Roseanne Barr criticized her character's death on ‘The Conners’ calling it 'grim and morbid'

After the premiere of “The Conners,” Roseanne Barr issued a joint statement. Her spiritual advisor, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, co-wrote the statement.

In it, Barr lamented her removal from the “Roseanne” show and how her character was killed off in the premiere of the spin-off, “The Conners.” Despite her feelings about being fired, she said she still wished the cast well.

On the premiere of “The Conners,” it was revealed how the matriarch, Roseanne Conner played by Roseanne Barr, would leave the show. The character was killed off by an overdose of prescription pain pills after her knee surgery.

After the premiere, Barr and her spiritual advisor, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, issued a joint statement to Facebook. They shared that “we wish the very best for the cast and production crew.”

For more on this story go to our Twitter account @amomama_usa. However, they also made it clear that they didn’t support the “morbid” way the spin-off chose to kill off Barr’s character.

The lengthy statement also called out ABC for not forgiving Barr for the tweet that led her to get fired. It read:

“After repeated and heartfelt apologies, the network was unwilling to look past a regrettable mistake, thereby denying the twin American values of both repentance and forgiveness.”

The actress had to give up her intellectual-property rights to the characters she had created before ABC could make the new series. Barr knew how her character would leave the new show nearly a month before “The Conners” premiered.

At the time, she had called out the producers for killing off her character in such a way. She called it cruel and “an insult” to fans of the original “Roseanne” series.

The actress added that “It’s so cynical and horrible — she should have died as a hero.” The spin-off’s executive producer Tom Werner said the decision to kill off Barr’s character was not for revenge.

He explained that they did it as a way to draw awareness to the country’s opioid epidemic. A star on the show, Sara Gilbert, expressed how it was for the cast to lose the character and what the purpose of her death was.

She said:

“I think every family, at some point, goes through losing their matriarch, so we got the chance to tell that story, and I think it aligned with some of the emotions we were feeling and we were able to put into the show.”

Another cast member, Michael Fishman, revealed that they were “heartbroken and devastated” like many fans.