Roseanne on TV, Standup and Judgement Day

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on January 4th, 2005

Roseanne Barr holds forth on various subjects and catches us up on her most recent activities in a recent interview in Broadcasting & Cable. It seems that she’s tapdancing in her underwear, singing and making videos for children…. and reflecting on her past in the wilds of television, As always , she’s a vertitable fountain of juicy quotes:

Why do you think your sitcom was such a hit but your subsequent projects failed?

I see now that it’s almost a fluke when anything actually works on TV. The variables are infinite. My talk show had a huge audience, but got caught in the middle of corporate politics as King World became CBS. My reality show was dropped when I got ill. I was totally connected to the sitcom, and was treated with comparatively great respect by the network, producers and writers, who serviced my ideas. All that changed. I subsequently worked with people who wanted me to shut up and do it their way. I wasn’t too good at doing that, though I did give it a try.

And then there’s this one, about standup:

Is it a comeback for you after your hysterectomy [in 2003] and the canceled TV shows? Were you scared to jump back into work?

It’s a comeback to do standup. It has been about 14 years since I did a 70-minute show. Yes, performing in public gave me huge fear. I had fierce stage fright. I’d freeze up on stage, too. But I just kept doing it, because for some reason, I have always been possessed by performing and writing. And now it’s fun again.

And, finally, there’s this cryptic quote which, we assure you, isn’t taken out of context.

In your stand-up act, you repeatedly say you expect the world to end within 1-1/2 years. What’s that about?

Talking about the end of the world is something I want to encourage people to do and think about. What really matters to you on Judgment Day?

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