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There will be at least one empty seat at The Conners‘ kitchen table this fall.
TVLine can exclusively report that legacy cast member Michael Fishman, who plays Darlene and Becky’s younger brother DJ, will not be returning to the spinoff in Season 5.
Meanwhile, Jayden Rey, who was first introduced as DJ’s daughter Mary in 2018’s Roseanne revival, will remain a series regular, ABC clarifies to TVLine. The network previously stated that the actress had been downgraded to a recurring guest star. This story has been updated to reflect ABC’s correction.
Although there are no current plans for Fishman to appear in the upcoming fifth season, we’re told the door has been left open for the character’s return. (To read Fishman’s exit statement, click here.)
Though Fishman had been billed as a series regular for the entirety of The Conners‘ first four seasons, DJ only appeared 36 of the spinoff’s 71 episodes. He took on a more active role behind the scenes, directing five episodes of the ABC comedy.
When The Conners first launched in 2018, the principal cast also included Maya Lynne Robinson as DJ’s wife (and Mary’s mother) Geena. But after Season 1, Robinson departed for a role on CBS’ The Unicorn, at which point Geena reenlisted in the Army. She returned to Lanford in the Season 3 finale, but did not appear in Season 4 — not even at Dan or Darlene and Jackie’s weddings. [pmc_inline_gallery]
Fishman made his debut as Roseanne and Dan’s son in Episode 2 of Roseanne, having succeeded original child actor Sal Barone, who appeared as DJ in the 1988 pilot. Fishman played DJ from ages 6 to 15, then returned for the above-mentioned 2018 revival.
Returning to The Conners for Season 5 are John Goodman (Dan), Laurie Metcalf (Jackie), Sara Gilbert (Darlene), Lecy Goranson (Becky), Emma Kenney (Harris), Ames McNamara (Mark), Rey (Mary) and Jay R. Ferguson (Ben). Katey Sagal continues to recur as Dan’s second wife Louise.
The Conners‘ fifth season kicks off Wednesday, Sept. 21 at its new time, 8/7c. Are you sorry to see Michael Fishman go? Check out the following Season 5 poster, then sound off in Comments.
There was a lot of potential in DJ’s storyline but he was definitely wasted a lot of the time, as was his child & wife. I’d be willing to bet most people won’t even notice for a few episodes. (Unless the season starts with a mention that they moved.)
Understandable. Isn’t he going through a divorce and didn’t he lose one of his son’s recently. They barely used him through Roseanne’s 10 year run. He really had no significant stories. It was the same for The Conners. They barely used him or the actresses who played his daughter and his wife. I would of stayed for the payday myself, but he probably has enough money
“I would [have] stayed for the payday myself…”
I’m sure Michael Fishman would have, too, if he could, but it wasn’t his choice! For reasons unknown, the show dropped him (not the other way around).
I’m here for the Sal Barone callback. Any chance of getting him to step into the role now? It’s only been 34 years!
From fandom.com:
“In this episode, D.J. is played by Sal Barone. D.J. was recast after the first episode because the producers wanted someone younger to play the role. There were also some problems between Sal Barone and Sara Gilbert on the set.”
So, I’m guessing Sara Gilbert would vote no on that.
Sara would’ve only been 12 when that happened, I doubt she’d be holding a grudge that long against someone who would’ve been 6 at the time.
This does not surprise me at all. When the show came back he did not strike me as much of a “heavy-hitter” compared to the rest of the comedic talent. My only question is: was it his choice or the choice of the producers?
Not really a “shocker”. They barely used him when he was a regular. I honestly don’t think anyone would have noticed anyway
Agree
And yet he piped his goofey no-talent having ass up when they were piling on to backstab ROSEANNE and FIRE HER from the show that SHE CREATED. Now he gets to go down in history as a no-talent loser who BETRAYED and TURNED HIS BACK on ROSEANNE BARR, the comedy genius who hand picked him for a role on the number one show in AMERICA. What a little worm. He needs to do right by Roseanne to wash the blood off his little loser hands.
I haven’t watched this since they killed the TRUE star, ROSANNE! This show pales in comparison to the original. Watch THOSE every morning on CMT network to see what I mean………….
Good for you Judy!
