The Fawlty Towers and Monty Python star was quoted in a magazine interview last year as saying "there's no way I want to work in TV, especially at the BBC".
In recent years, the 74-year-old British actor has mainly concentrated on voiceover roles.
But BBC comedy head Shane Allen told the Daily Telegraph Cleese is a "comedy god, and the door is always open".
"We're in discussions about a piece that he might be in. It's a sitcom and it's very early days," Mr Allen said.
Cleese, who appeared on the big screen in A Fish Called Wanda and two Harry Potter films, did take on small appearances in US TV sitcoms Whitney and Entourage between 2010 and 2013.
He also reunited with his Monty Python co-stars in 2013 for live shows to pay an Â£800,000 legal bill after losing a royalties case. And following his divorce from third wife Alyce Eichelberger in 2008, he performed in a comedy show dubbed the Alimony Tour.
In last year's interview with Shortlist magazine, Cleese said he felt the BBC's commissioning editors had "no idea" what they were doing.
He also said he had been offered "cliched" roles by ITV.
Referring to Cleese's possible BBC sitcom return, Mr Allen told the Telegraph: "There are certain people who have earned their badges, who have got the right to do what they want."
He was speaking to the Telegraph before the first episode airs on Sunday in the BBC's "landmark sitcom series".
The series features modern remakes of Are You Being Served?, Porridge, Till Death Us Do Part,  Steptoe and Son, and Up Pompeii!
Mr Allen said it was "insulting" to suggest the BBC's new comedies were not as good as the past but added: "This is a chance to try to reclaim that and say these are titles and writers and pieces of work that are proven, and hallowed, and it's a chance to introduce them to a new generation."
A BBC spokeswoman said: "We would love to work with John Cleese. However nothing is confirmed at this stage and we do not comment on developments."

The deal will take legal force when it is ratified by 55 signatories producing 55% of global emissions.
Ratification by China and the US bumps the total to 40% of emissions. It will just need the EU and a couple of other major polluters to cross the threshold.
Other nations will still tussle over their own ratification, but this sets clear ambition, and the US-China deal will put pressure on G20 nations over the weekend to move faster with their pledge to phase out subsidies to fossil fuels.
President Obama is in China at the end of a legacy tour, in which he has visited Nevada and Hawaii to warn of climate disruption.
Over recent years he has persuaded the reluctant Chinese that they need to accept their own climate commitments in order to buy him political space for Americaâ€™s pledges.
Both nations have set widely differing targets reflecting their different stages of economic development.
The USA says it intends to reduce emissions by 26-28% below its 2005 level in 2025, trying hard for the upper limit.
China has promised to stop the upward path of its emissions by 2030, although it will far exceed that goal.
But even if enough other players step forward to make the Paris deal law, huge challenges lie ahead.
The current pledged emissions cuts are still projected to bring 2.7C or more of warming â€“ well above the aspirational 1.5C heating that the UN accepts should really be the limit.
And that is supposing that nations keep their promises on emissions cuts.
In the UK the Labour Party has urged Theresa May to ratify the Paris deal immediately.
The US-China deal will also put pressure on G20 nations over the weekend to move faster with their pledge to phase out subsidies to fossil fuels.
Follow Roger on Twitter @rharrabin
John Cleese is reported to be in talks to return to the BBC for a sitcom which has been written specifically for him.
[NEXT_CONCEPT]
The joint commitment from the worldâ€™s super-polluters, announced on Saturday, is a big step towards turning the Paris climate agreement into reality.