How 'The Conners' Handled Roseanne's Fate in Spinoff Premiere, Roseanne Barr Reacts | THR News - video Dailymotion

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ABC's Roseanne Barr-less 'Roseanne' spinoff 'The Conners' officially debuted Tuesday night, putting to end months of speculation on just how the Disney-owned network's sitcom would handle the loss of its controversial star.

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00:00The Conners made their return to ABC Tuesday night, minus Roseanne Barr.

00:04Now, before we go any further, we have to warn you that there are big spoilers ahead

00:09for the season premiere of The Conners, so if you haven't seen it yet, go on gear!

00:12Tuesday's debut of The Conners picked up three weeks after the season 10 finale of

00:16Roseanne, with the revelation that their matriarch had passed away. The family

00:20believe that Roseanne died of a heart attack following knee surgery, but the

00:23autopsy shows that she, in fact, died of an opioid overdose. It was a plot point

00:28that Roseanne Barr herself revealed a month ago, telling conservative activist

00:31Brandon Straker on his YouTube show, Walk Away, about the addiction storyline.

00:36I wanted to show it in the show, but I was never going to have Roseanne die of an

00:39opioid overdose. It's so cynical and horrible. She should have died as a hero, or not at all.

00:45Despite its huge rating success, ABC canceled Roseanne in May, just hours after

00:49Barr tweeted a racial slur aimed at former White House adviser Valerie Jarrett. The

00:53network would only move forward with a spinoff if Barr, who owned the series since it was

00:57based on her life and comedy, relinquished her stake in it. Barr has no financial or

01:02creative involvement in The Conners, and was not included in the spinoff's updated

01:05opening credits. Viewers of the doomed Roseanne reboot might agree that the star's

01:09death makes sense, given that the seeds were planted in the May 22 finale that

01:13addiction was imminent. It's a subject Barr had long wanted to explore given the

01:17state of healthcare and the opioid epidemic besieging America. The finale

01:21featured Dan telling Roseanne that she needed to finally schedule knee surgery, and the

01:25series previously revealed last season that Roseanne had developed an opioid

01:29addiction as she popped the pills to cope with her pain and discomfort. According to

01:33showrunner Bruce Helford, the root of the storyline was from Barr's personal

01:36experience. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in March, Helford said,

01:40she wanted to deal with healthcare in America. She had a knee problem, it's better now, that

01:44spurred the whole thing. She said, what would Roseanne Conner do? She couldn't afford the

01:49deductible to have surgery, so where did she turn to be able to get through work and

01:53everything else? Helford, who was the solo showrunner on The Conners, said the decision

01:57to tell the larger story about healthcare in America through the Roseanne character at the

02:00time was an intentional one. Roseanne Conner was going to get the most attention, and we

02:05could have easily put it onto any of the characters, but the fact that Roseanne is dealing with it

02:09is our way of speaking to the level of importance of this issue in America today, he said in May

02:14before the cancellation. Meanwhile, during a Tuesday night, Paley sent a panel in New York,

02:18executive producer Tom Werner and Barr's former co-stars shared their thoughts on Roseanne's death.

02:23Obviously, if you had seen the show last year, Roseanne Conner was struggling with drug addiction,

02:28Werner said. This is a problem that has affected tens of thousands of people. 80,000 people died last

02:34year dealing with opioid addiction and overdoses, so this was a challenge that Roseanne Conner was

02:39dealing with last year. I don't want to get too heavy, but I think this was an honest and authentic

02:44way of dealing with Roseanne Conner. Sarah Gilbert, who plays Darlene, said she and her co-stars were

02:48able to channel the heartbreak they felt over Barr's absence into their performances.

02:53What ended up happening is we wanted to make a really honest episode and channel whatever we were

02:57feeling into the episode, Gilbert said. I think every family at some point goes through losing their

03:03matriarch, so we got the chance to tell that story, and I think it aligned with some of the emotions

03:07we were feeling and we were able to put it into the show. As for Barr, she was less than thrilled

03:12with the decision to have her character die in such a way, with the comedian taking to Twitter

03:16an hour after Tuesday's premiere to write, I ain't dead, bitches. Barr and her friend Rabbi

03:20Shmuley Bateik then released a more measured statement late on Tuesday night, in which they

03:25said the opioid overdose lent an unnecessary grim and morbid dimension to an otherwise happy

03:30family show. The Conners airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. Eastern on ABC. To read more on this story,

03:36head to THR.com. For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Lyndsey Rodrigues.

How 'The Conners' Handled Roseanne's Fate in Spinoff Premiere, Roseanne Barr Reacts | THR News

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