The Conners ended its run on ABC back in April 2025, wrapping up all the major storylines and giving fans a bittersweet farewell to the beloved Conner family after seven seasons. Now, fresh controversy is stirring as Roseanne Barr reveals the unexpected way the show allegedly tried to bring her back at one point. And let us just say, she wasn’t having it.
Matt Williams created The Conners, which was a direct continuation of his comedy sitcom Roseanne. Barr starred as the titular character for Roseanne's original nine-season run before reprising the role for its revival. The comedy sitcom was canceled after its tenth season in 2018 after Barr made a racially offensive tweet about a former advisor to President Barack Obama, Valerie Jarrett, prompting ABC to cut ties with the actress and move forward with a spinoff without her.
That spinoff would be named The Conners. How did the writers choose to address her absence in the show? Well, viewers find out in the first episode that Roseanne Conner died from an opioid overdose. The show would then focus on the rest of the Conner family and their day-to-day lives. Cast members from Roseanne reprised their roles in the spinoff, like John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, Sara Gilbert, and Lecy Goranson.
According to Barr, there was a possibility for her to return to The Conners in some form, but she declined the offer. In her new documentary, Roseanne is America, Barr reveals that the show contacted her about guest-starring as a ghost.
She found the idea offensive, feeling that the series had been unfairly taken from her and that asking her to appear only as a deceased version of her character was disrespectful. She also implied that the invitation was motivated by the show’s struggling ratings, rather than a genuine desire to have her back. In the end, she claims she turned down the offer, telling the show's creative team that she’d be “bowling that week."
"You're asking me to come back to the show that you f------ stole from me and killed my a--, and now you want me to show up because you got shit f------ ratings and play a ghost?" - People
Later in the documentary, Barr briefly discusses her reaction to finding out about how The Conners chose to kill off her character, revealing her shock and disapproval of the decision to have Roseanne die from an opioid overdose. She found the choice not only hurtful but also insensitive, especially given that Glenn Quinn, the actor who played Becky’s husband on the original Roseanne series, had actually died in real life from an opioid overdose.
ABC has not responded to confirm or deny Barr's claims, leaving the details of the situation unclear. That said, we'll just have to wait and see if the network or anyone involved with The Conners chooses to speak out and share their side of the story.