Is anyone else shocked by the Oscar-caliber performances being given by everyone at ABC/Disney and everyone who ever worked for or with Roseanne Barr? They are so surprised, y’all! They were the most innocent little bunny rabbits, they were just born a mere three days ago, they never heard of anything to do with Roseanne Barr being an unhinged nutburger who spewed racist and bigoted hate speech for the better part of a decade. They never knew!! Until just now. They only learned about Roseanne’s hate speech this week! And as soon as they found out, they canceled her ABC sitcom reboot. They never knew before now, they swear! In addition to having her show canceled, Roseanne Barr was also dropped by her talent agency:
ICM Partners has dropped Roseanne Barr as a client, hours after the sitcom star sent a racist tweet that spurred ABC to cancel her top-rated sitcom.
“We are all greatly distressed by the disgraceful and unacceptable tweet from Roseanne Barr this morning,” ICM Partners said in a statement Tuesday. “What she wrote is antithetical to our core values, both as individuals and as an agency. Consequently, we have notified her that we will not represent her. Effective immediately, Roseanne Barr is no longer a client.”
Barr signed with ICM last August, just as the reboot of “Roseanne” went into production. Barr has long been known to hold out out-there views on politics and aspects of American culture. The actress has also been a vocal supporter of President Donald Trump, a character trait that was also given to her sitcom alter-ego, Roseanne Connor.
Yes, it was just about the ONE tweet, you guys. While it was an awful tweet – the one about Valerie Jarrett – Roseanne Barr has literally hate-tweeted for years now. She’s been racist and deplorable for a while now. What else? Not only is the a–hole’s show cancelled, but she’s not going to be getting any money from residuals either, because the reruns were just canceled too:
Viacom is pulling “Roseanne” reruns from its Paramount Network, TV Land and CMT channels, a person with knowledge of the decision told TheWrap on Tuesday. The syndication scheduling change, which follows ABC’s cancellation of the hit series’ recent revival, will go into effect tomorrow. Additionally, Laff, a digital network that programs reruns of sitcoms spanning the past few decades, has made the same call.
“While we believe viewers have always distinguished the personal behavior of the actress Roseanne Barr from the television character Roseanne Conner, we are disgusted by Barr’s comments this week,” a Laff spokesperson told us. “Therefore, we are removing the original ‘Roseanne’ series from the Laff schedule for the time being, effective immediately.”
I feel slightly more forgiving with this one – those cable networks have been airing the old version of the show for years, and there was likely some kind of long-standing syndication deal that withstood Roseanne Barr’s more recent racist episodes. Now, all that being said… I seriously cannot get over the performative quality of all of this outrage, from political commentators to journalists to industry professionals. (Oh, and Hulu is yanking her episodes too, good.)
Hey @ABC, Roseanne Barr compared Valerie Jarrett to an ape. There is no apology she can make that justifies @ABC turning a blind eye to this bigotry by airing another second of her show.
Even in the Age of Trump, there are red lines that can never be crossed. This is one.— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) May 29, 2018
But honestly she got what she deserved. As I tell my 4 year old, one makes a choice with one’s actions. Roseanne made a choice. A racist one. ABC made a choice. A human one.
— shonda rhimes (@shondarhimes) May 29, 2018
Watch this amazing Shep Smith intro about #Roseanne. 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/CyxWCFUkEr
— Rory Albanese (@RoryAlbanese) May 29, 2018
Photos courtesy of WENN.
Bye girl.
Good riddance to bad rubbish! I feel for the crew and other actors…
Because of her 100s people lost their jobs. Not just actors, but makeup artists, editors, people who pour coffee,… What a bitch.
I agree about the production staff/crew. They’d landed a steady, stable paycheck and now they’re all scrambling. What a horrible, selfish woman.
The crew were just as willing to work for a racist creep as the actors. From the top of ABC to the bottom of the last coffee cup, everyone associated with this show was complicit in Roseanne’s disgusting behavior.
@Megan, if you think crew member jobs fall from the sky and workers can pick and choose what TV shows they work on you would be mistaken. Maybe specialty makeup artists or set designers can pick and choose, but I think it’s highly unfair to blame the crew for Roseanne Barr’s behavior. This is on her and her alone.
(I’m saying this as someone who had a family member who was a script supervisor for many a television show back in the day. He went where he could find a paycheck and benefits to feed his family.)
@H Do you think acting work for Michael Fishman and Alicia Goranson is falling out of the sky? Why is their decision to work for Roseanne any different than the crew?
