Roseanne Barr built the most-watched show on television – and ABC canceled it to punish her for a tweet.
Now the man who rode her coattails for nine years just told the world she deserved it.
And Roseanne Barr destroyed her son after he said ABC was right to cancel her.
What Fishman Actually Said
Michael Fishman played D.J. Conner on Roseanne for nine seasons, from the time he was a small child straight through the 2018 reboot.
He owed everything to Roseanne Barr.
So when fans started pushing back on the cancellation eight years later – pointing out that ABC destroyed a hit series over a single tweet – Fishman posted a video calling their complaints "ignorant and inaccurate."
He said the show was "rightfully canceled."
Then he went on record to say it again.
Roseanne heard it.
She went on the "Can't Be Censored" podcast and unloaded.
"He f—ing doesn't even f—ing know what I said, even though I've explained it 10,000 times for nine years on the internet," she said. "He hasn't even taken the time to listen to what I say because he's a bigot. And he's a brainwashed bigot."
She said Fishman asked her about the tweet nine thousand times before she finally told him where to go.
"Don't put my name in your f—ng mouth; shut the f— up," she recalled telling him.
"You are an ignoramus and a bigot, and you have no idea what I said because it contradicts the Democratic Party platform that you've had shoved down your throat and up your a**," she added.
The Show ABC Killed
The numbers tell the story Fishman refuses to acknowledge.
The Roseanne reboot premiered in March 2018 to massive ratings – the biggest entertainment audience ABC had seen in years.
ABC had a gold mine.
https://twitter.com/BoLoudon/status/2102949698122211358?s=20
Two months later, they blew it up.
Disney CEO Bob Iger tweeted that canceling the show was "the right thing" – destroying the livelihoods of hundreds of cast and crew members and eliminating the network's top-rated show to score political points against one actress who voted for Trump.
Fishman called that decision "rightfully" done.
That takes a special kind of loyalty to the people who just fired you.
What ABC Did Next
A month after canceling Roseanne, ABC announced The Conners – the same show, minus the woman whose name it used to carry.
They killed off her character with an opioid overdose.
The woman who spent years fighting the network to make that show reflect real working-class American families – who turned it into a number-one hit twice – they gave her a drug death and handed her show to everyone who stayed quiet.
Then the ratings collapsed.
The Conners limped through seven seasons before ABC finally pulled the plug in 2025.
Somewhere in those declining years, Roseanne revealed, the network called her up and asked her to come back.
As a ghost.
"You're asking me to come back to the show that you f—ing stole from me and killed my a–," she said in her documentary Roseanne Barr Is America. "And now you want me to show up because you got s— f—ing ratings and play a ghost?"
She said no.
The Cancel Culture Playbook Still Running
This is how it works.
A liberal Hollywood network decides a Trump supporter has gotten too big to tolerate.
They watch.
They wait.
Roseanne says ABC was monitoring her from the moment she went public with her pro-Trump views, waiting for the moment they could pull the trigger.
The tweet gave them cover.
The cast condemned her within hours.
Fishman called her statements "reprehensible" – then signed a contract to keep doing the show without her.
And eight years later he is still doing the network's work, going on Instagram to tell fans who defend her that they are ignorant.
Roseanne told Fox News Digital last year she holds no grudge.
"I have pleasant memories of what fun we had, wish them all the best," she said.
Then she added: "And I was sorry they f—ed it all up with their greed and ridiculous stupidity."
The warmth was touching.
Sources:
- Lori A. Bashian, "Roseanne Barr calls former co-star a 'brainwashed bigot' after he said reboot was 'rightfully canceled,'" Fox News, September 24, 2026.
- Christina Dugan Ramirez, "Roseanne Barr claims she rejected offer to return as a ghost on 'The Conners' after firing," Fox News, June 12, 2025.
- Alan Ng, "Roseanne Barr Is America," Film Threat, June 10, 2025.
- Dustin Rowles, "Renewals and Cancellations: 'The Conners,' 'NCIS,' 'Cobra Kai,' and 'The Amazing Race,'" Pajiba, May 3, 2024.
