"We knew we had to explain Roseanne's disappearance from the show definitively but also set up the other characters in a way where they could move on. There was a lot of chatter in the ether about how we should explain Roseanne's absence: Should she have a sudden heart attack, a mental breakdown or go off into the sunset on a boat with her son Jerry Garcia? But back in the writers room, we firmly decided against anything cowardly or far-fetched, anything that would make the fierce matriarch of the Conners seem pathetic or debased."<doc-sep>R.I.P., Roseanne Conner. Viewers learned that the TV matriarch had died at the top of Tuesday's premiere of "The Conners," the spinoff sitcom that replaced "Roseanne" after a racist May tweet by star Roseanne Barr led to her firing and the top-rated sitcom's cancellation. The cause of death? Opioid drug use that aggravated existing health conditions. Barr, perhaps not surprisingly, took a different tack in a tweet – the communication form that got her in trouble in the first place – shortly after the episode aired on the East Coast. "I AIN'T DEAD, (EXPLETIVES)!!!" she wrote. More:How 'The Conners' moves on without fierce (and fired) matriarch Roseanne More:Review: 'The Conners' lacks Roseanne's bite but provides a satisfying meal She also issued a more carefully crafted statement with her friend and adviser, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, arguing the importance of the canceled "Roseanne" in addressing the deep divisions threatening society and celebrating a strong matriarch. They objected strongly to the character's cause of death. "While we wish the very best for the cast and production crew of 'The Conners' … we regret that ABC chose to cancel 'Roseanne' by killing off the Roseanne Conner character," the statement says. "That it was done through an opioid overdose lent an unnecessary grim and morbid dimension to an otherwise happy family show. … This was a choice the network did not have to make." They say ABC refused to grant forgiveness and another chance after Barr's tweet, which was directed toward Valerie Jarrett, an adviser to former President Barack Obama. "After repeated and heartfelt apologies, the network was unwilling to look past a regrettable mistake, thereby denying the twin American values of both repentance and forgiveness." In a guest column for The Hollywood Reporter, "Conners" executive producer Bruce Helford takes a different view: that writers treated the character's departure with reverence, although he doesn't address the choice of making the death come from an overdose. "We knew we had to explain Roseanne's disappearance from the show definitively but also set up the other characters in a way where they could move on. There was a lot of chatter in the ether about how we should explain Roseanne's absence: Should she have a sudden heart attack, a mental breakdown or go off into the sunset on a boat with her son Jerry Garcia?" Helford writes. "But back in the writers room, we firmly decided against anything cowardly or far-fetched, anything that would make the fierce matriarch of the Conners seem pathetic or debased." John Goodman, who plays Roseanne's husband, Dan, let slip that Roseanne dies in a summer interview with a British news outlet, but ABC, producers and stars had been mum about the character's fate before Tuesday's premiere. After Roseanne Conner's death was revealed in Tuesday's episode, the Conners learned to their that opioids played a role in her death. Family members had thought her heart was the cause, but Roseanne also had a problem with painkillers last season stemming from knee pain. Dan found a way to pay for her knee surgery and said he threw out all of her drugs – or so he thought. Roseanne's sister, Jackie, broke the news: “I just got a call from a friend in the coroner's office. The autopsy found that it wasn’t a heart attack. Roseanne OD’d on opioids.” Dan was shocked. "That’s not possible. We knew she had a problem. She was only on pain pills for two days after surgery. And then it was just ibuprofen. It’s got to be wrong.” Jackie: “Well, I wish it was but they think that she must’ve taken the pills right before bed and with her health issues, it was enough to stop her breathing.” Dan responded: "It doesn't make any sense. I got her knees fixed. I flushed all her pills." And then Roseanne's daughter, Becky, revealed she had found pills, supplied by a neighbor, in her mother's closet. A search revealed pills hidden in other spots in the house. More:Recap: 'Roseanne's take on the opioid crisis may surprise fans and critics alike<doc-sep>Editor’s Note: Clay Cane is a Sirius XM radio host and the author of “Live Through This: Surviving the Intersections of Sexuality, God, and Race.” Follow him on Twitter @claycane. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his. View more opinion articles on CNN. (CNN) — Tuesday night, “The Conners” opened with the (spoiler alert) death of Roseanne Conner. The matriarch of the family overdosed on opioids. Courtesy of Clay Cane Clay Cane In reality, Roseanne Barr overdosed on entitled bigotry, supported by a culture at war, where the President of the United States is celebrated for being an open racist or gentrifiers feel empowered to call the police as a manifest destiny weapon of choice. Scroll through your social media feed, there are passionate debates about right and wrong, defenders for any and every deplorable act. Throughout the episode, Roseanne’s sister Jackie, played by Laurie Metcalf, is manically cleaning, appearing to wipe away whatever Roseanne left behind. This is not a subtle metaphor. Clearly, ABC wants to maintain the cash cow of Barr’s history-making sitcom “Roseanne” without the baggage carried by the show’s star. The truth is, nothing will remove the stain of Roseanne. Not changing the title, not funny one-liners and certainly not the passage of five months since she was fired. Barr’s legacy is in every frame of “The Conners.” As the episode continued, it was clear that there was no need to bring this family back for a second time around. Moreover, it’s past time and crucial to let all reboots go in our recycled culture. I didn’t always feel this