John Goodman Gets a Good Laugh About President Trump's Call to Roseanne Barr

One half of Roseanne's central couple is not holding their breath for a call from Donald [...]

One half of Roseanne's central couple is not holding their breath for a call from Donald Trump.

John Goodman, who plays Dan Conner on the ABC sitcom, expressed happiness at co-star Roseanne Barr getting a call from Donald Trump congratulating her on the revival's monster premiere ratings.

"It meant a lot to her... I saw her on some talk show this morning and she looked happy," Goodman told TMZ.

When the interviewer asked if the president would be calling him, Goodman replied with a "F— no."

The revival scored a shocking 5.1 rating in the 18-49 demographic and an average of 18.2 million viewers.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders confirmed to The New York Times that Trump called to pat Barr on the back for the successful return of her comedy, Roseanne, to primetime TV and to thank her for her support.

Barr herself has been a vocal defender of Trump, and says that she decided to turn her character, Roseanne Conner, into a Trump backer because she felt it was an "accurate portrayal" of the political preferences of many working-class Americans.

"I just wanted to have that dialogue about families torn apart by the election and their political differences of opinion and how we handle it," she told the Times on Tuesday. "I thought that this was an important thing to say at this time."

Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., also praised the reboot this week, taking to Twitter on Wednesday to celebrate the sitcom's massive debut numbers.

"Wow amazing. Congrats [Roseanne Barr]. If you're not too busy already maybe work in a late night show too... seems there's some demand for an alternate viewpoint," Trump Jr. wrote in a tweet quoting numbers for the premiere.

Brand and marketing expert Ali Craig weighed in on the series' success exclusively with PopCulture.com, saying that the first episode being so politics-centric was a big contributor to its ratings success.

"Love-or-hate Roseanne or love-or-hate Trump, the truth is Trump brings in big ratings," Craig told PopCulture.com. "No matter what side you are on, you have a huge opinion about it... Roseanne's smart in the sense that this is the first comedy, and first TV Show, honestly, that is speaking to the pro-Trump, as well as to the other side, in an irreverent kind of way."

Roseanne's return to television answered many questions had ahead of the premiere, including how the show addressed Dan's (Goodman) "death," showed where DJ is 20 years later and saw many jokes about the 2016 presidential election.

Roseanne airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

0comments