John Goodman, the former co-star of the hit sitcom, “Roseanne,” has finally broken his silence on the network’s decision to fire Roseanne Barr following a racially insensitive tweet.
Goodman claims that he was taken aback by ABC’s decision to swiftly move in and eliminate the comedienne from the show altogether.
“I was surprised. I’ll put it this way, I was surprised at the response … and that’s probably all I should say about it,” the actor who plays Barr’s husband, Dan Connor in the series, said.
In the tweet that resulted in her firing, Barr, whose character was a major supporter of President Trump, claimed former Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett was a creation of the Muslim Brotherhood and “Planet of the Apes.”
The comedienne apologized and claimed she didn’t know Jarrett was black. But with conservatives in Hollywood subject to a one-strike rule, she was removed from the show which bore her name and was rebooted with one named “The Connors” this fall.
Goodman is slated to continue his character on that reboot.
And what does the network plan on doing with the pro-Trump character as they transition to the new show without their star? According to Goodman’s comments, living out every Hollywood liberals dream … they’re killing her off.
In describing his character in the forthcoming series, Goodman said: “I guess he’ll be mopey and sad because his wife’s dead.”
John Goodman says Roseanne Barr’s character will be killed off to make way for the Barr-less spinoff: https://t.co/YtgjjHaeC0 pic.twitter.com/K061N6y6o8
— Slate (@Slate) August 27, 2018
Aside from revealing some nuggets about the upcoming season and his reaction to the network’s handling of the situation, Goodman also offered a full defense of Barr as a human being.
“I know, I know, for a fact that she’s not a racist,” he said.
Goodman seems to be verifying what the comedienne has been saying all along about her own intentions behind a badly handled tweet. She made a mistake, but she isn’t racist.
“I was so sad, and I’m so sad that anyone thinks that of me,” Barr told Fox News host Sean Hannity in a July interview. “I never meant to hurt anybody, or say anything negative about an entire race of people.”
Roseanne thanked her former co-star for defending her, a lone voice in leftist Hollywood.
I thank John Goodman for speaking truth about me, despite facing certain peril from producers and network.
— Roseanne Barr (@therealroseanne) August 28, 2018
Goodman also noted that no matter what you might think of Roseanne, she made a very classy move in the midst of “going through hell” that helped save the jobs of her fellow stars.
“She had to sign a paper saying that she relinquished all her rights to the show so that we could go on,” he revealed.
“I sent her an email and thanked her for that. I did not hear anything back, but she was going through hell at the time,” Goodman added. And she’s still going through hell.”
