Tom Arnold rejects Chuck Lorre claim over Roseanne writing credits

Tom Arnold says he never put his name on a Roseanne script he did not write.

The denial answers a claim in Chuck Lorre's memoir Sitcom that staff writers — the organised team employed to write a series — were told to credit Arnold for their work, as reported by Deadline.

Lorre worked as a writer and producer on Roseanne in Seasons 3 and 4. Arnold was a producer on the series for Seasons 3 to 6, and also appeared on screen in the recurring guest role of Arnie Thomas.

In the memoir, Lorre claimed writer Danny Jacobson showed him hand-scribbled pages described as a script by Arnold, who was then an executive producer, meaning the boss in charge of the show. Jacobson allegedly said part of his job was to turn that material into real scripts with Arnold's name on the front page. Lorre also alleged that several other staff writers were ordered to put Arnold's name on scripts on many occasions.

Arnold rejected that version in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. "I never would put my name on a script that [Lorre] wrote," he told Entertainment Weekly. He added of Lorre: "I think he thinks he's Norman Lear."

Jacobson has given a different account. He told Entertainment Weekly that he was bullied into letting Arnold take script credit, confirming Lorre's description of events. Arnold also responded to the memoir claims on X, as noted by the Los Angeles Times.

For fans, this leaves two directly opposed versions of what happened in that writers' room on record. One side characterises the credits as ordered from above. The other says that never happened.