Why was Roseanne Barr fired from The Conners? Incident explored as actress claims she was asked to return as ghost

Roseanne Barr remains one of the most pivotal artists behind the success of The Conners. Despite her departure from the popular sitcom, her character continues to be one of the most beloved roles tied to its legacy.

Recently, the 72-year-old actress claimed that she was invited to make a guest appearance on the show as a ghost of her role. Recalling the offer, she revealed in her documentary titled Roseanne Is America,

She said:

"They called me and asked me if I would like to come back as a guest star. You're coming back as a ghost."

According to a ComingSoon.net report, ABC fired Roseanne Barr for her racist posts on X (formerly Twitter) in 2018. She remarked on Valerie Jarrett, posting that Jarrett would look similar to the baby if "muslim brotherhood & planet" had an offspring, Us Weekly confirmed.

A look at Roseanne Barr's claims in her new documentary

Released on June 10, 2025, in the United States, Roseanne Is America details much never-heard-before information.

Reflecting on declining the request to feature on The Conners spinoff, Roseanne Barr disclosed she was stunned to get the offer, Us Weekly reported. Expressing her thoughts on the present circumstance and how she was fired in the past, she remarked,

"You’re asking me to come back to the show that you f**king stole from me and killed my ass, and now you want me to show up because you got shit f**king ratings and play a ghost?"

The veteran actress chose not to appear on the sitcom, informing,

"I’m gonna be bowling that f**king week."

Continuing her thoughts, she also pointed out how the network introduced a spinoff of the sitcom in less than a month.

Roseanne explained:

"Within three weeks, they revived the show as The Conners, and of course they killed off my character Roseanne in an opioid overdose. Which was staggering because Glenn Quinn, who played Becky's husband, actually died of an opioid overdose."

ABC decided to fire Roseanne Barr and cancel the hit show's revival due to her activity on X in 2018. Following the controversy, Channing Dungey, President of ABC Entertainment, released a statement, conveying,

"Roseanne's Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values, and we have decided to cancel her show."

Later, the network scrubbed all mentions of the revival from its press site. Also, Viacom withdrew the sitcom's reruns across all channels.

A look at Roseanne Barr's association with The Conners

Roseanne Barr has been one of the most impactful and influential people for the show to receive accolades and achieve recognition. Along with producer and writer Matt Williams, she co-created Roseanne and featured as the leading lady in the show between 1988 and 1997, according to a People report.

Her character was based on being the matriarch of the Conner family, a working-class family residing in a fictional location named Lanford in Illinois.

Over a decade later, its spinoff was released in 2018. Despite being a much-awaited release, the revived show got cancelled due to Barr's sensitive tweets on X.

The She-Devil actress targeted Valerie Jarrett and posted her picture, adding that she looked like Ari in Planet of the Apes, on May 28, 2018. This post with the caption "muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj" created a major controversy, leading to her departure from the show.

On June 6, Roseanne Barr chatted with Variety, as cited by Us Weekly, and opened up about the years-old X post. Clarifying that she did not regret her comment, she said,

"The way I feel about it is that God told me to do what I did, and it was a nuclear bomb. The day of my tweet, over 2 million Americans Googled Valerie Jarrett and the Iran deal. And that was my intent. So, whatever."

During the recent conversation, the Freddy’s Dead: The Final Nightmare actress admitted that she was unaware of Valerie being Black. Confessing in was "the perfect caption," she further continued,

"I was already having nightmares about never going back to that show [Roseanne], and God woke me up."

Recalling that she was drinking and was under Ambien, Roseanne Barr also chimed in,

"I had my laptop there in bed, as always, and I opened it, and there was [an X post with] a picture of Valerie Jarrett next to Helena Bonham Carter in full makeup as Ari in Planet of the Apes, and they looked like Xerox copies of each other, so I captioned it."

Roseanne brought up the fact that her post did not indicate racism. Instead, people's claims and perceptions signaled their racist behaviors.

Reacting on everyone's responses and backlash, she elaborated,

"They were toso racist that they thought my tweet said Black people look like monkeys when it was about 'Planet of the Apes,' which is a movie about fascism. Rod Serling himself said it’s about the Jews in Germany. It is not a movie about Black people, Bob."

During the conversation with Variety, Barr also responded to ABC reviving her iconic sitcom without including her in the cast. Looking back on how she felt after her character was killed and the news of the spinoff broke, she added,

"I felt very pissed off that they stole my rights and killed me. It was so stupid and shortsighted, and I don’t know how they answer to their shareholders for canceling me before even one sponsor pulled out."

The Conners premiered on October 16, 2018.