Roseanne Barr recently returned to her stand-up roots, and used the opportunity to throw more shots at ABC for firing her from her high-rated show Roseanne. Barr was introduced by Andrew Dice Clay, her friend of more than 30 years, at the Laugh Factory Las Vegas. She immediately launched into some expletive-heavy jokes -- if they were jokes -- about the network that not only cancelled her show last year, it also killed off her character on the spinoff show The Conners.
When you get fired, you get real suicidal, but I’d never kill myself because that would make too many fuckin' people happy. And I’m not about making people happy. Dear ABC, when you asked me back to once again bail out your shit, fuckin’, low-rated network, I did so with the same vigor I’ve always rocked, and I delivered you the highest ratings you’ve had in ten fuckin' years. At the first sign of controversy, you killed me off with a drug overdose. But you know what, I ain’t dead, bitches.
"I ain't dead, bitches" is also what she tweeted after The Conners premiere explained the absence of Roseanne Conner by killing her off.
Roseanne ran for nine seasons before the nine-episode Season 10 revival in 2018. The Season 10 premiere had 18.44 million viewers and a 5.2 rating in the 18-49 demo, making it the highest rated comedy in years. ABC had renewed Roseanne for Season 11 just a few days after the success of the premiere. But the show was cancelled in May 2018 after Roseanne tweeted a comment about Valerie Jarrett that was considered racist.
Roseanne said she begged ABC execs not to cancel the show, saying she'd do anything to make it right. It was decided to continue the show with the rest of the cast and crew as The Conners. Roseanne seemed to make peace with the original team going on without her, but she was not happy that they killed off her character, and how they did it.
Roseanne Barr joked that she hadn't done stand-up since the 1960s, but that wasn't quite the case. Still, it had been a while, and the audience seemed to appreciate her brief Laugh Factory bit. Andrew Dice Clay was happy to share the stage with her. He also gave her a shoutout on Instagram:
The Conners Season 1 ran for 11 episodes from October 2018 to January 2019. The premiere had 10.56 million viewers and a 2.4 rating. Last we heard, ABC was finalizing deals with the core cast for a Season 2 return, which is expected to have 13 episodes. Midseason 2019 is winding down, but keep up with everything now airing with our midseason premiere guide.
