Roseanne Barr reacted to the premiere of “The Conners” — the spinoff of her canceled “Roseanne” reboot — by saying ABC made a grave mistake by killing off the main character, Roseanne Conner, over an errant tweet she sent in July 2018.
Shortly after “The Conners” premiered, Barr defiantly tweeted: “I ain’t dead, b*tches!”
Hours later, Roseanne followed up with a lengthy Facebook statement rebuking ABC for squandering an opportunity to send a larger message about forgiveness and redemption.
As BizPac Review previously reported, Roseanne’s TV character was killed off through an opioid overdose.
When Barr first learned of her on-screen persona’s fate, she called the death a slap in the face to fans who loved Roseanne Conner and her family.
In a statement posted to Facebook (see below), Roseanne said she wishes her former castmates the “very best,” but said killing off her character was “a choice the network did not have to make.”
“The show brought together characters of different political persuasions and ethnic backgrounds in one, unified family, a rarity in modern American entertainment,” Barr wrote.
“The cancellation of ‘Roseanne’ is an opportunity squandered due in equal parts to fear, hubris, and a refusal to forgive.”
In May 2018, Barr was fired from the hit show she starred in for 10 seasons over a tweet where she suggested that former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett resembled a character from the film “Planet of the Apes.”
There was an immediate backlash from liberals, who accused Barr of being racist.
The media drum boat to get Roseanne fired was led by CNN (where Valerie’s daughter, Laura Jarrett, is employed) and by ABC, whose president is black.
In record time, ABC canceled Roseanne’s No. 1 rated TV series amid the mob liberal uproar.
Roseanne’s longtime co-star and TV husband, John Goodman, defended Barr, saying she is definitely not racist. “I know, I know, for a fact that she’s not a racist,” Goodman said.
Roseanne isn’t the only person who thinks ABC’s decision to abruptly fire her was stupid. ABC now apparently thinks it was a dumb move. Why? Because in business, money talks and BS walks.
Last week, ABC executives admitted that they regret firing Barr so hastily and confessed they were terrified that “The Conners” will flop without her.
Two top ABC executives told the Daily Mail that in retrospect, the network should have suspended — not fired — Roseanne. The executives confessed ABC should not have immediately caved into mob liberal backlash.
“We didn’t think it through properly,” one ABC executive said. “What Roseanne did was wrong, but we shouldn’t have rushed to fire her.
Another executive said, “We could’ve made this a story line for her to save the show and redeem her publicly.”
ABC reportedly did focus-group research, and discovered that TV fans were not interested in “The Conners” reboot without Barr.
“When we greenlit ‘The Conners,’ we thought that the public would tune in to see the family return, but what we’ve discovered is that people want Roseanne. They don’t want the family by themselves.”
The ratings for “The Conners” premiere are not in yet, but it’s almost 100% certain that they will fall well below the 20 million viewers the “Roseanne” reboot raked in. Good move, snowflakes!
Via BPR
