Roseanne Builds Her Own Way Back
Roseanne Barr has finished an eight-episode family comedy without a network deal, eight years after Disney fired her from the Roseanne revival. The series is called Meemaw, and production began quietly in November 2025 before wrapping in Austin, Texas. Barr raised the money through private investors and filmed the project as a union production. That is a very different route from waiting around for Hollywood’s permission. The series does not yet have an announced premiere date or buyer, so viewers are still waiting to see where this independent comeback lands.
A Texas Family Comedy With Plenty Going On
Barr plays the head of what she described as a “mixed-race family of preppers in Texas.” Her character wants to give her granddaughter “the most fantastic bat mitzvah Texas has ever seen,” while the plot also involves an attempt to take down a criminal empire. Barr has called Meemaw a semi-autobiographical story about a woman from a very liberal East Coast Jewish family who is disinherited and must live what she called the lower-class dream in Texas. She also said the show arrives at a time when people should hear from a Jew, adding another personal layer to the comedy.
The Cast Is Packed With Familiar Names
Randy Quaid plays Barr’s husband, while Drea de Matteo plays her daughter. Omar Gooding, Doug Jones, and tween Instagram performer Indy Bugg are also part of the cast. Jon Lovitz, Tony Hinchcliffe, and Kim Congdon appear as guests. The lineup gives the independently produced series a recognizable group of performers, even though the project still has no announced buyer. For a project made outside the usual studio pipeline, that is a substantial cast. Hollywood’s gatekeepers may not have opened the door, but Barr found another entrance.
The 2018 Firing Still Shapes the Project
Disney fired Barr in 2018 after she posted a tweet comparing Michelle Obama’s aide, Valerie Jarrett, to the offspring of the Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes. Disney called the post “abhorrent” and “inconsistent” with its values, dropped Barr from her own show, and pulled the Roseanne revival. Her talent agency, ICM, also dropped her. Barr apologized to Jarrett, deleted the account, and later said she had not known Jarrett was Black. When asked whether Elon Musk had invested in Meemaw, Barr said he never returned her call. She summed up her frustration by saying she was fired for a text that was online for two hours and that nobody saw.
Barr Says the Jokes Will Go Both Ways
Barr said Meemaw is meant for families who do not agree. She described the television daughters as “super woke” and said she wrote jokes for them in the same spirit as her work on Roseanne. She also promised jokes about Republicans that left-leaning viewers will enjoy, saying she makes fun of everybody in power and is an “equal opportunity destroyer.” That approach is central to her pitch for the show. Meemaw has not premiered, so its audience response is unknown, but Barr is clearly betting that viewers still want comedy that takes swings in more than one direction.
Roseanne Barr shoots secret comedy series with star-studded cast in huge comeback 8 years after controversial cancellation https://t.co/s0giEVrT0X pic.twitter.com/vgSMFm1HIh
— New York Post (@nypost) October 8, 2026