The reboot of Roseanne is being rebooted as The Conners following the racist tweet scandal by lead and show creator Roseanne Barr.
And now Roseanne’s TV husband John Goodman has apparently revealed how the departure of the main character will be handled when the sitcom returns this fall.
Asked about how Dan Conner will handle her absence, he told Britain’s The Sunday Times: ‘It’s an unknown. I guess he’ll be mopey and sad because his wife’s dead.’
John Goodman has revealed in Sunday Times interview that when The Conners returns without star Roseanne Barr, his character Dan will be ‘mopey and sad because his wife’s dead’
Goodman, 66, also admitted in the newspaper interview that he had been depressed for a month after ABC pulled Roseanne after just nine episodes in the wake of Barr’s tweet about Valerie Jarrett.
And the actor defended the controversial actress and comedienne, saying: ‘I know, I know, for a fact that she’s not a racist.’
ABC fired Barr in May and ultimately she agreed to allow the show she created to continue with the other original castmembers and rebranded as The Conners.
Goodman said he did message Barr during that time, saying: ‘She had to sign a paper saying that she relinquished all her rights to the show so that we could go on.’
And looking ahead, Goodman said the cast will have their work cut out to make the new show a success without her.
Goodman, 66, said he was ‘very depressed’ following Barr’s tweet about Valerie Jarrett and defended her, saying: ‘I know for a fact she is not a racist’
ABC fired Barr in May but she agreed to allow the network to continue to make the show she created without her. Goodman will return with other original cast including Sara Gilbert
Speaking about his relationship with Barr, he recalled that the two used to laugh a lot, and said his goal in life was ‘to make her wet her pants’.
But it seems the pair did not share much of a relationship off set, as Goodman describes Barr as his ‘work friend’.
Barr caused widespread outrage after she tweeted that Jarrett, who was born in Iran and is of African American heritage, looked like ‘the Muslim Brotherhood & Planet of the Apes had a baby’.
She has repeatedly apologized for any offence that the tweet caused as well as to the cast and crew of Roseanne, but refuses to accept that it was racist.
Roseanne ran from 1988 to 1997. Its revival earlier this year was a huge ratings hit for ABC but was yanked off air after nine episodes due to Barr’s racism scandal
Barr said her tweet that Jarrett, an Obama adviser who was born in Iran and is of African American heritage, looked like ‘if the Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes had a baby’
Barr insists that she thought Jarrett was white and intended the tweet as a political jibe at Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran.
On Sunday, Barr sent a message to fans on Twitter saying she was ‘doing better’ after changing doctors, having previously hinted at mental health issues.
Meanwhile ABC President Channing Dungey has revealed that the Jarrett tweet was just the last in a long line of problems with Roseanne that got her fired.
Speaking about the decision, she said: ‘It was actually made very swiftly. We knew what we wanted to do, and we did it.
‘For us, we have had multiple instances with Roseanne, and certainly this tweet crossed the line that cannot be crossed, but it was for us a sense of enough is enough and something had to be done.
‘It was nice that it was so clear to everyone that there wasn’t a lot of debate and discussion about it.’