Megan, not to be rude, but clearly you’ve never been in a situation where you don’t have a whole lot of choice where you work or who you work for. I live in rural Kentucky and even though I graduated Summa Cum Laude from college and have lots of experience as a journalist and a patient care advocate, guess where I work now? Dairy Queen with some freelance writing on the side. There’s a good chance my manager could be a racist Trump supporter, idk. But there’s 100 percent chance I have bills to pay and a child to feed. So you might want to check your privilege a bit.
Thank you, @Shannon, you said that more eloquently than I ever could. I say this as a person who despite two masters degrees is now working tutoring special needs kids making half of what I used to. I put up with a rude, micromanaging, obnoxious boss for 3 years because I have a mortgage. Thank goodness he sold the business six months ago and now my current boss is lovely (and a woman!)
@Megan, Alicia and Michael if they are lucky and their parents managed their money correctly are trust fund babies from the original show. They may have been able to turn down the show and still be well off financially, but I doubt the key grip and electrician on the show have that luxury.
Same here: working as a medical doctor, if I would cancel every time I figure out, that someone in an executive position is a misogynist or a racist or a homophobe, I would have had to cancel every job I had at any clinic!
Medical doctors, especially in high positions with bloated egos, can be extreme inhumane a-holes! Sad, but true!
You can stand up, speak up, but be ready to loose your job.
That’s who I was thinking about. Actors and production people are now out of jobs because of her racist tweeting. Not only that, but all of the actors receiving residuals from past shows will no longer be getting a paycheck.
Those are the people I feel sorry for in all of this. They did nothing wrong and will be feeling the consequences of her actions.
I’m sad for the crew and cast, but maybe this will make people a little less likely to work for a known racist, sexist, whatever. When these a-holes tweet their disgusting truth, you’ll be out of a job. Don’t touch them with a ten foot pole, don’t hire them, don’t agree to work for them, and maybe they will get a clue!
Hey, I work in post production in Los Angeles and have for the last ten years or so. I have plenty of contacts, but I still never know where the next job is coming from. After ten years in the industry, this year for the very first time, I had two job offers at the same time. It literally had NEVER happened to me before and I send out LOTS of resumes when I am between jobs and looking. The assumption that we always have a choice in what kind of production we work on is insane, I’ve got Union dues and hours to keep up on and health insurance to worry about. Last year I worked on a Documentary that I HATED, but it paid the bills, so I did the job. That is WAY more common than you would think for the average crew member.
I agree and she couldn’t care less. She’s been making snarky replies on Twitter to the cast and crew who have tweeted against her racist comment. Went from apologizing to playing the victim in 10 seconds. Typical. She is so disgusting and I’ll be really disappointed if her former cast members continue friendships with her.
Yeah, i’m not here for this performative outrage. She has been tweeting VILE ish for years now, but it’s somehow now different because… because Valerie Jarrett is connected to the Obama administration? Really, what was the straw that broke the camel’s back here because all this while, the repugnant racism she has consistently displayed for forever landed her tv show contract. But nobody cares about Muslims until we’re literally hanging off a building trying to save a child so all was ok, i suppose. All of these people can ffffffff off.
Exactly. I don’t celebrate Bob Iger for enabling her for so long. Kill off Roseanne (the character, preferably in the most embarrassing way possible) and change the show to “The Connors.” You know, like they should have IN THE FIRST GODDAMN PLACE.
What really gets to me are Sara Gilbert’s tweets about Roseanne’s tweet not being in line with the values and beliefs of the show.
LIKE GIRL, ARE YOU STUPID?
You willingly signed the contract to appear on a show that was created to cater to a specific audience of people who behave and believe in the same thing that the titular character does.
Regardless of their actual political leanings, every faux-surprised and faux-outraged cast member were willing to set that aside for cash. And i get it, jobs are hard to come by in Hollywood, but don’t pull that card when it’s convenient. And her subsequent tweet about the show being more than the opinions of one cast member was even stupider than the first.
It makes me so mad that these people can take the moral high ground when they gave the platform and the ability for Roseanne to say and do these vile things in the first place. Kill off the character, and kill off the show. We don’t need it. We don’t need Roseanne’s legacy to continue, whether or not she’s physically present.
Leave it in the trash heap of history where it belongs and let her rot in her misery. I don’t care.
