John Goodman played Roseanne Barr’s husband on TV for over 10 years, but that changed after Barr made some questionable comments on Twitter in 2018.
Speaking about Barr now, Goodman expressed that he had some strong emotions about the circumstances of Barr’s firing from their show, but he does not know if those feelings would be enough to make him consider working with her again.
After playing Dan and Roseanne Conner on “Roseanne” from 1988 to 1998, Goodman and Barr agreed to do a reboot of the show with the same name. The nine-episode season aired from March through May 2018, but that summer, Barr made a series of racist comments about Valerie Jarrett, a former advisor to former President Obama, and she was fired from the show. Barr disputed the claims and apologized for making a “bad joke.”
Because the reboot was successful, the network made the decision to change the title from “Roseanne” to “The Conners,” and Barr’s disappearance was explained by an off-screen death. For Goodman, that was a difficult time.
JOHN GOODMAN SAYS ‘THE CONNERS’ IS ‘GREAT’ WITHOUT ROSEANNE BARR
A photo of John Goodman and Roseanne Barr
In an interview with The Sunday Times that same year, Goodman said, “I was surprised at the response. And that’s probably all I should say about that … I know for a fact that she’s not a racist.”
He added that she was “going through hell” because of the controversy.
“No,” he answered. “At the time I remember going to some kind of junket where they saw the pilot, and then the interviews, and it just turned into an attack. And that made me very uncomfortable with them just attacking Roseanne.”
He continued, “I felt bad for her. I just feel terrible about the whole thing. We had a great time. And I love her. She’s just her own person.”
While he still loves her, it seems that he is not entirely comfortable with the thought of tying himself to her professionally again.
ROSEANNE – “Twenty Years to Life” – Roseanne and Dan adjust to living under the same roof with Darlene and her two children, Harris and Mark, when Darlene loses her job. Meanwhile, Becky announces she is going to be a surrogate to make extra money; and Roseanne and Jackie are at odds with one another, on the season premiere and first episode of the revival of “Roseanne,”
“I don’t know,” he replied when asked if he’d work with her now. “If she’d like to… I just don’t know. I miss her. I wish her well.”
He also had some nice things to say about Barr’s contributions to the show now known as “The Conners.”
The cast of “The Conners”
“A lot of people have tied into the struggle of living paycheck to paycheck,” he said, referencing the Conner family’s blue collar problems that have been a staple of the show since its inception. “And we try to handle it with humor.”
