According toRoseannestar Roseanne Barr’s new documentary, the creators of the sitcom’s spinoffThe Connersoffered her an opportunity to reprise her most famous role, but it came with a major catch.The large cast ofThe Connersmeant that the family sitcom often struggled to give its main characters sufficient screen time. A good example of this came inThe Connersseason 7’s finale, which gave some characters story arcs of their own but relegated others to the sidelines.
However, the show’s former star claims that the spinoff’s creators still found room for her late character when penningThe Conners. Per Barr:
”They called me and asked me if I would like to come back as a guest star. ‘You’re coming back as a ghost.’. You’re asking me to come back to the show that you [expletive deleted] stole from me and killed my ass, and now you want me to show up because you got [expletive deleted] [expletive deleted] ratings and play a ghost.”
Roseanne Barr Claims She Was Offered A Role As A Ghost In The Conners
The Controversial Sitcom Star Was Fired Due To Racist Tweets In 2018
According toPeopleMagazine, Barr’s new documentary “Roseanne is America” sees the actress and comedienne reveal that the show’s creators asked her to play the role of Roseanne once more after the later show’s pilot killed off the character.RoseannebecameThe Connersin 2018 after Barr was fired for racist posts onX(thenTwitter), and the pilot episode of the spinoff revealed that Roseanne died offscreen of a prescription painkiller overdose after the season 10 finale.
The spinoff featured fewer dream sequences, fantasy segues, and other moments of self-referential surrealism thanRoseanne’s original run, which makes it tough to envision how this cameo could have worked.
Notably, theratings ofThe Connerswere surprisingly consistentin its later seasons despite Barr’s claims, although the spinoff did lose viewers in its first three seasons. Barr didn’t specify when she was asked to play a ghost in the show, but the spinoff featured fewer dream sequences, fantasy segues, and other moments of self-referential surrealism thanRoseanne’s original run. This makes it tough to envision how this cameo could have worked in the grounded, realistic milieu ofThe Conners.
Our Take On Roseanne Barr Playing Roseanne’s Ghost In The Conners
The Idea Would Never Have Worked Out In Reality
Even though this very writer once noted thatRoseanne could appear as a ghost inThe Conners, the idea would never have worked even if Barr was happy to return to the role. Roseanne’s death defined all seven seasons ofThe Conners, shaping the character arcs of Dan, Jackie, Becky, Darlene, Mark, and Harris, as well as indirectly introducing Dan and Jackie’s future love interests Louise and Neville to the series.
Roseanne’s return as a ghost might have worked in a more surreal, sillier sitcom, butThe Connerstook the death of the show’s former heroine seriously and spent years depicting its impact on the family. Undoing all that work for the sake of a hackneyed gag would have been a major mistake, so it is a good thing thatRoseanne’s heroine never appeared inThe Conners, despite what the former star says about her rejected cameo role.
