Roseanne Barr Breaks Silence On Self-Financed TV Comeback Attempt, Reveals John Goodman ‘Declined’ Cameo

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A few weeks back, a report emerged detailing Roseanne Barr was attempting a TV comeback.

Famously starring in 1990s TV hit “Roseanne,” Barr set ratings records for ABC when her 20-years-later revival racked up staggering ratings — only to have the whole thing come crashing down in 2018 after a controversial tweet saw her fired from the show that bore her name.

According to Page Six Hollywood, Barr has wrapped production on “Meemaw,” an eight-episode comedy series that she co-funded with some private investors, and hopes to sell to a TV network or streaming service.

Barr plays the titular Meemaw, described by The Hollywood Reporter as “the matriarch of a mixed-race family (Drea de Matteo plays her daughter, Omar Gooding plays her son-in-law) who runs afoul of the law trying to raise funds for her granddaughter’s bat mitzvah.” Randy Quaid also stars, playing the local sheriff.

Now, for the first time since that news emerged, Barr is breaking her silence about her attempt to stage a TV comeback nearly a decade after being banished from Hollywood.

Rebuffed By Her Former Co-Star

Speaking with THR, Barr explained the concept of the show. “It’s about a patriotic grandmother who is the matriarch of a mixed-race prepper family in Texas,” she said, pointing out that a “prepper” is “somebody who’s prepared for the end of the world.”

Revealing the sitcom was not filmed before a live studio audience, Barr was insistent that “Meemaw” represents the best work she’s ever done as a comedian.

“I haven’t really showed it to anybody yet,” she said. “But it is so funny. It’s the funniest [expletive] I’ve ever done, and I had a ball and I play a really wacky old lady this time.”

As for her plans that “Meemaw” will be picked up for distribution on TV, Barr promises the platform that winds up landing the show can expect to reap the benefits of a major hit.

“Anybody who wants a No. 1 show and is smart enough to take a No. 1 show. I don’t know why they don’t want a No. 1 show and why they hate a No. 1 show and why they would destroy a No. 1 show,” she said. “But if they do want a No. 1 show, I got it.”

Meanwhile, Barr also revealed she was no longer in contact with “Roseanne” co-stars John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf, who portrayed her character’s husband and sister, respectively.

“Nobody is more brokenhearted than me,” she said of that estrangement from her co-stars.

“I just choose to remember the fun and the good times,” she added. “My son called Goodman and asked him to do a cameo on ‘Meemaw’ and he declined.”

‘I Mined the Zeitgeist’

When asked about the premiere of the “Roseanne” revival garnering a viewing audience of 18 million, Barr was quick to offer a correction. “No, it did not,” she declared. “It premiered to 28 million people.”

When her interviewer clarified the 18 million was for same-day viewing (28M was total viewership after factoring in delayed viewing), Barr was asked if she felt that “vindicated” by the appeal she held for mainstream viewers.

“I didn’t think of it that way,” she admitted. “I thought of it like, ‘Oh my God, the American people are wanting to see something that talks to them again.’ I lined up with the, what do they call it? The zeitgeist. I mined the zeitgeist again. I knew I hadn’t lost my connection to people’s hearts.”

Added Barr: “I was so excited to go back and say something new that hadn’t been said about the working people of the backbone of this country. And they didn’t like it, ever, the people at the network, and they tried to derail me. I see that now. They tried to derail me every step of the way. ‘Meemaw’ is everything that they would not allow me to do.”

For the time being, there are no plans for “Meemaw” to debut on any television platform.