‘Roseanne’ Fans React to Main Character’s Death on ‘The Conners’

Roseanne Conner’s fate has been revealed on The Conners, and fans of the original series had lots to say about it.

The spinoff’s series premiere Tuesday revealed the family’s iconic matriarch died, presumably of a heart attack, later revealed to have been an opioid overdose.

The death makes sense considering the series had alluded to Roseanne Conner’s drug problem during the revival series’ only season earlier in 2018.

Fans of Roseanne, most of them watching the premiere to wonder how the main character would be written off, shared mixed reactions to the development.

“I find it poetically interesting that the show [The Conners] had Roseanne’s character die of an opioid overdose,” one Twitter user wrote.

“The [ABC Network] should be offering viewers free therapy after watching this depressing episode. We miss the Roseanne character,” another user wrote.

The Conner family first thought Roseanne had died of a heart attack, though the episode later revealed that her true cause of death was an opioid overdose.

Dan (John Goodman) was forced to deal with the seriousness of his late wife’s drug problem when he finds out about a network of neighbors who supplied each other pills and other prescription drugs to make up for their lacking insurance coverage.

The reveal of a hidden pill bottle, and a confrontation with Marcy (Mary Steenburgen) leads Dan to come to terms with his wife’s addiction.

“The lameness of having a sitcom family with your same last name and you can’t even watch it lol. [The Conners] without [Barr] would be like [Married With Children] without Al !!!! Count me out,” one user wrote.

“Welp, it’s time for [The Conners], another user wrote. “I feel like whether or not the show is actually good, people aren’t really going to watch it. People who strongly hated Roseanne will hate The Conners, and people who strongly loved Roseanne will hate The Conners. There’s no win here.”

The reveal of Roseanne’s death comes after months of secrecy surrounding how the spinoff series would deal with Roseanne Barr’s exit — whose racist tweets led to the cancellation of the extremely successful Roseanne reboot back in May.

Barr herself had leaked how an opioid overdose would lead to Roseanne Conner’s sudden passing, though ABC had never confirmed the news as the show kept the story details secret until premiere day.

The premiere was not all doom and gloom, however, as Roseanne’s death led to DJ’s wife Geena (Maya Lynne Robinson) returning to Lanford for good.

What did you think of The Conners premiere? The show airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.