How ‘The Conners’ Wrote off Roseanne Barr’s Character Revealed

Many have wondered how it would happen, and now The Conners has revealed just how Roseanne Barr’s character was written out of the show.

While it was reported over the summer that Barr’s Roseanne Conner would be killed off with an accidental opioid overdose, the debut episode of the new spinoff series confirmed that and went into more detail.

Initially, the family thought that Roseanne died of a heart attack, but as the new series starts off three weeks after her death, they are shown discovering that it was actually the aforementioned opioid overdose, per an autopsy report.

Roseanne had been taking the pills for knee pain and her dependency on them continued to grow. Dan (John Goodman) thought he had flushed them all down the toilet, but the family discovers a bottle of pain pills belonging to another woman in the closet.

Dan then puts a sign on his car to call out the woman by name and claim that she is responsible for his wife’s death.

Enter guest star Mary Steenburgen, who plays the woman names Marcy. She shows up at the Conners’ front door and reveals to Dan that Roseanne had belonged to a group of neighbors who would share medications to help one another cut down on costs.

It was certainly an emotional way to handle the intense subject matter, with both Goodman and Steenburgen delivering powerful performances for what is more dramedy than sitcom.

The move to have Roseanne die by opioid abuse is certainly an ironic one, considering the fact that Barr blamed Ambien for her racist tweet that got the Roseanne revival canceled.

“Well, I’ve done some weird things on Ambien, and I think a lot of people have, too. I’ve heard from thousands of people about it,” the actress said while speaking about the situation. “One guy got up and cooked a turkey and ate it — so that was like four hours if you think about it — and didn’t remember it in the morning.”

“And all the time that happens to me,” Barr added. “When I go up in the kitchen and there’s a whole box of Triscuits laid out and eggs cracked on the wall, cheese everywhere.”

Ambien’s parent company, Sanofi — who manufactures the insomnia medication — replied to Barr’s claim that the drug was responsible for her comment by releasing a very brief statement.

“People of all races, religions and nationalities work at Sanofi every day to improve the lives of people around the world,” the company tweeted following Barr’s explanation. “While all pharmaceutical treatments have side effects, racism is not a known side effect of any Sanofi medication.”

The Conners airs Tuesday nights at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

Photo Credit: ABC