Roseanne Barr, the comedian-actress who earlier this month said bankers who don't give up their wealth should be "beheaded," has landed a deal with NBC for a new family sitcom about "lower class living," according to the Hollywood Reporter.
Titled "Downwardly Mobile," the show will revolve around -- yes -- Barr's character, her family and other residents living in a mobile home park.
Deadline Hollywood reported:
In 1987, NBC had first crack at a working class family sitcom starring then-up-and-coming standup comedian Roseanne Barr. Legendary NBC programmer Brandon Tartikoff famously passed, and the project landed at ABC where it went to series, Roseanne, which ran for 9 years. Twenty four years later, another sitcom about a lower middle class family starring Barr hit the market, and this time NBC and its new programming chief Bob Greenblatt jumped on it. The network bought the multi-camera comedy, titled Downwardly Mobile, with a script commitment plus penalty. Co-created by Barr, her boyfriend John Argent and former Roseanne executive producer Eric Gilliland, who will serve as showrunner, the ensemble comedy revolves around a family and friends living in a mobile home community.
NBC has committed to the script and will pay a penalty if the pilot isn't made.
In May, Barr penned an article for New York Magazine in which she reflected on the working class themes of "Roseanne:"
I wanted to do a realistic show about a strong mother who was not a victim of Patriarchal Consumerist Bullshit—in other words, the persona I had carefully crafted over eight previous years in dive clubs and biker bars: a fierce working-class Domestic Goddess. It was 1987, and it seemed people were primed and ready to watch a sitcom that didn’t have anything like the rosy glow of middle-class confidence and comfort, and didn’t try to fake it.
Here are her previous comments on the rich:
Barr of course also announced a bid for president of the United States back in August, running under the made-up "Green Tea Party." She is also running for prime minister of Israel.
The announcement of NBC's deal with Barr -- despite her comments about the wealthy -- comes one week after ESPN fired Hank Williams Jr. from "Monday Night Football" for using an analogy referencing President Barack Obama and Hitler.