This is an amazing account Roseanne Barr gives of what she went through on here sitcom—couldn’t stop reading it. Here’s a cutting:
It didn’t take long for me to get a taste of the staggering sexism and class bigotry that would make the first season of Roseanne god-awful. It was at the premiere party when I learned that my stories and ideas—and the ideas of my sister and my first husband, Bill—had been stolen. The pilot was screened, and I saw the opening credits for the first time, which included this: CREATED BY MATT WILLIAMS. I was devastated and felt so betrayed that I stood up and left the party. Not one person noticed.
I confronted Marcy under the bleachers on the sound stage when we were shooting the next episode. I asked her how I could continue working for a woman who had let a man take credit for my work—who wouldn’t even share credit with me—after talking to me about sisterhood and all that bullshit. She started crying and said, “I guess I’m going to have to tell Brandon [Stoddard, then president of ABC Entertainment] that I can’t deliver this show.” I said, “Cry all you want to, but you figure out a way to put my name on the show I created, or kiss my ass good-bye.”
I think her comments put an interesting coating over the thought that we’ve made progress. She says her show is still ahead of its time and that:
Hollywood hates labor, and hates shows about labor worse than any other thing. And that’s why you won’t be seeing another Roseanne anytime soon. Instead, all over the tube, you will find enterprising, overmedicated, painted-up, capitalist whores claiming to be housewives.
This explains a lot to me after giving Hollywood a go, myself. Seems like I just wasn’t a big enough asshole.
It also suggests to me that for all the progress Hollywood has made culturally, it’s still about fear and money. Sad stuff.
The world might not really end this Saturday, but it might as well. We sure don’t seem to be going in any good direction.
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