'Roseanne' Producer Whitney Cummings Responds: 'Would You Kill Her Off?'

Comedian Whitney Cummings, a producer and writer on the Roseanne revival, was asked if she would [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

Comedian Whitney Cummings, a producer and writer on the Roseanne revival, was asked if she would kill off Roseanne Barr's character, but was "too pissed off" to even think about Barr.


When a TMZ cameraman asked if Cummings would kill Roseanne Conner off, Cummings said she could not think of any funny ways to kill Roseanne. "I don't even want to think about it," she said. "Killing her would mean I'd have to think about her and I don't even want to do that right now. I'm too pissed off."

"I think everyone is so desperate to preserve the legacy of a show that touched so many people with such incredible actors on the show, made time to come back and so many writers [came back]," Cummings also told TMZ. "Everyone is just trying to stop the bleeding and preserve all the damage that has been done."

Earlier in the same interview, Cummings said Roseanne's quick downfall was "a real shame" for everyone involved, since the rest of the cast and crew were "so proud of all the work we did."

Cummings also does not think Barr should financially benefit from any potential spinoff ABC might have in the works. And if one does happen, Cummings has no interest in working on it.

"I have too many gray hairs in my head from this experience. I'm doing my own thing and trying to make my own show and doing standup," Cummings told TMZ. "I'm just trying to heal from the whole thing and make sense of it all. I was just as horrified as everybody else and really heartbroken about it."

Roseanne was cancelled back on May 29 after Barr sent a racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett, a former aide for President Barack Obama. Hours after she posted the message, ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey called the message "abhorrent, repugnant, and inconsistent with our values."

Barr later apologized, adding, "My joke was in bad taste." She later said she was under the influence of Ambien and turned to her Jewish faith to seek repentance. Barr did record an interview with Rabbi Schmuley, but he said the interview would not be released without Barr's permission.

As for Cummings, she left Roseanne on May 18, before work was to begin on season two. Co-showunner Bruce Helford said she was "going to be too busy" to return. Whitney said in previous interviews she felt constrained because she thought she was the "PC police."

"I was the 'you can't say that anymore' and 'now this is the word we use' one. And they were like, 'Yeah, but that's not how people in this town at this age in this income bracket talk.' And I learned, it's not about what we would say, it's about what they would say," Cummings told The Hollywood Reporter.

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