How would you know the show pales in comparison if you’ve never watched it? Hmm.
Lucky guess.
Reading comprehension is important. Judy said she hadn’t watched since they killed the true star, Rosanne. That means that she watched the first season of this new iteration.
That, coupled with the fact that the show was based on Roseanne, by definition then any iteration of this show without her pales in comparison to the original.
As you stated Judy said she hasn’t watched since… So she hasn’t watched the Connors. The show she watched was the first and last season of the Rosanne reboot. Whilst the premise of the show is the same it is not the same show.
Roseanne was dead from the opening moment of the Conners..so if she hasn’t watched it since her character was killed off, she hasn’t watched any of this show to judge its quality.
Before being an internet know-it-all, you probably should actually acquire some knowledge before being snarky with people.
Maybe you might want to do a little research, genius. The first season of the revival had Roseanne Barr in it. Really cool to talk down to people though isn’t it?
Your “correction” has nothing to do with the comment you’re replying too.
The first season of the new series reboot that featured Roseanne Barr wasn’t called “The Conners”. It was called “Roseanne”, just like the original series.
With that in mind, who again needs to do their research and not talk down to people?
Bingo! It’s painfully stupid that they tried to do it without her.
unfortunately she’s nuts
🎯
I do watch it and I agree with you 100% Judy I’m still waiting for the laughs that we used to get from Roseanne but they don’t seem to be there
Agree completely. Never watch The Connors after first show. It just seems broken.
How many people can live in one house?
Just cancel this crap
learn how to work a remote Bob
Is Sarah Chalke doing anything in-between seasons of Firefly Lane? She could take Fishman’s place ’til he comes back.
Doing what?
that is the most wasted space on TV
Sara Gilbert will keep pushing them all out until it’s a one woman show. First she threw Roseanne under the bus. Now DJ is gone. Who’s next? Dan goes on a cruise around the world? Jackie becomes an astronaut and goes to live on Mars? Becky has a relapse and meets the same fate as Roseanne?
To be fair, Roseanne threw herself under the bus. Don’t blame Sara. She’s literally the glue holding this show together at this point.
Not really. What Roseanne did pales in comparison to what many network actors do all the time. Heck, the women on The View probably say more offensive things several times per week (looking at you, Whoopi), on their actual show. Roseanne was always known to be “offensive” and everyone loved that about her, as long as she was offending the right people. The truth here is that certain people wanted to revive characters that Roseanne still had a claim to, and they were waiting for whatever excuse they could find to get rid of her. The least we can do is be honest about this. It was a classic backstab. If you’re cool with it, fine. High five the people who did it. It’s just silly to pretend that it didn’t happen.
Roseanne called Valerie Jarrett an APE. Then blamed medication.
.
And posted pictures of herself dressed as HITLER baking cookies.
.
Losing her is no loss whatsoever. ROSEANNE tanked her own career. ABC did what it had to do.
Yeah… and Whoopi defended Roman Polanski and said that the holocaust wasn’t about real racism, and she actually said this *on the air*.
.
Roseanne is offensive. We’ve known this forever, and I’m not going to suggest otherwise, because that was her brand. That was what ABC made money off of back in the day (she was just offending the right people back then) and that is what ABC knew they were getting when they revived the show. But she offended the wrong people as the years went on, so they knew they’d need to get rid of her once they could secure the rights that she still held. Think whatever you want about it, but don’t pretend that it didn’t happen. And don’t pretend that ABC doesn’t still support other talent that does equally offensive, or even more offensive things on their very network. ABC hasn’t fired Whoopi, who defended Roman Polanski by saying that his drugging and forcing himself on a 14 year old “wasn’t ‘r*pe’ r*pe”
To me, that is more offensive than calling a grown woman a bad name. But I’m just wacky that way.
The Hitler-cookies pictures were from a photoshoot about controversial comedy from years ago, long before she turned into a right-winger, as dressing as Hitler was regarded as extremely provocative for a Jewish woman (it was also a Jewish magazine). I’m not sure that she reposted them or that it was one of those things that was lobbied against her without context when the scandal started.
.
