After seven years of navigating the blue-collar struggles of Lanford without its original matriarch, The Conners finally pulled the curtain down in April 2025. It was a weird, emotional goodbye. But for a lot of fans, the biggest questions weren't about Dan’s future or Darlene’s career—they were about the people who weren't there. Specifically, how Michael Fishman and Roseanne Barr react to The Conners finale became the conversation everyone wanted to have once the credits rolled.
If you were looking for a big, happy family reunion to close things out, you probably felt a bit slighted. There was no D.J. Conner walking through the back door. No surprise dream sequence featuring Roseanne. Just a quiet, bittersweet ending that left two of the franchise’s biggest original stars watching from the sidelines.
Michael Fishman: A Class Act in the Face of a "Creative Choice"
Michael Fishman, who literally grew up on our TV screens as D.J. Conner, was the one people expected to see most. He’d been a series regular for the first four seasons of the spinoff before he was suddenly written out in 2022. The show said his character went overseas to be with his wife, but Fishman was open about the fact that it wasn't his call to leave.
When the series finale aired and D.J. was nowhere to be found—not even mentioned by name—the internet kind of lost it. Honestly, it felt a little cold.
Fishman didn't take the bait, though. Taking to Instagram just a day after the finale, he addressed the "inundation" of fans looking for a spicy reaction. He basically chose peace over petty. He described himself as wanting to be a "lighthouse in the dark" and expressed nothing but "empathy and understanding" for the cast and the grieving audience.
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Why wasn't D.J. in the finale?
According to executive producers Bruce Helford and Dave Caplan, the final season’s short six-episode order made things tight. They told TVLine that they didn't want to bring back old characters just for the sake of a cameo. They wanted every return to have "something important to play."
But fans didn't necessarily buy that. On Reddit and Twitter, the sentiment was clear: how do you have a series finale for a family show and not even mention the brother? Fishman himself seemed to acknowledge the sting. When a fan commented that "close families don't just forget about their brother," Fishman replied with a simple, "that part!" and a fire emoji.
He didn't know he'd be in the flashback montage either. He told fans he wasn't told anything about the old footage being used. Despite that, he’s spent the months since the finale focusing on the "Gift of Grief" and celebrating the show's legacy, which he credits as starting with Roseanne Barr.
Roseanne Barr’s Detached (and Slightly Spicy) Silence
Then there’s the woman who started it all. If you expected Roseanne Barr to be live-tweeting the finale with a box of tissues, you haven't been paying attention for the last few years.
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Her reaction—or lack thereof—was exactly what you'd expect from someone who felt "murdered" by her own creation. Since her 2018 firing, Barr hasn't exactly been a fan of the spinoff. She famously told the Los Angeles Times in 2023 that killing her character off via an opioid overdose felt like a personal attack on her mental health.
When the finale actually happened, it turns out she didn't even know it was on.
The "Cheap Knockoff" Perspective
Her son and representative, Jake Pentland, told TMZ and Us Weekly that the family basically lives in a Conners-free bubble. They haven't watched a single second of the spinoff. Pentland called the show a "cheap knockoff" and said they only focus on things that "matter to the American people."
There was a tiny bit of grace, though. Pentland mentioned they were glad the crew got seven seasons of work out of it. With the show over, he noted there was no longer a need for the network to "dangle anyone’s job" over his mother’s head.
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The finale did pay a strange sort of tribute to her. We saw Dan Conner (John Goodman) visiting her grave, talking to her. It was a heavy scene that tried to bridge the gap between the Roseanne era and The Conners era. But for Barr, that chapter had been slammed shut years ago. She has moved on to her own podcasts and stand-up specials, seemingly content to let the Lanford version of herself stay in the ground.
The Legacy That Got Left Behind
It's fascinating to see the divide. You have Michael Fishman, who is clearly still hurt by the "creative choices" that sidelined him but is determined to be the bigger person. Then you have Roseanne, who has built a whole new identity around being an outsider to the industry she once dominated.
The way Michael Fishman and Roseanne Barr react to The Conners finale tells you everything you need to know about the complicated history of this show. It started as a triumphant revival of a working-class classic and ended as a spinoff that had to fight every day to keep the lights on without its namesake.
What’s Next for the Conner Universe?
Now that the main show is done, don't expect the drama to vanish. Here is how you can stay updated and what to look for next:
- Watch the Flashbacks: If you want to see Fishman in the finale, you’ll have to look closely at the montage. It’s the only place he appears.
- Follow Fishman’s New Path: Michael has been leaning heavily into directing and "building community." His social media is a goldmine for behind-the-scenes stories from the original run.
- Check Out the Settlement Debate: One of the most talked-about parts of the finale was the meager $700 settlement Dan received from the pharmaceutical company. It’s a polarizing ending that fans are still deconstructing in forums.
- Revisit the Original: If the spinoff's ending felt too bleak, many fans are going back to the first nine seasons of Roseanne to remember the family when they were all together.
The finale might be over, but the conversation about who was invited to the party—and who was left out in the cold—is going to keep fans talking for a long time.