Roseanne Barr is still living out the ramifications of a very racist tweet, as ABC gets ready to launch aRoseanne spinoff this fall without its namesake star. In an attempt to make amends, Barr claims she “asked for nothing” when authorizing The Connors after her reboot show was canceled in May.
“I was you know, very upset about hurting things that I care about and hurting people that I care about, specifically the little girl who played my granddaughter on the Roseanne show. She’s African American, her name’s Jayden and she loved me and I loved her. And I did not want her to not have a job because she’s great and I did not want her to think that, you know, badly of Jewish people, me specifically,” Barr told Rabbi Shmuley during a podcast interview, per Us Weekly. “So you know, I didn’t ask to be paid off...I asked for nothing. And I just stepped away for that because you know, that is penance. You know, I put a lot of thought into it.”
ABC pulled the plug on the Roseanne reboot, and the original show’s reruns, after Barr tweeted out racist and Islamophobic comments about former White House advisor Valerie Jarrett. At the end of June, the network revealed it would be launching a new show without Barr, in a spinoff dubbed The Connors that will air Tuesday nights this fall.
The Connors will star returning cast members John Goodman (Dan), Laurie Metcalf (Jackie), Gilbert (Darlene), Lecy Goranson (Becky) and Michael Fishman (D.J.). “I regret the circumstances that have caused me to be removed from Roseanne,” Barr told Us Weekly. “I agreed to the settlement in order that 200 jobs of beloved cast and crew could be saved, and I wish the best for everyone involved.”
