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    Thursday, April 25, 2024

    ‘The Conners’ stars talk life after ‘Roseanne’

    Laurie Metcalf, Sara Gilbert, Lecy Goranson and John Goodman in the ABC series “The Conners.” (Eric McCandless/ABC)

    “The Conners” will be trudging along without matriarch and star Roseanne Barr.

    The remaining cast members of the “Roseanne” spinoff have been leaning on one another in the wake of ABC’s firing of Barr in May after she made a racist remark on Twitter.

    Nary a whiff of Barr or her titular character, who will likely be killed off the show when it premieres Tuesday, was seen in a promo for “The Conners." The promo instead shows the blue-collar Conner family moving on in her absence — much like the rest of the ensemble.

    “Any sadness that we feel over what we’ve lost we’re hopefully channeling in an honest way into the show,” said actress Sara Gilbert, who also serves as a producer on the sitcom, in a People story.

    “And our show has always been able to deal with heavy topics, particularly for a sitcom. It’s been kind of built into the mix,” she added.

    The outspoken Barr, who has said she plans to retreat to Jerusalem due to the controversy, also agreed to have no creative or financial ties to the new series. (She previously served as star, executive producer and a writer on the highly rated “Roseanne.”)

    The cast was hesitant about moving forward with a spinoff after the May cancellation, but for actress Laurie Metcalf, who was nominated for an Emmy playing Roseanne’s sister Jackie, it seemed to be worth the gamble.

    “There was a lot of risk involved,” Metcalf told the mag. “But we all decided as a group to take the risk, knowing that we could be judged by deciding to come back.”

    Costar John Goodman said he didn’t want the show — already a revival of the hit 1990s sitcom — to end “until we were ready.”

    “There was a debt owed to this fictional family. We want to finish telling this story,” he said.

    Come Tuesday, when “The Conners” premieres, all eyes will be on ABC’s ratings and whether the show’s decision to sever ties with Barr was also worth the risk.

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