Roseanne Barr Reacts to ‘The Conners’ Emotional Series Finale

The Conners wrapped up its seven-season run on Wednesday (April 23) with an emotional series finale that paid tribute to Roseanne Barr, the family matriarch and star on which the spinoff sitcom was based.

Despite a contentious history between Barr and the show following her firing, the series finale saw the show’s main characters visiting Roseanne’s grave and John Goodman’s patriarch, Dan Conner, reflecting on his relationship with his late wife.

The Conners premiered on ABC on October 16, 2018, as a continuation of the hit series Roseanne. This came after the Roseanne revival was canceled after one season due to controversial comments Barr made on X (then Twitter). Instead, the show spun off into The Conners, where Barr’s titular character was killed off in an accidental opioid overdose.

While Barr has spoken out against the show in the past, Jake Pentland, her son and rep, recently told TMZ that she and the family are still glad The Conners crew got seven seasons of work out of the show.

He added that now that The Conners has had its run, there is “no need to dangle anyone’s job over [Barr’s] head anymore.”

Disney / Christopher Willard

Barr had no creative or financial involvement in The Conners, but after she was fired, she agreed to a settlement that would allow the show to continue to prevent 300 cast and crew members from losing their jobs.

“She was very gracious in allowing us to continue the show because she had a say in that,” the show’s executive producer Bruce Helford told Deadline. “When she realised it would be putting 300 people out of work when the initial reboot was cancelled, she gracefully allowed us to continue without her. It really was about these people.”

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Even though she allowed the show to continue without her, Barr and her family “didn’t watch a single second” of The Conners, according to Pentland, who noted his mother “didn’t even know it just wrapped.”

Pentland shared similar comments with Us Weekly on Thursday (April 24), saying, “We don’t care about cheap knockoffs. We support the real brands. We only pay attention to things that matter to the American people.”

One thing Barr was aware of was the show killing off her character in a drug overdose. In a 2023 interview with the Los Angeles Times, she said, “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.”

She continued, “They killed my character… And all of that was to say thank you for bringing 28 million viewers, which they never had before and will never see again. Because they can kiss my a**.”