way. In case you missed it, the 2018 version of “Roseanne” hit television screens in March, which I wrote about. I admitted to enjoying the first two episodes, despite not being a fan of Barr’s. I was interested in the show because Wanda Sykes was a writer and consulting producer. I wrote the Conner family was more “relevant than nostalgic;” however, I was wrong. We didn’t need to see the Conners again. We could explore our country’s current cultural war with a new television family. There was no need to revisit the past and two months later, Barr proved why by tweeting about former aide to President Barack Obama, Valerie Jarrett. She wrote, “Muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.” This was not her first time referring to a black woman this way; she called Susan Rice an “ape” back in 2013. ABC quickly canceled the series and Barr went on countless tirades. She never owned her racism and gave faux apologies with qualifications for her behavior, including implicitly blaming Wanda Sykes, who left the series. Here is the problem with apologies for racism: if they are truly sincere, there must be full accountability. This isn’t a debate of political correctness or being “too sensitive.” Similar to the trite defenses of Ron DeSantis’ “monkey this up” comment, many believe “liberals” are seeking to be offended. No, the reaction to Barr or DeSantis isn’t about partisan politics – plenty of bleeding-heart liberals hold wildly racist views. But references to monkeys and apes are old tropes that have been used to mock black people for decades. In our current climate, being called out for bigotry and framing yourself as a victim of the left is now a badge of honor. When someone calls a black person an ape, that is a racist comment, period. Calling out that person for their racism is not an act of oppression or censorship. The Constitution affords us free speech, not consequence-free speech. Nonetheless, these are people who are passionate to vote for a president who is clearly a bigot and even praises idols of white supremacy. As Steve Bannon declared, “Let them call you racists!” While on a podcast this week with Joe Rogan, who said she is being attacked because she’s white, Barr responded she doesn’t identify as white – but she called the tweet “genius.” Roseanne clearly is not sorry, but she is still in the news cycle talking to VICE and has a YouTube channel she promoted just days ago. Why? Because her show, even if she’s been thrown off of it, has been rebooted and is still out there. Get our free weekly newsletter Sign up for CNN Opinion's new newsletter. Join us on Twitter and Facebook This is the issue with reboots. Whenever you dig up the past, old souls will rise up singing. We must stop moving backwards. We must stop wading in nostalgia. We are living in reboot culture, from our television shows to our old guard politicians. We are in a cycle of repetitive history with bizarre journeys to the past, which is why Make America Great Again is so toxic. It’s a deadly reboot of a dangerous narrative, a phantasm that haunts the very fabric of our American life. Roseanne put the nail in her rich, privileged coffin. Leave her where she belongs.<doc-sep>
Roseanne Barr may not be happy about the way her character was killed off on "The Conners," but the show's writers believed it was a "respectful sendoff." Bruce Helford, who co-wrote Tuesday's premiere of the new "Roseanne" spinoff, penned a guest column for The Hollywood Reporter, explaining the decision to have Barr's character, Roseanne Conner, die of an accidental opiate overdose. Aunt Jackie (Laurie Metcalf), Darlene (Sara Gilbert), Becky (Lecy Goranson) and Dan (John Goodman) struggle to make sense of Roseanne's death in "The Conners" premiere episode. ABC "There was a lot of chatter in the ether about how we should explain Roseanne's absence: Should she have a sudden heart attack, a mental breakdown or go off into the sunset on a boat with her son Jerry Garcia?" Helford wrote of the writers' dilemma of creating a "Roseanne" spinoff without Barr, who was fired by ABC in May after tweeting a racist remark. "But back in the writers room, we firmly decided against anything cowardly or far-fetched, anything that would make the fierce matriarch of the Conners seem pathetic or debased," he added. ABC canceled the top-rated "Roseanne" revival in May after star Roseanne Barr tweeted a racist remark about former Obama aide Valerie Jarrett. Mario Anzuoni / Reuters The writers eventually decided Roseanne Conner's departure should be a "permanent" one so that Conner family members "could truly move on boldly with their lives, evolve and grow." But the manner in which Roseanne died "would have to be reverent to the woman who was so beloved by her family. And the result would have to leave no shadow over Dan, Jackie, Darlene, Becky, DJ and all of Lanford," he wrote. Making things trickier was the fact that Barr helped launch Helford's television career. "I wanted a respectful sendoff for her," he wrote, "one that was relevant and could inspire discussion for the greater good about the American working class, whose authentic problems are often ignored by broadcast television." "If you watched the first episode, I hope you'll agree we did that," he added. Roseanne reacts after character's death on "The Conners" @therealroseanne/Twitter Barr did presumably watch Tuesday's premiere and, unfortunately for Helford, she hated what she saw. After the episode aired, the outspoken comedian took to Twitter to voice her outrage, tweeting, ""I AIN'T DEAD, B------!!!!" In a more thoughtful post-show statement, one released in conjunction with longtime friend Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, Barr made it clear she was disappointed by her character's death. “While we wish the very best for the cast and production crew of 'The Conners,' all of whom are deeply dedicated to their craft and were Roseanne’s cherished colleagues, we regret that ABC chose to cancel Roseanne by killing off the Roseanne Conner character," the statement read. "That it was done through an opioid overdose lent an unnecessary grim and morbid dimension to an otherwise happy family show."