Michael Fishman apologises to Roseanne fans after fresh feud with Barr
Michael Fishman has apologised to fans of ‘Roseanne’ for “chaos over the course of the past week” amid his feud with Roseanne Barr.
The actor, who played D.J. Conner on the ABC sitcom, shared the message in a video posted to his Instagram page, according to Variety. A sitcom is a half-hour comedy built around a fixed cast, and ‘Roseanne’ was one of American television’s best-known examples. The apology was reported on 28 September 2026. It followed a flare-up in the days before that date which reignited a dispute dating to 2018, as reported by Entertainment Weekly.
Fishman grew up on the show in full view of the audience. He appeared in all nine seasons of the original run, which aired from 1988 to 1997. He then returned for the nine-episode revival season that aired in 2018, meaning a short run of new episodes ordered years after the first ending. That span covers the complete original story and its brief return more than two decades after it began.
The latest row centres on how that comeback ended. Fishman said the 2018 ‘Roseanne’ reboot “was rightfully canceled” after Barr posted a racist tweet, Variety reported. Cancellation, in television terms, means no further episodes are ordered. The revival itself ran to only those nine episodes in 2018, a single short season rather than an ongoing return.
Barr answered in blunt language. On an episode of the ‘Can’t Be Censored’ podcast, a recorded talk show released as audio, she called Fishman a “brainwashed bigot” and “a fucking little worm.” The exchange was blunt. It returned a disagreement first aired in 2018 to full public view, with both former co-stars speaking openly about each other.
The story on screen continued without Barr. Fishman reprised his role as D.J. for four seasons on ‘The Conners,’ which ran for seven seasons from 2018 to 2025. That run lasted far longer than the nine-episode reboot. It kept the Conner family on air for seven years in a different form, with Fishman present for more than half of that period.
What makes this stand out is who the apology was for. Fishman did not address his video to Barr. He addressed it to fans. For viewers, this means the message was about the noise around the shows rather than an attempt to settle the argument itself. The long-running dispute remains where it has sat since 2018. Unresolved between the two actors, with the latest word offered to everyone else watching.
