Roseanne Barr said she pleaded with network brass to save her show before ABC canceled it in the wake of an offensive and racist tweet by her earlier this week.
In several tweets that have since been deleted (a pattern for the comedian in recent days), she described a conversation with Disney/ABC Television Group President Ben Sherwood before the announcement on Tuesday that the hit show “Roseanne” would not return for a second season.
“I begged Ben Sherwood at ABC 2 let me apologize & make amends,” Barr tweeted, according to images of the missives. “I begged them not to cancel the show. I told them I was willing to do anything & asked 4 help in making things right. I’d worked doing publicity4 them 4free for weeks, traveling, thru bronchitis. I begged4 ppls jobs.”
She also repeated the excuse she has publicly given for likening Valerie Jarrett, a former top aide to President Barack Obama, to an ape. “He said: what were you thinking when you did this?” Barr continued. “I said: I thought she was white, she looks like my family! He scoffed & said: ‘what u have done is egregious, and unforgivable.’ I begged 4 my crews jobs. Will I ever recover from this pain? omg.”
A representative for ABC did not immediately reply to a request for comment about the alleged exchange.
In another also-deleted tweet, Barr singled out cast member Jayden Rey, who played Barr’s granddaughter Mary Conner, whose on-screen parents were Barr’s son D.J. and his African American wife.
“I think I’ll b better tomorrow. The saddest part of all is 4 Jayden Rey on the show whom I grew2 love so much & am so ashamed of myself that she would ever think I do not love her bc she is African American,” Barr tweeted. “It’s the most gawd awful painful thing. I can’t let myself cave in tho.”
Barr left up this apologetic tweet, in which she says she’s “signing off on twitter for a while” — something she has promised to do multiple times, only to quickly return to the platform.