Roseanne Barr’s TV son paid tribute to her on social media two weeks after The Conners finale aired on ABC.
In an Instagram post shared on May 11, Michael Fishman, an original cast member on the sitcoms Roseanne and its spinoff The Conners, honored Barr, whom he first worked with when he was a little boy in the late 1980s. Fishman, now 43, played Barr’s son D.J. Conner on the long-running series.
“Happy Mother’s Day to all the great Moms,” Fishman wrote under a clip of Barr in scenes with him and his TV siblings, Lecy Goranson and Sara Gilbert, from the original ABC sitcom. “Roseanne achieved her goal by creating the most authentic and engaging TV Mom,” Fishman captioned the post, which ended with a Happy Mother’s Day message to Roseanne.
Fishman’s nostalgic tribute came two days after he posted one of his favorite scenes with Barr from the early days of Roseanne. In the clip, Roseanne and D.J. share an affectionate mother/son moment. She then asks her son if he’s ready to taste “the greatest chili in the entire world.” With a perfectly straight face, the little boy replies, “It’s a little bit bland,” and Barr laughs at his response. Fishman noted that the scene was a “transition” for him as a young actor.
“This was a pivot scene in my career. A defining moment in production. And most of all it shows how much love Roseanne and I shared,” he wrote.
Fishman was six years old when he made his debut as D.J. in the original Roseanne series. The show aired for nine seasons, from 1988 to 1997, and Fishman returned as the D.J. character for the reboot from 2018 to 2022.
Both Barr and Fishman were missing from the series finale of The Conners, although Barr’s character was at least mentioned. While the Conner family matriarch was killed off in the spinoff amid Barr’s real-life 2018 Twitter scandal, Fishman’s D.J. was simply cut from the show after four seasons.
Soon after the series finale aired in late April, Fishman made it clear that he had no hard feelings about the episode, which made no mention of his character.
Addressing fans in an Instagram reel, the actor said, “People seem to want there to be some kind of conflict or controversy, especially on my part. And the reality is, all I’ve ever had was empathy and understanding.“
The actor credited Barr for the legacy of the sitcom franchise and told another fan that the exclusion of D.J. from the final seasons was “a creative choice” by producers. “I move forward,” he wrote.
As for Barr, her real-life son Jake Pentland, told TMZ that his mom didn’t know The Conners ended its seven-season run because she never watched a single episode of the spinoff.
