John Goodman reveals heartbreaking state of friendship with Roseanne Barr
Seven years ago in 2018, the comedienne was fired from the reboot of Roseanne for tweeting that former Obama official Valerie Jarrett - a black woman - seemed as though the 'muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby.'
As a race row erupted, Roseanne deleted the tweet and blamed the post on Ambien, subsequently insisting she had no idea that the olive-skinned Valerie Jarrett was black and even screaming at one interviewer: 'I thought the b**** was white!'
ABC chief Channing Dungey - who has gone on to work with the Obamas - jettisoned Roseanne from the network in response to the tweet, which drew fierce public denunciations from her co-stars like Sara Gilbert and Emma Kenney, though John kept a low profile except to say he preferred not to 'cause more trouble.'
In order for the show to be allowed to continue and her colleagues to keep their jobs, Roseanne was prevailed upon to give up her rights to the royalties, including those she would have earned from the original series.
Roseanne's character was killed off of the reboot, which was rebranded The Conners - and John, 73, has now shared that he has not spoken to Roseanne, 72, since around the time her career went up in flames, via The Hollywood Reporter.
The Conners staggered on for seven seasons before airing its last episode this April, a development that John revealed he has not discussed with Roseanne.
'I'd rather doubt if she wants to talk to me. We haven't talked for about seven or eight years,' explained the Argo actor in a new interview.
However John had only warm words for his former co-star while discussing the original Roseanne series, which ran nine seasons from 1988 to 1997 and has been widely hailed as one of the finest sitcoms ever created.
'We hit it off from jump street,' said John. 'She made me laugh, and I made her laugh, and wow, it was so much fun. We'd get so many viewers for the show back then - 20, 30 million people. Things are so different now, but it was a special time.'
John's comments went public after a new documentary called Roseanne Is America came out this Tuesday, revealing the final indignity ABC subjected her to after she was thrown off her show seven years ago.
In the new movie, Roseanne shared that ABC actually wanted to bring her back as a 'ghost' guest star at some point during The Conners' run.
'They called me and asked me if I would like to come back as a guest star. You're coming back as a ghost,' Barr revealed.
The comedienne added, 'You're asking me to come back to the show that you f***ing stole from me and killed my a**, and now you want me to show up because you got s**t f***ing ratings and play a ghost?'
She added in the film that she turned down the request by telling the network, 'I'm gonna be bowling that f***ing week.'
Barr also commented on how her character was killed off in the show mirrors the real-life death of Glenn Quinn, who played Becky's (Alicia Goranson) husband Mark Healy on the original show, and died from an accidental overdose in 2002.
'Within three weeks, they revived the show as The Conners, and of course they killed off my character Roseanne in an opioid overdose,' Barr said in the documentary.
'Which was staggering because Glenn Quinn, who played Becky's husband, actually died of an opioid overdose,' she added.
The show would go on to reveal that her overdose came as she was struggling with addiction that was exacerbated by knee pain and insufficient medical coverage.
The finale of The Connors surprised many fans since it included zero footage of Roseanne at all, despite multiple clips from the original show with other characters.
Executive producer Dave Caplan explained to Deadline, 'It was contractual,' regarding Roseanne's absence in the finale.
Another executive producer, Bruce Helford, added, 'She was very gracious in allowing us to continue the show because she had a say in that.'
He added of her exit from the show, 'When she realized it would be putting 300 people out of work when the initial reboot was canceled, she gracefully allowed us to continue without her.'
'It really was about these people. This show was really about the lives of these other people in the family, the Conners, and we wanted to focus on them,' he added.
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