That said, the big issue is indeed that, at the time of her firing, she would lose herself into extremely controversial statements during a series of Twitter benders, that her employer, Disney, asked her repeatedly to calm down, because it would hurt the image of the show, and that she didn’t care. Minutes before the Jarrett incident, she was posting a long series of false claims about Chelsea Clinton or George Soros that were straight out something from 4Chan. And the racist Jarrett comment showed that she was unreliable, and likely to post more stuff in that vein, which was reason enough to terminate her contract.
Wow… I didn’t know there were still so many MAGA Trump Cult people around still defending Roseanne and her racist, anti-semetic tirades… Just goes to show that they are all still squirming around out their and still haven’t gone back under their rocks 😆
I don’t defend Roseanne. I’ve never been a big fan of hers, since I often found her offensive and her jokes to be in poor taste. This has been her brand forever, and everyone at the network knew this before bringing her show back. I’m just saying, it is silly to say that they weren’t looking to get rid of her from the start here, but they needed her for the IP rights.
She’d still be on the show to this day if she’d dialed down her rhetoric just a little bit, but keep making up excuses for her. That’ll surely help.
Wow feeling judgemental?
Roseanne is Jewish, she can’t be antisemitic.
She never seemed to be that into religion or care about it, so sure, she could be antisemitic.
I agree with everything you said
Calling this a “shocker” is really pushing it. Not only was he absent from about half of the episodes, but he was only in a scene or two in the episodes he did appear in. He was given no meaningful storyline and was essential shoved aside to focus 95% of the show on Darlene. They need to go back to being a true ensemble show instead of being the Darlene show and bring back DJ, Jerry and Andy.
I agree 💯
You must don’t actually watch if you think Darlene gets “95%” of the storylines lol. DJ isn’t coming back and it seems like it’s his choice. Move on.
It was not his choice. Move on.
36 of 71? I’d have guessed no more than 20. Even when he’s on the show, it’s more like walk on appearance. DJ was never a focus. And now he’s Chuck Cunningham’d.
WOW! What a great callback from the Hall of Fame for forgotten TV characters! BRAVO!
Not sure if you know what “shocker” means. DJ is basically the new Andy.
I forgot he was even on the show anymore so no big deal. I wish they would give us a lot less Jackie. Her over the top character has really gotten old for me.
if michael fishman wants to work behine the seances of the cornners then let him do it. be i will miss is charter in the show.
if
Seances? Conjuring up the spirit of Roseanne, no doubt.
Hahaha!!! LMFAO!!! 😂 😂 😂
This ensemble has survived many cast departures and actor changes, so I’m pretty sure they will be okay. DJ was harmless, but not funny compared to the rest of the cast. I wish him well.
No surprise really.
It seems they could have used him and his family for some pretty good storylines. They could have used his wife as the one sane person that calls out his family’s craziness to create some decent side stories.
He will be miss
Mike is a resilent, talented man. If the fans of the show knew what he has overcome to accomplish what he has, there would be a bit of an uproar over him being dropped. But that’s frickin’ Hollywood where they eat their young. Now that he’s in the DGA he’ll be back better than ever.
Michael hardly gets any lines? I can see why he’s leaving.😞
Michael was believable as DJ when he was a child actor but seems to have lost his acting chops. I wish him great success as a director
I feel the same way about Lecy Goranson. Can we switch Becky’s again please?
Mike Fishman is a very talented actor. The scene between him and John Goodman, the the garage, was probably the best acting I’ve ever seen on that show, and he’s grown into a talented director as well. I’m deleting the “record” timer. The Connors is nothing but a cheap vanity show that has outlived its space on the menu.
I agree 100% about the garage scene. He was so good and believable in that. I felt he was doing a better acting job than Lecy. Such a real disappointment that they did not explore his character more.
Considering how little he’s been showcased or even shown, it’s really not that surprising that he’s not coming back. A quick look at his IMDB credits shows that Michael is working more behind the scenes than in front of the camera in the last several years.
Not surprising. He was hardly on it anyway and when he was he had maybe one line if he was lucky. My guess is they are cutting him to save money.
Is this as good as Roseanne, not a chance. Will I continue watching it, sure, I mean it’s not great but it’s not terrible. It’s one of those shows that if they cancelled it i wouldn’t really care one way or the other.
I don’t even remember the last time he was in an episode tbh he’s barely even involved