Roseanne Barr Says That Hollywood Has Blacklisted Her

[Brian Damage]

Roseanne Barr insists her new sitcom pilot got shelved because of her ... wait for it ... progressive politics.

The Green Party candidate for the Oval Office told Politicker.com her new show "Downwardly Mobile" tested well but got shelved because her views were too divisive.

“How they figure what is polarizing is blows my mind. It really has blown my mind,” she said. “I guess it went back to the sponsors on the East Coast and some of them are—they don’t like me no matter what I do and they don’t like the things I say, so it’s kind of like blacklisting or something. But the fact is that I still think it’s weird to blacklist, or whatever you want to call it, in Hollywood, someone who has a huge—whose show had a huge audience and still does after 20-something years.”

http://politicker.com/2012/06/rosean...e-rose-garden/

[Retro4Life]

Honestly, I'd say that Roseanne blacklisted herself with her wackadoo talk show appeances and stunts.

I loved the first few years of Roseanne and she's obviously a smart and creative woman when she wants to be, but ever since the last season of that show she hasn't really done anything to show me that she should inspire confidence in TV execs.

[catlover79]

I think the public in general blacklisted her!!!

[Zoneboy]

[Sean Conner]

The networks are going to do what is best for ratings. If they felt Roseanne was too divisive to bring in a mainstream audience, that's reason enough to pass on a show. Roseanne was great in the 90s because she was fresh and blunt and people wanted to watch that. But they tired of her, just as they tire of everything, and ultimately she's gone deeper & deeper into the bat cave since her show ended in 1997.

Roseanne needs to pull back, calm down and join us all back here on planet earth.

[hawkeye123]

I think the networks are making a huge mistake.Her new show would of been hillarious.Do i think Roseanne is the answer as president.Probably not,I'm really not sure what she's all about as far as that goes.I got to imagine ,She would be more for the people,Than the other two do.But what would she know about going to war,If God forbid that we're the case when she was in office.

[Will and Grace Fanatic]

I don't think she was blacklisted. If she was she would have never even been given the pilot. There is also the fact that she did have a reality show on lifetime that was picked up but cancelled due to low ratings. If she was blacklisted that would never had been picked up. I love Roseanne but she has not been blacklisted just hasn't had any luck lately.

[hawkeye123]

Originally Posted by Will and Grace Fanatic

I don't think she was blacklisted. If she was she would have never even been given the pilot. There is also the fact that she did have a reality show on lifetime that was picked up but cancelled due to low ratings. If she was blacklisted that would never had been picked up. I love Roseanne but she has not been blacklisted just hasn't had any luck lately.

I can't say for sure.But i just can't imagine that the new show.With her and John Goodman wasn't hillarious.

[Mr. Television]

I really soured on Roseanne over the last 15 years or so. I don't think she's been blacklisted and I think she only has herself to blame. Saying that however, I do think NBC made a mistake not picking her show up. They need a mainstream hit and nothing they have is really working for them. I don't know what they had to lose.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by Retro4Life

Honestly, I'd say that Roseanne blacklisted herself with her wackadoo talk show appeances and stunts.

I loved the first few years of Roseanne and she's obviously a smart and creative woman when she wants to be, but ever since the last season of that show she hasn't really done anything to show me that she should inspire confidence in TV execs.

One of the reasons why Roseanne was so good was because it was a well-written show. Roseanne Barr was able to find right people (such as Chuck Lorre, Joss Whedon, Judd Apatow, and Amy Sherman-Palladino, who are all big heavyweights in the game now) to carry out her vision.

Unfortunately, Roseanne and Tom Arnold treated their writers like complete and utter crap during the show's heyday. To give you a better idea, they would make the writers wear hats with numbers and only referred to them by said number during writing sessions and table readings. More to the point, Rosanne and Tom would fire you immediately if you couldn't pass muster. Rosanne herself said that it was to bring their egos down a notch, and they were paying good money to create good material, but they took it up to the eleven on that. But she fired so many writers by Season 8, she had her kids (you read that correctly) writing episodes.

[TMC]

Originally Posted by Mr. Television

I really soured on Roseanne over the last 15 years or so. I don't think she's been blacklisted and I think she only has herself to blame. Saying that however, I do think NBC made a mistake not picking her show up. They need a mainstream hit and nothing they have is really working for them. I don't know what they had to lose.

She has always been infamously a nightmare to work with, demands all control, and operates according to whim (she has very poor impulse control to put it in another way). She ruined the last season of her own show because of this attitude, and then launched horrible project after horrible project thereafter.

[RetroGuy2000]

Ah, that last, horrible season of Roseanne. Even after all these years, I still wonder what on earth they were thinking. I don't think there was even one decent episode that season.

The first 7 seasons of the show (and some Season 8 episodes) were so funny. But that last year was an utter train wreck.

Clearly, Roseanne was always difficult to work with, and she went through writers and other staff like toilet paper. Did she really drive away enough talent that that's why the last season was so horrible?

Also: what happened to Crystal?

[mets82]

I think the problem with the last season of Roseanne is Roseanne got too cute for her own good. I think she figured she could make the storylines so outlandish that because she was Roseanne she would be teflon. It didn't work as the last season was bad with maybe the exception of when Dan cheated on Roseanne which was dumb.

[RetroGuy2000]

Originally Posted by mets82

I think the problem with the last season of Roseanne is Roseanne got too cute for her own good. I think she figured she could make the storylines so outlandish that because she was Roseanne she would be teflon. It didn't work as the last season was bad with maybe the exception of when Dan cheated on Roseanne which was dumb.

I think you raise good points. But I'd also point out that it's been alleged that Roseanne, Tom Arnold, and John Goodman were all on drugs during the later years of the show. I suspect that that, too, may have caused many of the problems we saw on-screen.