Going out of her way to attack a respected public figure was the final straw because of Black Lives Matter, Me Too, Time’s Up, etc. Grassroots organizations have been hard at work to prove to us that we don’t have to take this deplorable sh*t anymore. Roseanne and her ilk are getting the rude awakening they deserve.
It drives me crazy. It really does. Suddenly she’s too much. I am not buying what they are selling. I heard they got more than they bargained for and she was a bullying racist on set too. Shocker! It was a mess behind the scenes and she finally pissed off a connected person who gave them the excuse to dump the whole nightmare. She was aiming all along to make the show a platform for her whacked out beliefs and not this “dialog” they said it would be.
The only people I feel sorry for are the crew members. I can’t imagine you get a lot of say in what jobs you take if you want steady work.
The cast however, needs to stop with the moral outrage. She’s been a racist mess for years and all of them knew it and looked the other way when the opportunity for a reboot came up. They saw a lot of dollar signs and that was enough to make them conveniently forget how awful she was and the awful things she would use that platform for. They’re all complicit in this mess and if ABC hadn’t yanked the show they’d all still be doing it and trying to make excuses about how it isn’t their call to judge her on what she says.
MTE, I don’t feel sorry for the cast at all (except maybe the younger kids, as they probably weren’t aware of how awful a person Roseanne really is.) I mean, Sara Gilbert of all people sends out a tweet about how this “does not represent us” and etc, except she willingly worked with the woman! A known racist, homophobe, xenophobe…and now all of a sudden it’s too much?
The only ones who deserve any sympathy are the crew members.
I said I felt for the kids yesterday (esp the lil black girl who plays her grand daughter), their parents & agents/managers put them in the line of fire.
I *suspect* Gilbert thought she was going to be Barr’s Ivanka (Sykes & Cummings was her Kushner & Hicks?), hoping to “control” Barr
by complimenting and compromising all while personally capitalizing. But this level of depicable is LONG-SIMMERING & BONE DEEP, well beyond her reach/hubris.
The crew members also willingly and knowingly worked for a racist, homophobe, and xenophobe. Why are they deserving of sympathy?
But her tweet was in line with the values of the show. The show might not have been as overtly racist as her tweet, but it was certainly implicitly racist. The show broadcasted the following scene:
Dan: We missed all the shows about black and Asian families.
Roseanne: They’re just like us. There, now you’re all caught up.
The insinuation is that because minority families are just like the white Connors that minorities don’t need a platform, don’t need to be seen and don’t matter. Roseanne just took it to another level because she had gotten away with it for so long.
This is so puzzling to me. Not about Roseanne personally; she is vile, the end.
But I watched the original show, and it was extremely progressive at the time. Both Dan and Roseanne had black friends, but it was never an issue or had a big deal made about it — when Dan’s poker buddies would come over to the house, one of them was the actor who now plays the Chief Surgeon on Grey’s Anatomy (I’m blanking on his name, sorry— and he came back for the revival as well!) He was just one of the guys and that was that. His wife would usually come along to hang out with Roseanne and her sister and their other friends, and again, the color of her skin was never a plot point, she was just one of the girls.
There were openly gay characters and they were never mocked or treated differently than any other character; they would have storylines about, for example, being nervous about meeting an in-law’s family for the first time, because they knew there were still a lot of people who wouldn’t approve of their relationship. But their interactions with Roseanne were just typical sitcom plot lines; their sexuality wasn’t constantly mentioned.
They also handled domestic violence better than any show I have EVER seen. I still get chills remembering how Roseanne and Dan reacted when they found out that Roseanne’s sister was being hit by her boyfriend.
I just find this so confusing because obviously Roseanne wasn’t just an actress on the show, she was the show runner as well and all of these characters and storylines would have been her decisions or approved by her. So what on earth happened to her that turned her from someone who wrote such a progressive, smart, funny show to the vile monster that she is now??
Last thing…her recent tweet was disgusting. That isn’t even up for debate. But personally, I found it FAR more offensive a few weeks ago when she dressed up as a Nazi and posed taking a sheet of burnt people-shaped cookies out of the oven, then posted the photo on Twitter. I’m honestly shocked that ABC thinks her comments about VJ are worse than *that*. Those comments were awful, but how many times was Michelle Obama subjected to being compared to an ape over 8 years? My blood pressure still shoots up when I remember how many times people called Michelle an ape. It was horrific. I am NOT saying this justifies Roseanne’s garbage tweets, I am just surprised that they didn’t cancel the show after the Nazi photo.
