Why did Roseanne Barr clash with the writer's room? Chuck Lorre explains

In a new conversation about his early days on Roseanne, Chuck Lorre says the room where the show’s jokes were built was never exactly warm. The chill, he says, came from a simple clash: Roseanne Barr didn’t want anyone else putting words in her mouth.

“Roseanne hated that there were writers. Fundamentally hated that other people wrote words that she would say. So there was this built-in animosity between Rosie and the writing staff.”

Lorre, who worked on the ABC hit in the early ’90s, shared the memory on Jesse Tyler Ferguson’s podcast, Dinner’s On Me. He stressed the friction wasn’t personal toward any one writer — it was the setup. Television needs a staff, he said, and asking a stand-up to deliver lines she didn’t write herself is a tough fit that very few comics are comfortable with.

From feud to reunion

The producer also talked about how a much louder fallout — the one with Charlie Sheen after his March 2011 exit from Two and a Half Men and a reported $100 million lawsuit — eventually melted away. Lorre had even needled the situation on his end-credit vanity cards at the time, but years later, he woke up and realized the anger had burned off.

When Lorre and partner Nick Bakay were casting a celebrity gambler for their comedy Bookie, Sheen immediately sprang to mind. Bakay asked if it was even possible after everything that happened; Lorre figured it was, as long as Sheen was sober. He reached out through an agency, and Sheen, Lorre says, picked up “graciously and with enthusiasm.”

Sheen had one request before signing on — to leave “the d**** and a****** out.” The actor ’s heightened version of himself went on to host a high-stakes poker game at a Malibu rehab, try to settle a debt with baseball memorabilia, and later pop back up to dispense marital advice. Lorre directed the episode featuring Sheen’s first appearance.