Some of 2018's biggest TV headlines swirled around the meteoric career burst of comedian Roseanne Barr, whose famed sitcom Roseanne was the year's biggest scripted premiere. Of course, she was fired over a controversial Twitter post just two months after it premiered, though Barr hasn't ever seemed to hold herself responsible. In fact, she recently went hard on blaming former co-star Sara Gilbert for getting ousted by ABC and the rest of Hollywood, making a Hannibal Lecter comparison in the process.
[Sara Gilbert] destroyed the show and my life with that tweet. She will never get enough until she consumes my liver with a fine Chianti.
Roseanne Barr has never ever been one to mince words or shield her genuine opinions from the rest of the world, a trait that she has doubled down on during the ten months since Roseanne was swiftly cancelled. (She did not like how The Conners killed her off, either.) Yet some were still likely surprised to read that Barr referenced Anthony Hopkins' iconic Silence of the Lambs killer Hannibal Lecter when referring to her former friend and co-star Sara Gilbert.
Granted, Roseanne Barr also took time to call ABC a "shit, fuckin' low-rated network" during a recent stand-up comedy set when she surprised Las Vegas audience members attending an Andrew Dice Clay performance. As such, it was already clear that the outspoken comic is still smarting from losing Roseanne over a tweet she still alleges was made in jest. Comparing someone to a fictional cannibal, though, is slightly different, even without the thppp tongue noises.
Roseanne Barr's comments to the Washington Post about Sara Gilbert were made in reference to the tweet below, in which the Roseanne revival's spearheader condemned Barr's post about Barack Obama's former aide Valerie Jarrett.
Sara Gilbert was a big reason why Roseanne's revival came about, as she took steps to reasserting the sitcom's popularity through her job hosting The Talk, where she had John Goodman appear for a mini-reunion in 2017. It was only a few rumor-filled months later when ABC put in the series order, and it looked like Roseanne Barr would be the queen of primetime for the second time in her career.
Alas, the comedian's shift in political ideologies and embrace of social media were apparently near-constant worries for those behind the scenes on Roseanne, and she'd reportedly been contacted on multiple occasions about curbing her Twitter rage. So whenever Roseanne Barr made the now-infamous Valerie Jarrett tweet, ABC's then-President Channing Dungey seemingly didn't need a long time to deliberate how to handle the situation, and Roseanne was axed.
Clearly, Barr holds Sara Gilbert as responsible as anyone else for Dungey's decision to cancel Roseanne, but for her part, Gilbert doesn't appear to be holding any long-form grudges against her former TV mom. Here's how she explained her position.
While I’m extremely disappointed and heartbroken over the dissolution of the original show, she will always be family, and I will always love Roseanne.
It's also reported that two of Roseanne Barr's children are now responsible for keeping the stand-up comedian's rabble-rousing comments off of Twitter. While her son Buck had attempted to stop her Twitter habits soon after Roseanne was cancelled, Barr reversed his decision. Now, though, daughters Jenny and Jessica Pentland are each responsible for a different portion of their mother's Twitter password, so that she can't log on.
At this point, ABC has yet to renew Roseanne's spinoff The Conners for Season 2, although it's being reported that most of the main cast got big contract updates, meaning a renewal is all but imminent. While waiting to hear more about renewals and cancellations, take note of all the other big midseason shows that are currently airing.
