John Goodman Says ‘Conners’ Show Has ‘Hollow Center’ Without Roseanne Barr

“The Conners” and former “Roseanne” star John Goodman said that the new spinoff show has a “hollow center” without its former star, Roseanne Barr.

“It felt great to be back, but there’s a hollow center. I miss Rosie real bad,” said Goodman to USA Today.

Barr was booted her sitcom after she made a racially charged tweet that went after former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett. After a torrent of backlash on social media, primarily on Twitter, Barr was fired by ABC. Eventually, executives agreed to create a spinoff called “The Conners” without Barr.

Goodman said that he thinks that Barr isn’t racist.

“I know for a fact that she’s not a racist,” he said. “I’ll put it this way, I was surprised at the response. And that’s probably all I should say about it.”

On the first episode of “The Conners,” Barr’s character was killed off via an opioid overdose.

Criticism

Barr released a statement on the matter, saying she felt it was unnecessary.

“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 character. That it was done through an opioid overdose lent an unnecessary grim and morbid dimension to an otherwise happy family show,” Barr wrote in a statement on Oct. 16 via the Rabbi Shmuley Boteach’s Facebook page.

“This was a choice the network did not have to make. Roseanne was the only show on television that directly addressed the deep divisions threatening the very fabric of our society,” she wrote in the statement.

A report from Entertainment Weekly said that the series premiere of “The Conners” performed much worse than the 2017 premiere of “Roseanne.” The show’s premiere had about 10.5 million viewers and a 2.3 rating among adults 18-49, according to Entertainment Weekly, which according to many figures, is a good result.

It was far lower than the premiere of “Roseanne” in the spring of 2017. The publication said that it’s down 55 percent.

When “Roseanne” returned in March 2017, the show had 18.2 million viewers and a 5.1 rating about the 18-49 demographic. The series finale concluded with 10.3 million viewers and a 2.4 rating, according to the Entertainment Weekly report.

“Through humor and a universally relatable main character, the show represented a weekly teaching moment for our nation. Yet it is often following an inexcusable–but not unforgivable–mistake that we can discover the most important lesson of all: Forgiveness,” Barr added in her statement. “After repeated and heartfelt apologies, the network was unwilling to look past a regrettable mistake, thereby denying the twin American values of both repentance and forgiveness.”

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