Roseanne Barr’s Comeback with ‘Meemaw: A Modern Day Fable’

Eight years have passed since Roseanne Barr was dismissed from the successful reboot of “Roseanne.” Now at 73, she’s funding a new show titled “Meemaw: A Modern Day Fable.” Barr is actively seeking a platform for her sitcom, as shared with The Hollywood Reporter. She stated, “Anybody who wants a number one show and is smart enough to take a number one show.”

Roseanne is frustrated with Hollywood’s reluctance to embrace her successful projects. “I don’t know why they don’t want a number one show and why they hate a number one show and why they would destroy a number one show,” she expressed. “But if they do want a number one show, I got it.” The “Roseanne” reboot had tens of millions tuning in each week, standing as the leading primetime sitcom in the 18-49 demographic, according to Variety.

Barr attempted to pitch “Meemaw” to Elon Musk, although her efforts were unsuccessful. “I don’t know why he hasn’t called me or returned my calls,” she noted about Musk. “I mean, of all people on earth, I’m the one he should call, but I don’t know.”

“Meemaw” portrays the matriarch of a mixed-race family in Texas preparing for a possible apocalypse. Barr, a prepper herself, says, “I’m a prepper. I live in Texas. Everybody’s a prepper here.” The cast includes Drea de Matteo, Omar Gooding, and Randy Quaid, who plays Barr’s romantic interest.

“I’m in love with him and I wish he would leave his wife and marry me,” she joked. “I enjoyed making out with him so much that I wrote extra scenes where we would make out.”

Barr emphasized she’s yet to showcase the sitcom to anyone. “But it is so funny,” she claimed. “It’s the funniest s— I’ve ever done, and I had a ball and I play a really wacky old lady this time.”

Addressing her firing from the “Roseanne” reboot, Barr insists her tweet about former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett was political, not racist. “It was not a racist tweet,” she said. Barr mentioned that ABC offered her a choice: allow “The Conners” to proceed without her or face complete cancellation. ABC continued “The Conners” for seven seasons sans Barr.

“ABC demanded that they would only make [the show] if I were not [in it]. And they called me and said, ‘You have a choice to make: You can sign off on letting us do a show without you [or everyone is out of a job.]’” she claimed. Although “The Conners” pursued without Barr, it did not offer her any payment for those seasons. Barr added, “Nope. It was all a trick.”

In “The Connors,” her character met an untimely off-screen death caused by an opioid overdose. Barr commented on the narrative choice, “That was a nice way to kill America’s mom. Drug overdose.”