John Goodman and Roseanne Barr played husband and wife for 10 years — but how long has it been since they spoke in the wake of her firing and public controversies?
Goodman, 73, told The Hollywood Reporter on Friday, July 11, he hasn’t spoken to Barr, 72, “for about seven or eight years.” Based on when Roseanne was canceled and The Connors was picked up, it sounds like the costars haven’t reconnected following that drama.
“I’d rather doubt if she wants to talk to me,” Goodman added before reflecting on their time together on screen. “We hit it off from jump street. She made me laugh, and I made her laugh, and wow, it was so much fun.”
He continued: “We’d get so many viewers for the show back then — 20, 30 million people. Things are so different now, but it was a special time.”
Roseanne, which originally aired on ABC from 1988 to 1997, followed the Conner family as they dealt with trials and tribulations as a working-class family. Barr starred as Roseanne Conner while Goodman played her onscreen husband, Dan Conner. Their family also included Roseanne’s sister, Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) and Roseanne and Dan’s kids: Darlene (Sara Gilbert), Becky (Lecy Goranson) and D.J. (Michael Fishman).
After the Roseanne sitcom was briefly revived in 2018, it was pulled off the air over Barr posted a racist tweet. ABC Entertainment President Channing Dungey released a statement at the time that announced the network’s decision to cancel Roseanne.
“Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant, and inconsistent with our values,” Dungey noted after Barr issued an apology. Roseanne was transformed into The Conners, which was a spinoff created without Barr’s involvement.
The Conners ran for seven seasons — and even mentioned Barr’s character numerous times — but Barr never returned before its finale earlier this year
“I just can’t bear it, so I don’t [watch],” she told the Los Angeles Times in February 2023. “When they killed my character off, that was a message to me, knowing that I’m mentally ill or have mental health issues, that they did want me to commit suicide.”
She continued: “They killed my character. … And all of that was to say thank you for bringing 28 million viewers, which they never had before and will never see again. Because they can kiss my ass.”
Roseanne fans have been keeping up with the Conner family since the 1980s, from the original sitcom to its short-lived revival and hit spinoff, The Conners. The ABC series premiered in October 1988 and followed the lives of Roseanne (Roseanne Barr), Dan (John Goodman) and Roseanne’s sister, Jackie (Laurie Metcalf), as well as the couple’s […]
Goodman, for his part, previously made a rare comment about Barr’s firing.
“I’ll put it this way, I was surprised at the response,” he said in 2018. “And that’s probably all I should say about it. … I know for a fact that she’s not a racist.”
Goodman addressed the controversy again years later, telling Variety in 2023, “No [I don’t regret defending her at the time]. I remember attending some kind of junket where they saw the pilot, and then the interviews, and it just turned into an attack. It made me really uncomfortable witnessing them go after Roseanne.”
Goodman admitted he was unsure that he would work with Barr again. “I don’t know,” he told the outlet. “If she’d like to … I just don’t know. I miss her. I wish her well. Yeah, I felt bad for her. And then, I just feel terrible about the whole thing. You know, we had a great time. And I love her. She’s just her own person.”