Chuck Lorre Says Working on ‘Roseanne’ ‘Was Malice’ Because Roseanne Barr ‘Fundamentally Hated’ the Show’s Writers

Before Chuck Lorre was known for creating “The Big Bang Theory” and “Two and a Half Men,” he was a writer on two seasons of the popular ABC sitcom “Roseanne,” an experience he described as “malice” in a recent episode of the “Dinner’s on Me” podcast.

When host Jesse Tyler Ferguson wondered how the famed writer, creator and producer handled the show’s infamously chaotic writers’ room, Lorre responded that he navigated it, simply, “because I’d had, I don’t know, 15, 20 years of poverty and health issues and all sorts of stuff, and I was not going to go back. Under no circumstances was I going to go back to scrambling to pay the rent…That is why I put up with it. 60-, 70-hour weeks every week. And it was malice. It was absolute.”

Lorre explained that it was so turbulent because of Barr’s disdain for the show’s writers. She “hated that there were writers. Fundamentally hated that other people wrote words that she would say,” he explained, given Barr had risen to fame as a stand-up comedian and was used to writing her own jokes.

“She made herself a superstar based on her words, her writing,” he continued. “Then transition to a television show where you can’t do it alone. It’s impossible. That transition was not going to happen.”

Lorre went on to create shows including “Grace Under Fire,” “Cybill,” “Dharma & Greg,” “Two and a Half Men,” “The Big Bang Theory,” “Mom,” “Young Sheldon” and “The Kominsky Method.”

“Roseanne” ran from 1988 to 1997, and was then revived for a nine-episode season that aired in 2018. (The reboot was canceled that same year after Barr posted a racist tweet.) At the time, Variety reported that the show finished its first season as the number one scripted primetime television show in the 18-49 age range. A follow-up, “The Conners,” ran for seven seasons from 2018 to 2025.