Roseanne Barr has made an eight-episode comedy series with independently raised money, and her co-creator says several distributors are interested. It is her most substantial television project since ABC cancelled the Roseanne revival in 2018 over an offensive tweet.
Roseanne Barr’s new independently produced television series is being offered to distributors, The Hollywood Reporter reported.
“We have a lot of nibbles right now,” her co-creator, the writer-producer Allan Stephan, told the publication on Friday, October 9.
The Series
The show is called Meemaw: A Modern-Day Fable. It runs to eight episodes of 30 minutes each and was filmed in Austin, Texas.
Barr plays the matriarch of a Texas family of “preppers” who is trying to organise a lavish bat mitzvah for her granddaughter.
The cast also includes Randy Quaid, Drea de Matteo, Omar Gooding, Doug Jones and Indy Bugg. The comedians Jon Lovitz, Tony Hinchcliffe and Kim Congdon make cameo appearances.
Allen Covert, a long-time collaborator of Adam Sandler, helped to write it.
What It Is About
“They’re struggling farmers, where everybody is at today, especially farmers,” Stephan said. “It’s about surviving in the world as it is today, trying to keep food in the table and the family together.”
He described it as non-partisan. “There’s no Trump side, there’s no democratic side,” he said. “It’s just the family struggling to get by.”
How It Was Paid For
Barr raised the money for the first season independently, with the help of her son, Jake Pentland, Stephan said. He said he did not know the details, so the identity of the backers is not known.
Is a Deal Likely?
Stephan did not name any platforms but said representatives for the show “are in talks with a few places” and have been sending out a trailer.
The Hollywood Reporter added two cautions. As co-creator, Stephan has an interest in presenting the project as in demand. And many independent shows hold talks with companies without ever landing a deal.
The Background
Barr became a star in the late 1980s with the ABC sitcom Roseanne, which ended in 1997.
ABC revived it in 2018, then cancelled it the same year after Barr posted an offensive tweet about Valerie Jarrett, a former adviser to President Barack Obama.
Barr apologised at the time. “I am truly sorry for making a bad joke about her politics and her looks,” she said. “I should have known better.”
Image: Roseanne Barr in 2010 (file photo). Photo by Stand-Up Sucks, LLC via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
