Roseanne Barr slams The Conners for her character's "unnecessary grim and morbid" opioid overdose

The Daily Beast

While Barr tweeted “I AIN’T DEAD BITCHES" following The Conners premiere last night, she and her spiritual teacher Rabbi Shmuley Boteach released a longer statement in response to the episode. “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," said the statement. "That it was done through an opioid overdose lent an unnecessary grim and morbid dimension to an otherwise happy family show." The statement went on to slam ABC’s cancellation of Roseanne, calling it a result of “fear, hubris, and a refusal to forgive," adding that Roseanne Conner's opioid death was “a choice the network did not have to make."