Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Barred From Spinoff: ‘Roseanne’ Will Go On Without Eponymous Actress

(JTA) – ABC rehired most of the cast of the hit series “Roseanne,” but not its star, Roseanne Barr, which prompted the network to cancel the show by posting racist comments on social media.

The rehires will play in a spin-off series that may be called “The Conners,” the Hollywood Reporter reported Thursday.

“Roseanne” was a remake of a 1980s iconic series about a working-class family.

“We all came back last season because we wanted to tell stories about the challenges facing a working-class family today. We are so happy to have the opportunity to return with the cast and crew to continue to share those stories through love and laughter,” stars John Goodman (Dan), Laurie Metcalf (Jackie), Sara Gilbert (Darlene), Lecy Goranson (Becky) and Michael Fishman (D.J.) said in a joint statement.

The network announced the cancellation of Roseanne last month after Barr, who is Jewish, drew wide criticism for a tweet in which she mocked Valerie Jarrett, a former adviser to President Barack Obama.

“Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show,” Channing Dungey, ABC’s entertainment president, said in a statement.

Barr’s tweet mocked Jarrett, who is African-American, saying that “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.”

The actress later deleted the tweet and issued an apology, saying she had made “a bad joke about her politics and her looks.”

Alyssa Fisher is a news writer at the Forward. Email her at [email protected]

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.