Just as an aside, The Cosby Show is still on in reruns…IIRC, it was said a while back that they were going to be pulled, and maybe they were for a while, but I happened to come across one the other day while flipping through the channels. So it is possible that Viacom will attempt to look heroic now, wait out the outrage, then slip the old seasons of Roseanne back on again after people have forgotten about this.
This will be unpopular but:
I’m sure every single person posting comments works with or has family that is racist/bigot/prejudice. Should everyone then quit their jobs so as to not be associated with that one person?
Roseannes views reflect her not anyone else.
Just like the women in a sexist pigs life shouldn’t have to answer for the action of the sexist pig, neither should employees who work with a racist.
We are not the judge and jury. Sure were entitled to our opinions but then so is Roseanne. It’s called the first amendment. You dont have to agree with anyone but they are allowed to post their opinions. Karma will get them, as Roseanne is learning the hard way.
@Wow
I understand what you are saying but this situation is different. Roseanne is a known racist lunatic and has been this way for quite some time. Her whole show was built on exploiting intolerance and bigotry. No one who signed on to work on this show did it without this knowledge.
I can’t choose my family and most people can’t choose co-workers but many wouldn’t go work for a company run by a known hatemonger.
Freedom of Speech is a myth in a way. We do have freedom of speech but it doesn’t mean we have the freedom not to be judged or criticized for what we say or avoid paying the consequences for what we have said.
We are the judge and jury. She put it out there for public consumption and the public responded.
Lorelei I have also struggled reconciling the old Roseanne vs the new Roseanne too. All I can come up with is…people change. Especially when they age, become cynical, and make oodles of money. Or maybe she was always a racist twit and we just didn’t know about it then because there was no Twitter.
Her first husband (the one ditched for Tom) is still around, and his intro is “from trailer park to millionaire to trailer park”.
Hopefully her career options will now be which small town bar will let her do a stand up act for 100 dollars.
She is worth 80 million dollars.
I never understood her appeal.
She’ll never *have* to work if she’s managed her money, but my guess is she thirsts for public attention. And she can now play victim forevermore.
I agree Christin.
I kinda hope they kill off the Roseanne character and make a new show without her.
Sucks all those people are losing their jobs and income because Roeseanne Barr is a stupid racist.
Maybe don’t work for stupid racists?
If my boss is racist that is not supposed to reflect on me. Its a bit different in the entertainment industry but I doubt even actors are allowed to pick and choose across so many projects. Not speaking for these people b/c they also got syndication money so…
I hope they just leave it alone TBH.
He’s going after Sara Gilbert and Michael Fishman on twitter. Apparently she made Michael’s career and is responsible for the inclusivity of his character. Eye roll. And apparently she “forgives” Sara for not standing by her.
She’s still tweeting?????
I’m not shocked she’s still tweeting, what more does she have to lose?
She reportedly spent the night retweeting numerous examples of people who kept their jobs after experiencing controversy.
Of course she is. She is an unhinged nut job just like her dear leader.
She should ask Paula Deen how that’s working out for her.
Roseanne said something similar during the Obama administration about Susan Rice. ABC signed her up for the reboot knowing full well what a loose, racist canon they were getting—no props at all to the Alphabet people, or Disney.
That’s what I was wondering. She’s tweeted and said racist sh*t well before the reboot. Why didn’t ABC care then?
Good for ICM. Wait who represents Woody Allen. Hmmm.
Tolerate not the Brownshirts.
Ever.
Based on Roseanne’s actions over the years…she should have NEVER been giving this opportunity in the first place…It’s ultimately the Executives at ABC’s fault for placing so much of their corporate resources into a vile, racist unstable human being in the first place…How they thought that this would work out …is BEYOND ME!
The LEAST ABC should have done to protect its assets, since they WERE going to make a deal with the debil for that sweet dollar… is put into her contract that she would have to suspend her personal Twitter account AND her FB account…BEFORE one show was produced….and ANYTHING placed on social media would HAVE to be regarding the show only and SHE would not be in charge of it!
This whole thing makes me sick but there is a certain irony to how it’s playing out… the response to blatant racism is veiled gender discrimination. I’ve never been much of a Roseanne fan, but if she was a white man the show would probably still be on the air and no one would’ve f-cked with the syndication deal. Amirite?
I don’t know. People went after Bill Maher when he said he was a house-n——-.andcwanted his show off the air.
