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Roseanne the sitcom and Roseanne the comedian/writer/producer/actress have both been in the center of a mountain of discussion, controversy, and no small amount of success since the show returned to American television last week. Most of this has surrounded what’s been on the show, from Roseanne Conner’s outspoken support of Donald Trump (a reflection of Roseanne Barr’s current politics) to backhanded digs at ABC sitcoms black-ish and Fresh Off the Boat, to character-breaking attitudes about child discipline. But there’s been one controversy that goes back farther than the season 10 premiere: a series of photographs from a 2009 magazine spread that depict Barr, dressed up like Hitler (brown shirt, Naxi armband, tiny little stache), putting a tray full of people-shaped cutout cookies into an oven.
The image is of course wildly shocking, drawing upon frequent alt-right, neo-Nazi taunts about Jews in ovens. It comes across like a cruel provocation, particularly from a woman who’s veered sharply towards the political right lately. What sometimes goes overlooked is that the photos come from a shoot done for the satirical Jewish publication Heeb, which discontinued in 2010. How effective this satire was or wasn’t is certainly up to debate, as is the question of whether imagery this incendiary can be tossed off so lightly. The bottom line is that the images exist, and people are not happy.
While Barr hasn’t spoken publicly about the photos, Roseanne co-producer Bruce Helford has spoken to The Hollywood Reporter about them, trying very hard to downplay their significance and encourage audience members to look past the photos to the show at hand.
All I can say on that is that I was listening to a CNN discussion and the subject came up of her personal politics and the attitude was generally, look, everybody’s got the right to say what they’re gonna say and that’s not what the show is. The show is not representing her personal politics.
And then:
I know that Roseanne is a very staunch supporter of Israel and she has said as much. I imagine there’s probably some amount of parody involved and all that. I don’t know the context of that so I wouldn’t make a comment on it. My feeling is that people should just watch the show and judge it on its merits. Watch the show without the accompanying background noise.
Helford’s desire is for viewers to see past the controversies to a show that is trying to speak to a divided America. “There’s got to be a way to talk and still love each other the way that Roseanne and Jackie made their peace,” he says, referring to the sisters’ detente in the season premiere. “And that’s really what we want to have come out of it.”
