"A teaching moment.' Valerie Jarrett and others respond to 'Roseanne' controversy

Within the span of just a few hours on Tuesday, Roseanne Barr lost her hit TV show, her Hollywood agents and the respect of one young cast member who played her granddaughter on the show.

ABC abruptly pulled the plug on its money-making "Roseanne" reboot Tuesday after Barr tweeted that former Barack Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett was a product of the Muslim Brotherhood and the "Planet of the Apes."

"Roseanne Barr has shown us just how far the line in America’s sand has drifted from the realm of basic decency," wrote Rex Huppke of the Chicago Tribune.

MSNBC host Chris Hayes tweeted that coincidentally, Jarrett will appear Tuesday night in a televised town hall about "everyday racism."

The network tweeted that Jarrett called the controversy "a teaching moment."

Barr deleted her tweet and apologized to Jarrett — calling it a "bad joke" — after civil rights leaders, Barr's political detractors, many on social media, her co-star, Sara Gilbert, and show producer, Wanda Sykes, condemned what she'd written. A call to boycott the show broke out on social media.

ABC minced no words in announcing that it was done with her.

"Roseanne's Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show," ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey said Tuesday in a statement to media outlets.

Civil rights leader Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.) praised ABC for doing "the right thing."

Even Before ABC canceled the show, some of Barr's colleagues on the show moved quickly to distance themselves.

Sykes quit as a producer and Gilbert tweeted that Barr's "comments about Valerie Jarrett, and so much more, are abhorrent and do not reflect the beliefs of our cast and crew or anyone associated with our show. I am disappointed in her actions to say the least."

Emma Kenney, who played Barr's granddaughter, Harris Conner-Healy, revealed she was going to quit when she was told it had been canceled.

"As I called my manager to quit working on Roseanne, I was told it was cancelled," Kenney tweeted. "I feel so empowered by @iamwandasykes , Channing Dungey and anyone at ABC standing up for morals and abuse of power. Bullies will NEVER win."

After ABC canceled the show, Barr's talent agency, ICM Partners, also dropped her, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

"We are all greatly distressed by the disgraceful and unacceptable tweet from Roseanne Barr this morning. What she wrote is antithetical to our core values, both as individuals and as an agency," the agency wrote in an internal note to all employees. "Consequently, we have notified her that we will not represent her. Effective immediately, Roseanne Barr is no longer a client."

Barr's fans, though, defended her, saying what she tweeted about Jarrett was not as offensive as things said about President Donald Trump, on other ABC shows such as "The View." Barr was a Trump supporter on the reborn sitcom and she said he called her to congratulate her on the show.

Some of her fans called for a boycott of ABC after it dropped the show.

Conservative talk show host Alex Jones called ABC the "thought police" and invited Barr on his show.

Other conservatives, however, suggested this was not a fight for them.

While some people seemed shocked that Barr lost her show, others said they weren't surprised by the day's events.

Mike Swanson, vice president of communications and broadcasting for the Kansas City Royals, was reminded of the night in 1990 Barr sang an infamous rendition of the National Anthem during which she grabbed her crotch and later earned a presidential rebuke.

“This is like the animals in the wild," Stirewalt said. "If certain stripe patterns let you know this is a venomous snake, stay away. And the fact that the president couldn’t stay away and a lot of his followers couldn’t stay away tells you intensity of tribalism.”

Stirewalt said the "amount of stupidity that is coursing through our body politic these days is pretty astonishing. It was hard to miss with Roseanne.

"Here is a person who has made her career out of being awful … She is a comedic version of a shock jock. Her whole employ was saying and doing outrageous things to get attention. When I saw conservatives and I saw Republicans gravitating to her because she was saying things they like about Donald Trump and they could claim her as one of their own, I thought ‘what a bad risk.' ”

Some people now see a future for Barr and fellow Hollywood conservative Tim Allen on Fox, which has revived Allen's ABC sitcom, "Last Man Standing." Fans of Allen's show accused ABC of canceling it because of his right-leaning politics. The network said at the time it was retooling its line-up.

"Star Wars" icon Mark Hamill envisioned the two shows together now.

This story was originally published May 29, 2018 at 3:01 PM with the headline ""A teaching moment.' Valerie Jarrett and others respond to 'Roseanne' controversy."