Roseanne Barr Says John Goodman Turned Down a Cameo in Her New Sitcom ‘Meemaw’

When ‘Roseanne’ premiered on ABC in 1988, it became one of the defining family sitcoms of its era. The show ran through 1997, with Roseanne Barr as the sharp-tongued matriarch and John Goodman as her husband Dan Conner, and it returned for a revival in 2018 that finished its first season as the No. 1 scripted primetime show in the 18-49 demographic. Barr’s name was once attached to one of the biggest hits on television.

That changed quickly. ABC canceled the revival in 2018 after Barr posted a racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett, a former adviser to President Obama, and the network continued the franchise as ‘The Conners’ without her. Barr’s character was killed off, and the spinoff ran for 7 seasons and 112 episodes through 2025 with Goodman leading the cast.

Now Barr is attempting a comeback, and she has opened up about the people she can’t get on board. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Barr said Goodman declined a cameo in her new sitcom, adding, “It wasn’t that I don’t want to work with John Goodman again. He doesn’t want to work with me.”

Asked how she gets along with her former castmates, Goodman and Laurie Metcalf, Barr answered that she doesn’t. She said nobody is more brokenhearted than she is, and that she chooses to remember the fun and the good times. She also said her son called Goodman to ask him to do a cameo on the show, and that he declined.

The remarks fit with a long-running distance between the two. Goodman told The Hollywood Reporter in July 2025 that he hadn’t spoken to Barr in about 7 or 8 years and doubted she wanted to talk to him. Barr has said on her podcast that she felt betrayed by Goodman for scaling back his appearances in the later seasons.

The new sitcom is called ‘Meemaw: A Modern Day Fable,’ and Barr financed it herself. She raised money from private investors and shot eight episodes in Austin, Texas, beginning in November 2025, as a union production. It is a single-camera comedy, closer in tone to trailer park comedies like ‘My Name Is Earl’ than to the three-camera format of ‘Roseanne.’

Barr plays the matriarch of a mixed-race family of preppers in Texas who sets out to take down a criminal empire while planning her granddaughter’s bat mitzvah. She has described the show as semi-autobiographical, and she co-wrote it with ‘Roseanne’ alum Allan Stephan and Allen Covert.

The cast includes several recognizable names. Drea de Matteo plays Barr’s daughter, Randy Quaid plays her husband and Omar Gooding plays her son-in-law, with Doug Jones and young performer Indy Bugg also appearing. Jon Lovitz, Tony Hinchcliffe and Kim Congdon are slated for guest roles.

Barr has said that Oscar winner Mo’Nique helped connect her with Bugg, who plays her granddaughter. The series also reportedly features Hinchcliffe in a role as Satan.

Despite having a finished season, ‘Meemaw’ has no buyer. Reports indicate that no network or streaming service has signed on to distribute it, and that her politics and reputation have made it hard to find one. Newsmax has reportedly been explored as a possible home, but no deal has been announced, and there is no premiere date.

Barr’s decision to make the show on her own recalls the broader reality of her situation, with a project that exists but nowhere to put it. She has framed the show as a chance to do the kind of comedy she says the network wouldn’t allow, and to speak about working people in a way she felt was blocked.

For viewers who want to revisit the original, all ten seasons of ‘Roseanne’ are streaming on Peacock, and ‘The Conners’ is available on Hulu. Whether ‘Meemaw’ ever reaches a screen is still an open question, and so is whether any of her former castmates will appear in it.

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