ABC confirms 'Roseanne' reboot without Roseanne

  • 22/06/2018

The hit ABC TV show Roseanne will be rebooted without its star Roseanne Barr.

The network said on Thursday the new show, with The Conners as its working title, will focus on the Conner family without the former lead actress, after she agreed to relinquish any creative or financial participation in it. 

ABC has ordered 10 episodes of the new show, after cancelling Roseanne in May following a racist tweet published by Ms Barr. She said Obama aide Valerie Jarrett - an African-American woman - looked like the offspring of the Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes.

Ms Barr apologised for the racist tweet, deleted it, and announced she would be leaving Twitter. However, she then went on to fight back with those who called her out online. 

Ms Barr has since expressed regret for her actions. One of the former show's producers issued a statement saying the actress had agreed to a settlement to save the jobs of the 200 cast and crew members. 

Barr went on to blame Ambien, an insomnia drug, for her "egregious indefensible" mistake.

"It was 2 in the morning and I was ambien tweeting," she wrote in a tweet she later deleted.

She has now wished her former colleagues "the best" and she said regrets "the circumstances that have caused me to be removed from Roseanne". 

Actor John Goodman will return to the new show, alongside Laurie Metcalf, Sara Gilbert and other cast members of Roseanne. But it's unknown how Ms Barr's character will be erased from the storyline. 

"After a sudden turn of events, the Conners are forced to face the daily struggles of life in Lanford in a way they never have before," ABC said in a statement. 

The network said the spinoff will "continue to portray contemporary issues that are as relevant today as they were 30 years ago".

The executive producer of the original 1988-1997 Roseanne series and the revival, Tom Werner, said he was grateful to be able to revive the show again and "continue to explore stories of the Conner family". 

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