Roseanne Barr has revealed she tried, but failed, to turn her new show into a "Roseanne" reunion.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter published Oct. 20, the comedian, 73, said she and former "Roseanne" costar John Goodman are not in contact and that the actor turned down a cameo in her new show, "Meemaw: A Modern Day Fable."
"My son called Goodman and asked him to do a cameo on 'Meemaw' and he declined," she revealed.
When the reporter asked Barr how she gets along with Goodman and former "Roseanne" costar Laurie Metcalf, she said simply, "I don't." And when the journalist remarked that they had "assumed you guys were like a family," Barr said, "I did too."
USA TODAY has reached out to a representative for Goodman for comment.
Barr and Goodman
starred as married couple Roseanne and Dan Conner on "Roseanne" for 10 seasons, originally from 1988 to 1997 and then for one season of a revival series in 2018.
The "Roseanne" revival was a big hit for ABC, but the network canceled it that same year after Barr posted a racist tweet about former Obama White House adviser Valerie Jarrett. At the time, the network's president described the post about the Black official as "abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values." Barr deleted the tweet and acknowledged it was "egregious" but attributed it to the late hour and her use of the sleep medication Ambien, saying "it was 2 in the morning."
Barr has since defended the tweet by saying she thought Jarrett was white, and she maintained to The Hollywood Reporter that "it was not a racist tweet."
Also in the interview, Barr said she was heartbroken after a recent back-and-forth with former "Roseanne" costar Michael Fishman, who said "Roseanne" was "rightfully canceled" because of Barr's actions.
"Nobody is more brokenhearted than me," Barr told THR. "I just choose to remember the fun and the good times."
While "Roseanne" in its original form was canceled, the show continued as "The Conners," which followed the same central characters from the original show but without Barr. Her character was killed off in the first episode, which explained she died off screen from a drug overdose.
"The Conners" wound up becoming a rare example of a show that successfully replaced its central character and continued on for seven seasons: The new series ran from 2018 to 2025.
Goodman has previously said that he and Barr no longer speak. In a 2025 interview with The Hollywood Reporter, he said "I'd rather doubt if she wants to talk to me" and noted "we haven't talked for about seven or eight years." But Goodman has previously defended Barr: He told the Sunday Times in 2018, "I know for a fact that she's not a racist."
"I just feel terrible about the whole thing," Goodman later told Variety in 2023. "We had a great time. And I love her. She's just her own person."
Barr's new show, "Meemaw: A Modern Day Fable," is an eight-episode, single-camera sitcom, which she raised money to make from private investors. Randy Quaid also stars.
Barr is still seeking a distributor to air the show. She told The Hollywood Reporter she has reached out to Tesla CEO Elon Musk about the project, but he "hasn't called me or returned my calls."
Contributing: Kalia Richardson, USA TODAY
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Roseanne Barr reveals John Goodman turned down cameo in her new show
