Roseanne Barr On The Politics Behind ABC Firing Her, Canceling Successful Series

Roseanne Barr didn’t hold anything back in a new interview with political activist Brandon Straka, discussing many hot-button topics, including her controversial May firing from the ABC network.

Barr being let go from her eponymous show has been reported on ad nauseum. To recap, the network felt that she made a racist comment on Twitter, about former President Barack Obama’s senior advisor Valerie Jarrett, and immediately reversed its previous decision to air a second season of the wildly successful series. In late June, ABC announced it was bringing back the cast of Roseanne, sans Barr, for a spinoff series, The Conners.

The outspoken actress was interviewed via video for a little more than an hour by Straka on September 10 for an episode of his show, #WalkAway, that was uploaded to YouTube on September 13. Barr spent a great deal of time discussing the current political climate, especially how it relates to her ousting from the series she helped create.

“I’m fully convinced that, still in television, they don’t like people like us,” she said in reference to working-class American families.

“[Television executives] don’t like their audience and they never wanted to have somebody who was of that audience on their stations. That’s the truth.”

The former stand-up comedian said that she wanted the Roseanne reboot to explore plots relevant to blue-collar America to make those TV viewers “feel good” about themselves and their families.

However, she said that network bigwigs tried to hold her down every step of the way.

“I don’t think they ever really wanted me to come back, they just wanted that show, and me to do what I was told, and as I’ve said from the beginning, I’m not that girl,” Barr stated.

The 65-year-old actress said she believed that Bob Iger, the chairman and CEO of ABC’s parent company, Walt Disney, was the only one who wanted her to return to the network, and that he forced the president of ABC, Channing Dungey, to sign her up.

“I don’t think [Dungey] ever wanted it, and that’s clear to me looking back,” she said.

Barr feels like the ABC president “went beyond just firing” her after the decision was made by the station to bring all of the Roseanne cast back without her for a spinoff series that she could not have “any contact with,” “any word about,” or “any say about.”

As previously reported by the Inquisitr, she also revealed in the interview the cause of her character Roseanne Conner’s death, opioid overdose, which she thinks “cruelly insults the people who loved that family and that show.”

“She should have died as a hero,” she said.

Barr remained calm and composed during the entire #WalkAway interview, answering all of the host’s questions with well-thought-out answers. She did use one stress reliever during the chat though — she lit up and smoked a cigarette.

Watch the interview in its entirety below.