Roseanne Barr was unaware that The Conners was coming to an end after seven seasons according to her son, Jake Pentland.
“We don’t care about cheap knockoffs. We support the real brands,” Pentland told Us Weekly on Thursday, April 24. “We only pay attention to things that matter to the American people.”
In 2018, ABC revived the comedy Roseanne, which aired between 1988 and 1997. Barr starred in the series alongside John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, Sara Gilbert, Michael Fishman and Lecy Goranson. The revival was renewed for a second season when Barr made headlines for her controversial political comments on social media.
Roseanne was subsequently canceled and ABC decided to rebrand the show as The Conners and move forward with the remaining cast. Barr’s character was killed off and the sitcom proceeded as the fictional family mourned the loss of their matriarch after a fatal overdose.
“While we wish the very best for the cast and production crew of The Conners, all of whom are deeply dedicated to their craft and were Roseanne’s cherished colleagues, we regret that ABC chose to cancel Roseanne by killing off the Roseanne Conner’s character,” Barr and her rabbi, Shmuley Boteach, told Us in a statement after the 2018 premiere. “That it was done through an opioid overdose lent an unnecessary grim and morbid dimension to an otherwise happy family show.”
Barr later revealed that after being fired from the show was too hurt to watch the sitcom.
“I just can’t bear it, so I don’t,” Barr told The Los Angeles Times in February 2023. “When they killed my character off, that was a message to me, knowing that I’m mentally ill or have mental health issues, that they did want me to commit suicide.”
