Roseanne Barr Almost Starred in ‘SMILF’

Let’s play a little game of “what if”–specifically, “What if the Roseanne revival didn’t happen because its star was busy elsewhere?” As we now know thanks to a report from Variety, that is a “what if” scenario that almost came to be.

During ABC Studios’ For Your Consideration event, SMILF star Frankie Shaw revealed one of the biggest secrets about her breakout Showtime comedy series: the role of her character’s mother Tutu was initially offered to Roseanne Barr.

“We did offer Tutu to Roseanne, and she was going to do it and then she broke her knee and had surgery,” revealed Shaw. “I was like, ‘You’re my hero, will you play my mom?’ And she said yes and 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.”

Shaw didn’t let the injury discourage her. She was still dead set on Barr playing her mother. “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.”

That’s when Shaw turned to Rosie O’Donnell and offered the role to her. O’Donnell accepted, and that’s how we got the Tutu we see on TV.

While it’s highly unlikely that Barr would have changed her destructive (and racist) tweeting style if she had gotten on SMILF instead of a revival of her old show, the TV landscape sure would have looked a whole lot different if it wasn’t for that knee surgery. What if…?

(via Vulture)

Where to stream SMILF