Roseanne Barr has leveled serious accusations against ABC and its parent company, Disney, regarding the events leading up to her 2018 dismissal from the reboot of her hit sitcom “Roseanne.”
Barr, now 72, originally found success with the “Roseanne” sitcom, which first aired in 1988.
The show, known for its working-class themes and humor, featured a prominent cast including John Goodman, Sara Gilbert, Laurie Metcalf, and Johnny Galecki.
After ending in the late 1990s, the series was revived by ABC in 2018. However, the reboot was abruptly cancelled after Barr posted a controversial tweet referencing former President Barack Obama and senior adviser Valerie Jarrett.
In the tweet, Barr described Jarrett as the offspring of the “Muslim Brotherhood & Planet of the Apes.” ABC swiftly canceled the show, calling the remark “abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values.”
Following the cancellation, ABC launched a spinoff titled “The Conners.” Barr’s character was written off the show as deceased. “The Conners” continued for seven seasons before concluding in April 2025.
In a recent interview with the Daily Mail, Barr claimed that ABC had been waiting for an excuse to terminate her due to her political views and public support for President Donald Trump, according to Trending Politics.
“They were waiting for me to slip up,” Barr alleged, suggesting that her conservative stance made her a target within the entertainment industry. She claimed that the network made efforts to end her involvement long before the tweet was posted.
Barr further accused ABC of spying on her, stating that executives closely monitored her behavior and attempted to censor her from the beginning of the show’s revival.
“They spied. They monitored everything I did. They wanted to censor me from the very beginning,” she said. “They hijacked that tweet and made out it said something that it didn’t.”
Barr defended her original tweet, saying she had no knowledge of Jarrett’s racial background at the time. She insisted her comment referred to Jarrett’s appearance, not her ethnicity, and claimed the message was misinterpreted.
The comedian added that the tweet was sent at 2AM while she was under the influence of prescription medication, specifically mentioning that she was “Ambien tweeting.”
“I’m not stupid. I would never refer to a black person as the product of an ape,” Barr told the outlet. She claimed her tweet referenced the Iranian nuclear deal under Obama, and the “Planet of the Apes” remark was meant as a political metaphor.
Barr stated the original intention of her message was humorous and political, not racial. She argued that liberal figures in Hollywood misread her statement through a racial lens.
She also retracted her earlier apology in which she had expressed regret for making a joke about Jarrett’s politics and appearance, calling the joke “in bad taste.”
In the new interview, Barr said apologizing had been a mistake. “The worst mistake you can do is apologize to the left,” she said. “Once you admit a mistake, they will keep on until you’re dead.”
