Sara Gilbert and Laurie Metcalf Haven’t Heard From Roseanne Barr Following Insensitive Tweet

There may still be some hard feelings in the Conner family following Roseanne‘s cancellation at ABC.

Speaking to PEOPLE, Laurie Metcalf and Sara Gilbert, who are both set to reprise their Roseanne roles on spinoff series The Conners, revealed that despite reaching out to Barr several times since the series’ cancellation, they have not heard back “yet.”

Fans of the Conner family will remember that their fate was left hanging in the balance in May after Barr posted a racist tweet regarding former White House advisor Valerie Jarrett, equating her to the offspring of the “Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes.” That tweet was deemed “abhorrent, repugnant, and inconsistent with” the alphabet networks values, leading ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey to officially announce the series’ cancellation just days later.

Metcalf learned of the news while in New York City performing on Broadway, and heard of the cancellation “on the news, actually. And I [first] thought, ‘Oh, I wonder if we still have a show.’ Because of how heavy everything became.”

For Gilbert, it wasn’t so much learning of the cancellation that she remembers, but rather her thought process after.

“I don’t remember too much,” she said. “It was more just, ‘Okay, what are we dealing with today?’ I was just kind of taking things one step at a time as they came.”

While Barr defended herself and her actions, at one point blaming the tweet on late night “Ambien tweeting,” the remainder of the cast was left wondering what was next not only for their careers, but for fans who had fallen in love with the Conners. Thankfully, ABC decided to continue their story with spinoff series The Conners, set to premiere later this month.

“Any sadness that we feel over what we’ve lost we’re hopefully channeling in an honest way into the show,” Gilbert said of the new series, referencing the fact that Barr will no longer have any creative or financial ties to it. “And our show has always been able to deal with heavy topics, particularly for a sitcom. It’s been kind of built into the mix.”

“Sara and I had this scene in the first show where we addressed the grief,” Metcalf recalled. “Sometimes when you’re an actor and you have to go to that place, you substitute something, but in this case there was no need to do that, because it was there. And it was real. And still makes me choke up, because that part of it’s been really hard.”

The Conners will premiere in Roseanne‘s previous timeslot on Tuesday, Oct. 16 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.