Roseanne Barr is back with a new sitcom, Meemaw: A Modern Day Fable, which she co-produced, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The 73-year-old’s bigger question is whether anyone will buy it.

THR got an early look at the show. Barr plays the matriarch of a mixed-race prepper family in Texas who runs afoul of the law while trying to raise money for her granddaughter’s bat mitzvah. Drea de Matteo plays her daughter, Omar Gooding plays her son-in-law and Randy Quaid plays a local sheriff.

The outlet describes the tone as closer to the trailer-park humor of My Name Is Earl than to the three-camera banter of Roseanne. In the sneak peek, Barr runs wild in thrift store furs at rooster fights, and she told THR it is the funniest thing she has ever made.

The project is a co-production between Barr and Just the News founder John Solomon, who split production costs evenly with her. Barr also said she used a union crew, arguing that she has always backed union wages for American workers.

At her peak, Barr was one of the most powerful women in television. Her domestic goddess stand-up character caught the attention of Johnny Carson, and her sitcom Roseanne was a ratings hit for ABC during its original run from 1988 to 1997, with Barr earning $1 million per episode.

Why did ABC cancel Roseanne in 2018?

ABC dropped a highly rated reboot that year after Barr posted an offensive tweet about former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. The network retooled the series as The Conners, and Barr’s character was killed off with a drug overdose. The Conners ran for seven seasons.

Barr still maintains the tweet was not racist. She told THR she was criticizing Jarrett for being sympathetic to the Iranian regime, and she said she had thought Jarrett was white. When ABC called, she asked the network not to cancel the show and offered to go on any of its news programs to explain herself.

Barr says she signed away her rights so The Conners could continue, on the understanding that the network would say she was not a racist. She also said she was not paid for the seasons that followed, and that she is not in contact with former castmates John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf.

“Meemaw is everything that they would not allow me to do,” Barr said of the network executives she has clashed with.

Barr’s clashes extend to producer Tom Werner, whom she told THR had tried to fire her from her own show during the original run. Werner did not respond to a request for comment, THR reported.

THR’s interviewer cited 18 million same-day viewers for the 2018 premiere and noted the audience grew with delayed viewing. Barr insisted the premiere drew 28 million, and she said the zeitgeist was the reason the show connected again.

Barr also weighed in on Chuck Lorre’s memoir, in which he said he was made to write scripts for Roseanne that were credited to Tom Arnold. Barr said, with some humor, that Arnold was telling the truth for once and was defending her.

On money, Barr said she still has a good portion of her fortune and that she is not hurting. In a quick-fire closing round, she recalled her 1990 national anthem performance as a tragic singing accident, saying Carson had warned her not to start too high.

Barr also said she reached out to Elon Musk about the project and has not heard back. She said she does not know why he has not returned her calls.

“Anybody who wants a number one show and is smart enough to take a number one show, I got it,” Barr said when asked where fans could watch Meemaw.

The report does not say where or when Meemaw will air, or whether a network or streamer has expressed interest in it.

Quick answers

What is Meemaw: A Modern Day Fable about?
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the single-camera sitcom follows a patriotic grandmother who is the matriarch of a mixed-race prepper family in Texas. She runs afoul of the law while raising money for her granddaughter’s bat mitzvah.

Who stars in Meemaw?
Roseanne Barr stars alongside Drea de Matteo, Omar Gooding and Randy Quaid, according to The Hollywood Reporter’s sneak peek.

Why was Roseanne canceled in 2018?
ABC canceled the reboot after Barr posted an offensive tweet about former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett. Barr maintains the tweet was not racist.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter