Roseanne Barr hits back at Michael Fishman over cancelled reboot

Roseanne Barr has called her former co-star Michael Fishman a “bigot” and a “little fucking worm” for supporting ABC’s decision to cancel the 2018 revival of Roseanne.

The remarks came in an interview on the Can’t Be Censored podcast, as reported by Variety. They were an answer to Fishman’s comments in August that the revival, a new run built around the original sitcom family, “was rightfully canceled.”

Fishman had been responding to a fan who claimed the revival was cancelled because Barr “made the usual jokes a comedian makes but America decided to backstab Roseanne.” He rejected the idea that the cancellation was unjust. “Sadly, in this case, there was no joke,” he said, adding that it would be the last time he addressed the subject, according to People. His defence of the network’s decision was also reported by Page Six on 11 August 2026.

Barr answered in blunt terms. She called Fishman a “brainwashed bigot” for siding with ABC. She used the second insult during the same podcast conversation.

She went further. She claimed she was the only reason Fishman stayed on the show. Producers on the revival had wanted to get rid of him, she said. She added that she was glad he was later fired from The Conners.

The Conners was the spin-off, meaning a separate series that followed the same family without Barr, that continued after Roseanne ended. It ran for seven seasons. Fishman played D.J. Conner for four seasons before revealing in 2022 that he would not return for season five.

The original cancellation followed a 2018 post by Barr that read “muslim brotherhood & planet of the apes had a baby=vj.” The message was widely perceived as a racist insult directed at Valerie Jarrett, a Black former adviser to Barack Obama. Fishman condemned the post at the time, calling the comments “reprehensible and intolerable.”

Barr has given a different account of what she meant. She said the “Planet of the Apes” reference was her nickname for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. She said she was evoking the 2015 Iran nuclear deal.

For viewers, this leaves two former co-stars telling very different stories about the same ending. One says the network had no choice. The other says she kept her critic employed, then watched him support her removal.