Roseanne Barr has been a household name across America for many decades. The comedian and actress started out as a stand-up comic, eventually landing her own television sitcom.
The sitcom earned her not just fame but also recognition from her peers, as she won various awards for her show. Even decades later people still think of her show which led to her revival of the show a few years go.
However, as most Roseanne fans will remember, the show was canceled due to some ugliness, which shocked a lot of people. And if you have been wondering what Roseanne has been up to ever since, then keep reading.
Her name at birth on November 3, 1952, was Roseanne Cherrie Barras. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah to a Jewish family with Russian roots, she has seen some hard times. Her mother was a bookkeeper while her father worked as a salesman.
The family name was Borisofsky till her paternal grandfather emigrated to the United States and changed his surname to Barr when he entered his new homeland.
Her upbringing was influenced by her Jewish heritage. Her maternal grandmother was a strong character and everyone in the family often deferred to her judgment.
The family kept a low profile since her neighborhood was predominantly Mormon. The Barr family themselves got involved in the local Mormon church as well.
A little while after, at just 6 years old, Roseanne would often perform on public stages which eventually led to her being elected as a the President of the Mormon Youth Club. She became something of a local celebrity. She lectured at churches around Utah. When she turned 18, she left her parents’ home and moved to Colorado. She told them she would be visiting a friend but ended up never coming back.
During the 80s, she took every minimum wage job she could get in Colorado in order to make money. However, because of her being outspoken, she would often land herself in trouble with bosses. Her life changed when she got a gig to work as a rude cocktail waitress who was to make harsh jokes to all her customers. ”My customers encouraged me to go down to this comedy club. I didn’t know it was there. So I went down there and watched everybody,” Barr revealed later on to the Hawaii Tribune-Herald.
A year later, she put together 5 minutes of her own material and went out to California to perform as a famous Comedy Store in Los Angeles. She was discovered by producer George Schlatte. She landed a gig on The Tonight Show in 1985 and a year later appeared on Late Night with David Letterman.
The comedienne was a breath of fresh air at the comedy scene which was at the time dominated by male comics. She would often joke about her seemingly worthless husband.
Her comedy was raw and honest. She revealed where she got the inspiration for it. She said, ”It’s all personal experience. I’m not an actress. I’m not Meryl Streep. I don’t go up there and invent all this stuff. It has to come from what you really feel and believe, or else it’s not real. And if it’s not real, people don’t think it’s funny.”
Roseanne Barr’s foray into fame
It was in the 1980s that the comedian reached the highest level of her fame. She starred as Roseanne Conner on ABC’s hit sitcom ‘Roseanne.’ When the show premiered in 1988, it was seen by 21 million households which made it the network’s best debut of the year. She became an overnight celebrity!
However Roseanne herself was not happy when she saw the first episode. She was upset when she saw writer Matt Williams had been credited as the show’s creator.
She immediately reacted, later saying, “We built the show around my actual life and my kids. The ‘domestic goddess’, the whole thing.”
She threatened to walk away from the show if Williams was not replaced. And since she was the star of the show, the network relented and replaced him with other writers after the thirteenth episode.
Roseanne Barr controversy
The show’s success was monumental. It lasted for ten seasons and won many major awards, including an Emmy and a Golden Globe. The show’s legacy also endured until 2018. The actress was fired from her role as Roseanne, after she posted a tweet where she described President Obama’s advisor Valerie Jarrett using references to “Planet of the Apes” and the Muslim Brotherhood. Just two hours after the tweet ABC decided to cancel her show and fire Barr. The network’s president issued a statement saying her tweet was “abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent” with the company’s values.
The comedian apologized for her tweet saying she ‘horribly’ regretted it but the network did not care for her show of remorse.
”During the initial call, I told them I thought [Jarret] was white. I said I would go on my show and explain it. They wouldn’t let me. They decided I was a liar in my apology,” she said to the LA Times in 2023.
She was left without a job and later even lashed out against her Roseanne co-star Sara Gilbert in a comment to the Washinton Post.
Gilbert, who played her daughter on the show, came out against Barr publicly saying neither she nor anyone else in the production supported Barr and what she had said.
”She 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 said.
With all of this controversy not so far behind in her past, these days Barr is still not shying away from making wild claims. She still has a considerable public platform and pull in society and she has been making claims that are shocking to say the least.
Roseanne Barr claims to Tucker Carlson
In late September, the comedian was a guest on Tucker Carlson’s show in Fort Worth, Texas for his tour. She said a lot of things which included comparing liberals to ‘vampires’ that ‘love the taste of human flesh.’
“You know they eat babies. That is not bullshit, it’s true,” Barr said, addressing Carlson and his audience. Carlson encouraged her to continue and Barr then shared her theory about the Haitian migrants in Ohio. Similar to the baseless one, Trump mentioned of Haitian migrants in Ohio eating people’s pets.
“You know they eat babies. That is not bullshit, it’s true,” Barr said with a straight face. She went on, “It’s not just the dogs and the cats. They are full-on vampires, and everybody still thinks I’m crazy. But I’m not crazy. They’re full-on vampires. They love the taste of human flesh, and they drink human blood. They do,” the actress solemnly said to the audience. Carlson merely nodded in agreement with the comedian’s claims.
While netizens are concerned over her comments. The video was posted to Reddit with users becoming concerned about her beliefs. One person wrote, “This decline is one of the saddest for me. I used to really love her.” While another added, “Remember how cutting edge it was in the 90’s when she kissed another female actress on screen? It was like unheard of and the LGBTQ+ was so enthusiastic to see it. Now to see her spew this crap is so frustrating.”
And it is not just fans who are concerned about Roseanne’s well being but also those who knew her personally. In an exclusive interview with Newsner, Roseanne season six writer Stan Zimmerman also echoed these sentiments. He said, “It’s really difficult to see to see her, go so far into the conspiracy theories and just I mean, it’s just so nutty. It’s I can’t even explain it. And it’s disappointing, to be quite honest.”
But he still holds out hope, Zimmerman told us, “you know, I always have that little hope thinking that maybe she’ll come around.”
What do you think of Roseanne’s claims and concerning comments? Let us know in the comments. Share this with other Roseanne fans to see what they think of her ideas.
