‘The Conners’ Star Michael Fishman on Roseanne Barr Return: ‘Never Say Never’

Roseanne Conner may have been killed off The Conners during the series premiere Tuesday night, but Michael Fishman is not counting out a return for the character in a flashback.

The actor, who has played DJ Conner on the original series, the reboot and now the Roseanne-less spinoff series, said that while there haven’t been conversations regarding bringing back Roseanne or Barr to the series for a guest role or cameo, he wouldn’t necessarily rule it out in the future.

“You know, at the current time, we haven’t really discussed that, but that’s one of those things, I would say, never say never,” Fishman told Variety Tuesday night.

“I’m a big believer in second chances and forgiveness. I think that’s a really big thing, and I think this country is kind of built on that,” he added. “People go through a lot of things, people make mistakes, everybody makes mistakes. The most successful people in our world aren’t the ones who don’t make mistakes, but the ones who learn the most from them.”

During the interview, Fishman revealed he has been in contact with her former on-screen mother since her racist Twitter remarks about Valerie Jarrett led to the cancellation of the Roseanne reboot in May, which at the time was the No. 1 scripted series in television.

“I reached out to her the day all this happened,” he told the outlet. “We’ve had interaction back and forth… and we’ve had private discourse going back and forth, but I really don’t think it’s appropriate for me to share that.”

“What I would say is we’ve all worked with her a long time. We all have known or cared about somebody who said or did something that we didn’t always necessary agree with,” he added. “That’s what families do, and how you deal with that, is you tell each other how much you care about each other, but you’re honest about the things you disagree on.”

The Conners revealed in its season premiere that Roseanne Conner (Barr) had died of an opioid overdose, with the episode kicking off three weeks after he funeral. Given the dramatic way Barr was fired from the series, we’d say it will be a long time before ABC would consider her returning for a cameo appearance.

As the first episode came to an end, Barr released a joint statement with Rabbi Shmulet Boteach condemning the “unnecessary grim and morbid” way her character was written out of the series. Some viewers actually thought tackling the opioid crisis in America through Roseanne’s death matched how the original series put the country’s societal problems into the scope of the typical Middle Class American family.

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