweet that got you fired. You claimed you didn’t know she was black. Can you explain?
It wasn’t a racist tweet. It wasn’t about race, it was about politics. In reality, it was a three-month conversation between me and Iranian journalists talking about attacks primarily on Iranian women in the streets.
And what I meant was the Muslim Brotherhood, of which Valerie Jarrett is a part. (Barr offers no evidence for this claim.) Planet of the Apes is my favorite movie. (Writer) Rod Serling said it was an analogy to what the Nazis did to the Jews. I’ve always called the Iranian government Planet of the Apes, because that’s exactly what it does. In the movie Planet of the Apesa militarized police force arrests human beings for speaking and reading, and that is exactly what they did to Iranian women. It’s a film about fascism, it’s not a film about black people.
You said something happened before the tweet and you felt like you lost control of the show. What was it?
I called the editor and said, “When are we going to get back together to outline season 2?” » Because I was pretty much the editor of the ceremony, right? It was my show, and I outlined and revised every storyline in the writers’ room that season. And the guy says to me, “Oh, the writers are already back. » I couldn’t believe what I heard. I said, “How long have they been back?” “Oh, at least a month. But all the writers really want you to stop by.” It was these words that struck me so much. It was like being hit with a board. I knew at that point, “Oh my God, they took my show. I gave them a number one show, they took it away.”
What was (producer) Tom Werner’s role in all of this?
Looks like (he was behind it).
Why did you clash with him in the first series of Roseanne?
Because he was trying to steal the spotlight from me. He tried to kick me off my own show and then steal it from me. Man, it goes deep, man. So I drank a few beers, took Ambien, went to bed, had my computer in bed with me, which I always do because I can’t sleep. I wake up and that’s where my brain is. They took my show. I felt sorry for myself. Hell, that’s the reward I get for giving them a number one show, let them take it from me. (Werner did not respond to a request for comment.)
How did you find out you were fired?
At 8 a.m. my boyfriend says, “Hey, ABC is on the phone. » And I say: “Why?” He responds: “Because you tweeted something.” And I said, “I deleted that.” » He responds, “Well, they get it and they say it’s racist.” » And I said, I quote, and everyone in the house heard me, I said: “The Muslim is not a race. » And my boyfriend says, “No, they say she’s black.” And I’m like, “Oh, fuck. What?”
And so I called ABC again and they played me, and it was Ben Sherwood. And the first thing he said to me was, “What possible excuse can you have for the egregious thing you did?” »
And so I swallow hard and say, “Well, I thought she was white.”
And I just knew. So I say, “Don’t cancel my show. You’re not going to cancel my show, are you?” I say, “I’ll do anything. I’ll go on any of your news shows. Let me explain. Let me explain to you what I meant. Let me apologize.”
And he said to…
Gn entert