But his show isn’t off the air, is it?
Sherry: maybe the difference is that Maher said something about himself, not about others? Don’t know.
A gender issue did not cross my mind, tbh. I might be naive. Who knows.
Hmmm. I don’t think so.
Roseanne is vile. Male or female. I think bringing up sexism is a red herring. I actually think a white woman was given much more leeway than a man would have been given in this case. White women have been 45 and his Deplorables’ firewall from the beginning. White women have always been given more room to be bigots.
Usually, I would be down for the argument but not in this case.
Blame Capitalism. It’s why ABC put her on the air and it’s why they took her off. Like NBC, they were okay with hiring trash as long as they could profit.
And so it goes.
I still don’t get how we can hold a comedian to a higher standard than the POTUS. All the pundits who won’t call trump a lying racist but are all over Roseanne need to shut up. Or rather start holding trump to the same standards we have for Roseanne.
WORD
this is ridiculous.
Huckabee-Sanders said Trump doesn’t have time to comment on this. But he sure spent time calling her up and tweeting her, congratulating her on this exact same show…
Maybe she can go work at the White House. It’s a GD joke at this point, anyone can get clearance.
She’s now a LOSER in his mind (ratings were down and now this).
Unless it benefits him personally, she’s likely not going to get the time of day again. And I hope she tweets about him before this is over.
Hahaha…I love it that she kissed Trump’s ass so much, (shooting herself in the foot by causing so many of us Trump-haters to not want anything to do with her show), and then when she’s down (as a result of going all-in with catering to the unhinged-Trump-supporting wackos), Trump wants nothing to do with her. Haha! Hope it was worth it, Roseanne.
This tendency of waiting until something gets worse to take action and claiming previous ignorance is frustrating and transparent.
This is how I feel about people who get a pass for working with Woody Allen before 2014. Those reports have been around for 20 years. If I knew about the claims, subsequent investigations and outcomes, so did people who WORK IN THAT INDUSTRY. Everyone knew and everyone had the choice to say “No. I won’t support him or this project” and then they come out wide-eyed and shocked when attention falls directly on them. Nope.
^^This EXACTLY Katiebo. I’ve been ENRAGED ever since her new show saw the light of day. (And I would rant & rave to my husband every time a commercial for it would come on the TV.) ABC knew she was an unhinged lunatic; her writing of vile mean-spirited racist tweets is nothing new. This show never should’ve happened. But, unfortunately it did, and at least ABC cancelled it swiftly with this latest controversy. But they certainly can’t act shocked & surprised that she revealed her true colors, when they knew what her true colors were all along.
I agree. This faux shock is disgusting.
.
Wonder how long it will take for her residual millions to dry up in her bank account and she goes completely back to the festering – for her – obscurity?
Better late than never. I’m glad it’s gone. Also I don’t feel sorry for John Goodman ,Sara Gilbert Aunt whatever her name. They had jobs before the reboot.
A little bum about the re-runs going off the air, that is my background noise on the weekend. Here’s hoping TV Land puts the Golden Girls in its place. I feel a little sad (just a little) for some of the actors (and maybe the producers & writers), they probably rely on those paychecks from the re-runs. What I’m mostly annoyed about is the reaction level of the media. They go all in with this but they fail to go fully in on Trump or any other political figure.
For the record, she is garbage. I would also like to point out that The Cosby show is technically still in syndication. I am not saying hers should be, I am just saying it would be nice if men who rape would be yanked out of syndication TOO.
She also had a stand up special scheduled for Sept ’18 that has been pulled.
Ha! Suffer.
Roseanne has been awful for years, so the fact that ABC, Sara (WTF?!), and Wanda (WTF?!) are all drawing a line now is absurd, but I’m glad a line finally is being drawn. I feel for the crew and actors who aren’t big names and making big money. But Sara, John Goodman, Laurie Metcalfe, Whitney Cummings, Wanda Sykes, ABC, ICM – they get no sympathy from me and they all have to own a part of putting this horrible person on TV. On a related note, I see she’s now blaming Wanda in part for her show being canceled. She’s continuing to be awful and my only hope is that this will show anyone else who is thinking of ever working with her again that they shouldn’t.
I am actually curious to see what else Wanda Sykes might have to say about this disaster that surprised no one who was paying attention to Roseanne’s conduct in the past.
TIme for her to permanently retire to her nut farm in Hawaii! No kidding, she really does have a nut farm and lives there. Appropriate don’t you think?