Tom Arnold Denies Lorre's 'Roseanne' Script-Credit Claim — SkimNews
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- Tom Arnold denied Chuck Lorre's memoir claim that writers on 'Roseanne' were told to put Arnold's name on scripts he didn't write, telling EW he 'never would put my name on a script' he didn't write.
- Lorre alleged in his memoir Sitcom that writer Danny Jacobson showed him a 'sloppy, hand-scribbled' script attributed to Arnold, with Jacobson confirming to EW that Arnold's then-wife Roseanne 'bullied me into letting him write a script.'
- Arnold, who served as a producer on Seasons 3-6 of 'Roseanne,' described sitting with Roseanne to brainstorm episodes before handing ideas to the head writer, insisting every script carried 'every writer's fingerprints' regardless of whose name appeared on it.
- Arnold recounted telling Lorre early in the show's run that each staff writer needed a script credit annually for career and pay reasons, and recalled pressuring Lorre to give writer Joel Madison a credit two weeks before production wrapped.
- Lorre, a writer and producer on 'Roseanne' Seasons 3 and 4, claimed in his memoir that 'several other staff writers would be ordered to do this on many occasions' beyond Jacobson.
- The dispute is part of a wider wave of reactions to Lorre's memoir — Variety covered Jaime Pressly defending her 'Mom' co-stars after Lorre revealed his 'reluctance to hire' Anna Faris, while NYT Arts published '7 Takeaways From Chuck Lorre's New Memoir.'
Why it matters: The he-said-he-said centers on a 10x Emmy nominee (Lorre) and one of sitcom's most prominent producer-actors, and the conflicting accounts from Arnold and Jacobson — both speaking to Entertainment Weekly — mean readers get two of Lorre's named witnesses publicly disputing his version of events. The fight also rewrites Arnold's legacy on a show that helped define 1990s sitcoms, going to the heart of who actually shaped 'Roseanne's' scripts.
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