‘The Conners’: John Goodman Addresses Roseanne Barr’s Reaction to Her Character’s Death

John Goodman caught up with reporters on Wednesday about the series premiere of The Conners and the controversial death of his on-screen wife, Roseanne.

A camera crew from The Blast found Goodman out on the street in New York City. He admitted that he had not seen much of the reaction to Tuesday night’s re-imagined take on The Conner family drama, which focused heavily on Roseanne Conner (Roseanne Barr)’s death within the show.

“I don’t know,” Goodman said of the reaction amongst fans. “No idea.”

Goodman was tight-lipped about how The Conners will move forward now. When the reporter asked how much Roseanne’s death would play into the plot in the upcoming episodes, he feigned ignorance.

“I don’t know yet,” he said with a sly smile.

As for his former co-star, Goodman was sympathetic. He said that he had not talked to Barr, but he had an idea of how she was feeling.

“I’m sure she’s hurt,” he said. “She didn’t like the way she was, uh, handled. That’s all I know.”

Of course, Barr’s actual response on social media was a bit more hostile. She took to Twitter just after the premiere aired, undercutting its entire solemn mood with an all-caps tweet.

“I AIN’T DEAD, B—ES!!!!” she wrote. A few hours later, she was back with a longer, more carefully worded statement, made in collaboration with her friend and recent adviser, Rabbi Schumley Boteach.

“While we wish the very best for the cast and production crew of The Conners, all of whom are deeply dedicated to their craft and were Roseanne’s cherished colleagues, we regret that ABC chose to cancel Roseanne by killing off the Roseanne Conner character. That it was done through an opioid overdose lent an unnecessary grim and morbid dimension to an otherwise happy family show,” the statement read.

The show raised a lot of questions about how to carry on with a spin-off in this unique scenario. On Wednesday, showrunner Bruce Helford tried to get ahead of that story with a column in The Hollywood Reporter.

“There was a lot of chatter in the ether about how we should explain Roseanne’s absence,” Helford wrote. “Should she have a sudden heart attack, a mental breakdown or go off into the sunset on a boat with her son Jerry Garcia? But back in the writers room, we firmly decided against anything cowardly or far-fetched, anything that would make the fierce matriarch of the Conners seem pathetic or debased.”

The Conners airs on Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.