"Roseanne Barr Just Can't Shut Up," reads the headline of a lengthy Washington Post interview with the actress—a piece that looks at the "unusual, behind-the-scenes battle" by ABC and Roseanne producers that began at the end of 2017 to "protect their TV property" in the face of her controversial tweeting. The battle was ultimately futile. Geoff Edgers writes the tweet that really got things rolling was this one, written that December: "i won’t be censored or silence chided or corrected and continue to work. I retire right now. I’ve had enough. bye!" It prompted an email from then-ABC Entertainment Group head Channing Dungey to executive producer Tom Werner asking what was up. What followed, sources tell Edgers, was months of "nudging her to stop [tweeting] while also trying to keep from offending her." She didn't, even after her son tried changing her password to keep her off Twitter.
The reboot premiered in March; by May, Dungey told reporters season two would reel in the political content (Barr and her family insist her Trump support led to unfair treatment). Barr says she hadn't been consulted and "felt betrayed." That same month brought the infamous Valerie Jarrett tweet. An emergency meeting was held with ABC and Barr the next day; hours later, Roseanne got the ax. "I admit it," Barr tells Edgers. "I'm the queen of the f---ing trolls." But she lays the blame elsewhere: Co-star Sara Gilbert "destroyed the show and my life with that tweet," Barr says, referencing Gilbert's tweet, upon news of the cancellation, that Barr's remarks about "Jarrett and so much more" were "abhorrent." Says Barr, "She will never get enough until she consumes my liver with a fine Chianti." Read the full piece, which explains how her daughters are currently keeping her off Twitter, here. (More Longform stories.)
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