Most infamous story from writer’s room shows ‘Roseanne’ was an insane place to work

THE original run of Roseanne was filled with bizarre antics — including one incredible story from the writer’s room that’s lived on in Hollywood infamy.

AFTER just nine episodes, the wildly popular Roseanne reboot is no more, nixed by its own star and creator’s unpredictable, offensive behaviour.

But disruption and discontent is not new to the world of Roseanne. The show’s original nine-season run was filled with truly bizarre behind the scenes stories, leaked by frustrated writers and crew.

Once such tale has lived on in infamy in Hollywood comedy circles, referenced in several other TV shows and even in the recent rebooted 10th season of Roseanne.

Known in shorthand as “Who Jackie,” it’s a story that demonstrates just how chaotic life could be for those working on the show.

Comedian Norm MacDonald served as a writer from 1992-1993 on the original run of Roseanne, and shared the story in a 2014 episode of his podcast Norm MacDonald Live, and while that podcast has since been deleted, the story lives on via Reddit.

Roseanne Barr was known for hiring people “right off the bat” to be writers on the show, regardless of their previous experience. In Macdonald’s case, that was a blessing — Barr saw him doing stand-up and promptly offered him a job.

She would continue to staff and re-staff the writer’s room as her creative control over the sitcom grew, hiring talented writers like Macdonald and Joss Whedon, who went on to create the iconic Buffy TV series.

Sometimes, though, Barr’s hires were simply friends or family — her own daughters wrote scripts for the show’s disastrous ninth season, which saw the Connor family win the lottery and become high-living millionaires.

Actor and comic Norm MacDonald later starred alongside Roseanne actor Laurie Metcalf (Jackie herself) in The Norm Show.

As Macdonald tells it, one such hire was a mysterious man named David who was clearly out of his depth in the writing room and so stayed largely silent as the rest of the writers workshopped ideas and hashed out jokes each day.

Until one day, David spoke up with a story idea, much to the surprise of everyone else in the room.

“What if Dan came home and found Roseanne washing her big ass in the sink. But the thing is, it ain’t Roseanne, it’s Roseanne’s twin sister!” Macdonald recalled him as saying.

As the story goes, the bizarre idea hung in the air for a few seconds until one of the other writers tried to let David down gently: Sounds funny, they told him, but … Roseanne already has a sister, Jackie.

And then, from David, two words that would live on in infamy:

“WHO JACKIE?”

He’d been in the writer’s room for months, and had clearly never even heard of one of the show’s key characters.

Roseanne was a ratings hit — but a difficult show to work on at times.

Legend has it that David didn’t stop there, enthusiastically pitching that Jackie should be replaced with the Roseanne twin character, adding that Jackie should “die, become a ghost, fly around the room. That’d make everybody happy.”

Some 25 years after the incident is alleged to have occurred, it lives on in TV writing circles, with references peppered through other TV shows:

My Name Is Earl

With several writers from Roseanne working on My Name Is Earl, there are several sly references to the infamous story found in the show — in one, the titular character gives out his email as “[e-mail].”

Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

In episode 10 of the Tina Fey-helmed comedy, character Dong apologises to his boss, a man named Hu Zha Qi. Say it with me: Hu Zha Qi. Who Jac Kie.

“I’m so sorry, Hu Zha Qi!” he says.

“It’s your fault. I hope you die, become ghost, fly around the room. That make everybody happy,” his boss responds.

30 Rock

Tina Fey was clearly a fan of the story, as it also shows up in season four of 30 Rock. “Hey, what do you think about Jack?” another character asks Liz Lemon. “Who, Jackie?” she replies.

Roseanne

“Where’s dad?” asked Darlene in a scene from the show’s recent reboot. “He’s in the kitchen. He’s washing his tail in the sink,” replies Roseanne, an obvious call-out to the infamous “washing her ass in the sink” story pitch from the mysterious David.

Roseanne Barr had the top-rating show on US TV this week — now her career is in tatters. Picture: AP

As the dust clears from Barr’s spectacular self-destruction this week, other stories are emerging about what it was like to work under her. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, executive producer Dave Caplan — who worked on the original series and the reboot — said he “exercised my due diligence and asked the powers that be what kind of mindset she was in. I certainly wasn’t interested in the really unpredictable, unstable behaviour of the early years.”

An anonymous TV exec told The Sun this week that staff used to walk on eggshells around Barr, who would be particularly nasty to “lower paid” employees.

He added that he grew to hate the star because of the “nasty s**t she did to people for no reason.”

“She was a yeller — she would yell at people, especially to people she didn’t recognise and that’s scary when you’re exhibiting this extreme diva behaviour to people who didn’t do anything,” he claimed.