Roseanne Barr Returns to TV in New Series

(Reuters/Mario Anzuoni)
Actress Roseanne Barr arrives at the Roseanne TV series season one DVD release party at Lucky Strike Bowling Center in Hollywood July 18, 2005. The cast of the 1988 television series is reunited for the first time in nine years.

By Sami K. Martin , Christian Post Contributor

January 24, 2012|3:25 pm

Roseanne Barr is returning to sitcom comedy after a lengthy respite. Her new series, "Downwardly Mobile," has been picked up by NBC, and Barr will write, star in, and produce the series.

Barr's original "Roseanne" told the story of the Conners, a middle-class family in Illinois struggling to make it in the world. It gained huge success and ran for nine seasons; Barr earned an Emmy and Golden Globe for her work on the show.

Towards the end of the series, she made upwards of $40 million.

Since the show went off the air in 1997, Barr has not been in a new sitcom. She attempted hosting a talk show that lasted only two years.

Barr has maintained a relatively quiet lifestyle since her time on TV. Her show "Roseanne's Nuts" premiered in 2011 and documented her life as she ran a Macadamia nut farm with long-time partner Johnny Argent.

The couple has no children together, but Barr has five children from her three previous marriages. Argent and Barr met online and have been a couple since 2003.

The new show will feature Barr as the owner and manager of a mobile home park who plays surrogate mother to the people who live in the park. Her old team of writers and producers is reuniting for the project.

Eric Gilliland will write and executive produce the series, as he did with Barr's original series, and Argent is expected to help write and produce as well.

Roseanne's career has been filled with high and low moments; she scored big during her time on "Roseanne" but became infamous with a performance of "The Star-Spangled Banner" in 1990.

Since then she has remained somewhat demure, though her guest appearances on television shows and the release of her book, "Roseannearchy: Dispatches from the Nut Farm," tell a different story.

There has been no word yet from NBC on when "Downwardly Mobile" is expected to air.