Roseanne Barr Almost Co-Starred in a Different Hit Show

Roseanne Barr found big success with season 10 of Roseanne, but she almost had a role in another hit show: Showtime‘s SMILF.

Variety reports that SMILF creator/star Frankie Shaw revealed that Barr had been cast in the role of Tutu, the mother of main character Bridgette (Frankie Shaw), during ABC Studios’ For Your Consideration event.

“It’s been a secret until this moment” Shaw said. “We did offer Tutu to Roseanne, and she was going to do it and then she broke her knee and had surgery.”

Connie Britton, who plays recurring character Ally, was apparently not aware of this casting decision, as Tutu’s character is now played by Rosie O’Donnell.

“I didn’t know that, that would’ve been so fascinating,” Britton said. “You and Roseanne, are you kidding me? Let’s talk about it.”

At that point, Shaw opened up a bit more about why Barr could not be worked around. Shaw, who also starred in Blue Mountain State and Good Girls Revolt, attempted to write Barr’s leg injury into the series. However, her doctors refused to let her fly to the shoot.

“I was like, ‘You’re my hero, will you play my mom?’ And she said yes,” Shaw said. “I went to Boston and then I got this call that she had fallen in a park and had like 45 stitches and wasn’t allowed to travel. I sent her this package and I even wrote the character would be in a scooter. I was like, ‘She’ll be in a scooter, we’ll just scoot you around you won’t even have to walk.’ And her doctor said she can’t fly.”

SMILF then replaced her with O’Donnell, with there presumably not being any hard feelings between the two.

O’Donnell authored a glowing tribute to Barr in the 2018 edition of Time‘s “Most Influence People” list.

“[Roseanne] is using her art to address relevant social issues, just as she has always done,” O’Donnell wrote. “There has been much said about her love of the current President. Although I don’t understand it in any way, I love her still. I have seen the indefensible tweets from her macadamia-nut farm—and I forgive her.

She continued, “I know what it’s like to be like Roseanne. She is the big sister I never had. And she has grown and shrunk right before our eyes with a courage that astounds me. She has been criticized by a President for singing the national anthem. She has openly struggled with mental illness. She travels the breadth of extremities, and that frightens most. But we feel her heart. We have watched her survive it all for three decades. And we love her for it.”

Despite this love and past tweet-forgiveness, O’Donnell has not commented on Barr’s largest Twitter scandal to date.

Barr tweeted a racist remark about Valerie Jarrett, a former Barack Obama aide, that said she was the product of the “Muslim Brotherhood” and Planet of the Apes.

The comedian’s comment triggered a massive wave of backlash that included the cancellation of Roseanne.