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Roseanne Barr has some choice words for her Roseanne co-star Sara Gilbert. In a new interview with The Washington Post, Barr addressed the tweet that she believes got Roseanne canceled — not her own about Valerie Jarrett, but Gilbert’s. “She destroyed the show and my life with that tweet,” said Barr, referencing a May 29 tweet that called Barr’s comments about Jarrett “abhorrent.”
Geoff Edgers’ Washington Post interview takes a deep-dive into the tweet that got the Roseanne revival canceled after its first season. Early in the morning on May 29, Barr posted a tweet equating Jarrett, a former Obama aide, to a child born of “the muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes.” Barr’s post was immediately slammed as racist, including by then-ABC president Channing Dungey, who called it “abhorrent, repugnant, and inconsistent with our values.” Just a few minutes before ABC canceled Roseanne outright, Gilbert echoed Dungey’s sentiment, saying that Barr’s comments were “abhorrent and do not reflect the beliefs of our cast and crew or anyone associated with our show.”
Almost one year later, Barr still can’t forgive Gilbert for posting that message. “She destroyed the show and my life with that tweet,” said Barr. She will never get enough until she consumes my liver with a fine Chianti.”
When reached for comment, Gilbert told The Washington Post that she holds no ill will towards her former co-star. “While I’m extremely disappointed and heartbroken over the dissolution of the original show, she will always be family, and I will always love Roseanne,” she said.
Almost a month after ABC canceled Roseanne, the network revived the series as The Conners, a spin-off featuring the entire original cast (including Gilbert), minus Barr. The spin-off killed off Roseanne’s character with an opioid overdose in the first episode, a move that Barr called unnecessarily “grim and morbid.” She released a lengthy statement after the premiere aired, saying that “this was a choice the network did not have to make.”
Barr is still shocked at how the Roseanne cancellation, as well as the eventual Conners pickup, unfolded. She told the Washington Post that she begged ABC not to take such swift action, but she was ultimately ignored. Said Barr, “I can’t believe that it takes them a year to get paper towels in the bathroom, but Disney in 40 minutes decided to fire me from my own creation.”
