ABC Cancels 'Roseanne' Reboot After Star Issues Offensive Tweets

ABC has canceled the hit series “Roseanne” after its star posted racist comments on social media. The network announced the cancellation on May 29 after Roseanne Barr drew wide criticism for a tweet in which she mocked Valerie Jarrett, a former adviser to President Barack Obama.

“Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show,” Channing Dungey, ABC’s entertainment president, said in a statement.

Barr’s tweet mocked Jarrett, who is African-American, saying that “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.”

The 65-year-old actress later deleted the tweet and issued an apology, saying she had made “a bad joke about her politics and her looks.”

This isn’t the first time that Barr — a Salt Lake City native whose family is Jewish but who also was raised in the Mormon church — has drawn criticism for her social media usage. She has used Twitter to promote conspiracy theories and post comments criticizing transgender people. Some have also taken issue with Barr for her vocal support for President Donald Trump.

“Roseanne,” a show about a working-class American family, had achieved success in its return to network television. The original show, which ran 10 seasons in the late 1980s and much of the 1990s, hit No. 1 in the ratings.

Tuesday was a busy day for the actress. Prior to apologizing to Jarrett, Barr on Tuesday had a Twitter dust-up with Chelsea Clinton after referring to Clinton as “Chelsea Soros Clinton.” The reference was to George Soros, the Hungarian-Jewish billionaire and major giver to liberal causes.

Clinton responded: “Good morning Roseanne – my given middle name is Victoria. I imagine George Soros’s nephews are lovely people. I’m just not married to one. I am grateful for the important work @OpenSocietydoes in the world. Have a great day!”

Barr may have been referencing a false but now popular assertion by another TV personality and Trump supporter, Scott Baio, who asserted in 2016 that Clinton’s husband, Marc Mezvinsky, is a nephew of Soros. There is no truth to the claim.

Barr then responded: “Sorry to have tweeted incorrect info about you! Please forgive me! By the way, George Soros is a nazi who turned in his fellow Jews 2 be murdered in German concentration camps & stole their wealth-were you aware of that? But, we all make mistakes, right Chelsea?”

Soros, 87, was a child and living under the protection of a non-Jewish neighbor in Nazi-aligned Hungary during World War II. His critics make much of the fact that, as a 13-year-old, he accompanied his protector when the older man was ordered by Nazis to inventory the estate of a Hungarian Jew who had fled. Jewish groups have called such criticism offensive and “monstrous.”

A spokesperson released a statement in response to Barr’s tweet, saying, “Such false allegations are insulting to the victims of the Holocaust, to all Jewish people, and to anyone who honors the truth. They are an affront to Mr. Soros and his family, who against the odds managed to survive one of the darkest moments in our history.”

Among Barr’s most famous public controversies over the past 25 years was appearing in the “Germany” issue of Heeb magazine, an irreverent Jewish publication aimed at young Jews. Barr asked to be depicted as Hitler for the 2009 spread.

Barr told the writer of the Heeb article that she believed she “may, in fact, be the reincarnation of Adolf Hitler,” the writer contended.

Barr defended the shoot during an appearance on The Green Room with Paul Provenza, claiming she was merely attempting to make a statement that tragedies such as the Holocaust have become too pervasive.