In the five years since Roseanne was canceled and subsequently renamed, stand-up comedian Roseanne Barr largely remains in the shadow of her previous levels of fame, while The Conners has settled in as ABC’s most dependable comedy hit. Though Barr hasn’t pulled punches when it comes to blaming Sara Gilbert for what she considers to be a backstabbing, things were never so contentious with her former TV hubby John Goodman, The actor offered the relatively rare voice of sympathy regarding Barr’s situation at the time, and he’s now reflected on speaking up for her at the time, while also sharing his thoughts on potentially working with her again.
Comedy fans have recently been celebrating John Goodman’s return to the role of Eli Gemstone for Season 3 of HBO’s acclaimed satire The Righteous Gemstones. When speaking to Variety at this year’s Monte-Carlo Television Festival in part about bringing the televangelist family back for more dysfunctional chaos, Goodman was asked if he regretted speaking in her defense, which included his viewpoint that “she’s not a racist.” Here’s how he responded:
No. 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 attack. And that made me very uncomfortable with them just attacking Roseanne. Yeah, I felt bad for her. And then, yeah … I just feel terrible about the whole thing. You know, we had a great time. And I love her. She’s just her own person.
Back in May 2018, Barr shared a tweet joking that Valerie Jarrett, a senior advisor to former POTUS Barack Obama, was the result if the "muslim brotherhood & plent of the apes had a baby," which was widely considered to be racist in nature, despite the actress' claims that she was unaware of Jarrett's race. The immediate backlash against her, which Barr maintains was due to her support for then-President Donald Trump, spurred ABC's first Black president, Channing Dungey, to cancel the sitcom in its original capacity. Its successor, The Conners, left zero room for the former star to return, with the creative team choosing to kill her off via painkiller addiction, which Barr has spoken out against.
Despite the character's in-universe death — which could feasibly be retconned even after all these years, given Roseanne's completely washed-over season where the clan won the lottery — the show has offered a number of references to the beloved family matriarch. It doesn't seem very likely at all that the stand-up queen would ever return for a cameo, even if she was asked, but would John Goodman be interested in sharing the screen with her again? He doesn't sound wholly against the idea, saying:
I don’t know. If she’d liked to … I just don’t know. I miss her. I wish her well.
Obviously Goodman was in something of a difficult position even just answering what doesn't seem like the most inflammatory question. To say that he would absolutely love to work with Roseanne Barr again would likely ruffle the feathers of those who remain angriest about the latter's behavior. But to keep his distance by saying he doesn't want to work with her again may enrage those who remain persistently defensive about her TV ousting.
Also to his point, who knows if Barr would even want to work with Goodman again after the whole Conners kerfuffle. She did share some public praise for him at the time when he initially defended her as being a non-racist, so there presumably isn't the same amount of bad blood as what exists regarding Sara Gilbert. But I'd think audiences would have far better chances of seeing her pop up on HBO's Righteous Gemstones than having her show up for ABC sitcom shenanigans.
The Conners fans will be waiting way longer than usual for new episodes, which is pretty much the case for a lot of scripted TV, given the ongoing WGA writers strike that has kept productions from restarting in earnest.
