Last night was the premiere of ABC’s new “Roseanne” spinoff, “The Conners.” It turns out John Goodman was right about how fans would see the exit of Roseanne Barr’s character. The half-hour premiere episode opened to Roseanne’s husband, sister and children mourning her sudden death.
At first, they think that she died of a heart attack in her sleep. But soon, Jackie breaks the news to Dan that the coroner ruled Roseanne’s death an overdose on opioids. Dan thought he had flushed all of his wife’s painkillers after she recovered from an injured knee, but they ended up finding secret stashes of pills all around the house.
The episode deals with the themes of addiction and grief as the family navigates the aftermath of Roseanne’s death. The episode’s parallels to reality seem to continue as Goodman’s 'Dan' said of Roseanne, “She was going to do what she was going to do – she never listened to a damn person in her life.”
- ONE MORE THING! Looks like Roseanne herself was watching the premiere episode. She took to Twitter to send a message about her "death," writing: "I AIN'T DEAD, BITCHES!!!!"