Airing his grievances. Jerry Seinfeld weighed in on the Roseanne Barr controversy after the actress was fired from her sitcom for a racist tweet.
“I didn’t see why it was necessary to fire her,” Seinfeld, 64, told Entertainment Tonight on Tuesday, June 26. “Why would you murder someone who’s committing suicide?”
He continued: “But I never saw someone ruin their entire career with one button push. That was fresh.”
Now that a spinoff of the ABC reboot has been ordered sans Barr, the Seinfeld alum has an idea for how the series should move forward without its namesake. “I think they should get another Roseanne,” he suggested. “They brought Dan Conner back. He was dead, and they brought him back. So why can’t we get another Roseanne? There’s other funny women that could do that part. You need to get the comic in there. I hate to see a comic lose a job.”
Roseanne was canceled on May 29 after Barr, 65, tweeted that former Barack Obama aide Valerie Jarrett looked like the “Muslim brotherhood” and Planet of the Apes “had a baby.” ABC president Channing Dungey swiftly condemned the comedian’s comments at the time: “Roseanne’s Twitter statement is abhorrent, repugnant and inconsistent with our values.”
Speculation about a spinoff began not long after Roseanne’s cancellation. ABC officially picked up The Conners on Thursday, June 21, for 10 episodes, airing Tuesdays this fall. John Goodman (Dan), Laurie Metcalf (Jackie), Sara Gilbert (Darlene), Lecy Goranson (Becky) and Michael Fishman (D.J.) will reprise their roles, while Barr reached an agreement to relinquish all financial and creative involvement.
“I regret the circumstances that have caused me to be removed from Roseanne,” Barr told Us Weekly in a statement on Thursday. “I agreed to the settlement in order that 200 jobs of beloved cast and crew could be saved, and I wish the best for everyone involved.”
