Former ‘Roseanne’ Head Writer Says Barr Was ‘Scared’ by Her Rapid Rise to Fame

Roseanne Barr has never been afraid to speak her mind, but Danny Jacobson, the former head writer of her hit sitcom, said he always sensed an underlying fear beneath her on-screen bravado.

Jacobson worked on the first two seasons of the ABC comedy between 1988 and 1989 and saw up close how Barr went from a modestly popular up-and-coming comedian to an overnight sensation. In a new interview with Entertainment Weekly, he shared how Barr struggled offstage.

He said that Barr “made everything so hard, and yet on stage, she was fantastic… [but] her offstage stuff made it hard, you know, as everyone has said… I always felt bad for her because I knew she was frightened.”

“I knew she was scared,” Jacobson added. “Who wouldn’t be? You’re working as a waitress, and next thing you know, you’re on The Tonight Show, and then you’re on the cover of every rag-mag. It can’t be easy to deal with, but the show, at the end of the day, I think everyone was proud of the work.”

Barr started performing stand-up comedy gigs at 18, after leaving her home in Salt Lake City for Colorado. She later tried her luck in Los Angeles, where her turn at the famous Comedy Store landed her a spot on The Tonight Show, then hosted by Johnny Carson.

By the mid 1980s, Barr had become a star, performing on a Rodney Dangerfield special and on Late Night with David Letterman. She went on to land her own HBO special, which earned her an American Comedy Award, before being signed onto her self-titled sitcom in 1987.

It was Barr’s first foray into acting, but Jacobson said, “She had the best acting school someone could want, which is [costars] Laurie Metcalf and John Goodman, not to mention the kids, the two daughters. And she learned fast.”

Barr reprised the role for the short-lived 2018 revival; however, ABC canceled the new series after Barr shared a tweet comparing former Barack Obama advisor Valerie Jarrett to “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby.”

The comedian later deleted the post and apologized. Still, ABC stood by its decision and rebooted the Roseanne revival as The Conners, with Goodman in the lead role and Barr’s character being killed off off-screen.

Last month, Barr revealed she was working on a new sitcom, Meemaw, funded by private investors and not yet with a distributor. The show follows Barr as the matriarch of a “mixed-race family of preppers in Texas” who is on a quest to “take down a criminal empire and throw her granddaughter the most fantastic bat mitzvah.”