'The Conners' Recap: How New Show Is Better Without Roseanne Barr

In the spring, Patch gave weekly recaps for "Roseanne," ABC's revival of the popular sitcom, and published those articles on Elgin Patch, the nearest community to the Conner family's fictional Illinois home of Lanford.

The series has returned to TV this fall with a new name and without its outspoken star. Find out how a tumultuous summer turned "Roseanne" into "The Conners" and what its first Roseanne Bar-less episode was like.

P.T. Barnum, the 19th century circus impresario who turned showmanship into an art form, preached that there was no such thing as bad publicity. His belief that it doesn't matter what they're saying about you, just as long as they're saying something became popular in certain entertainment and marketing circles over the years, becoming conventional wisdom in those areas.

RELATED: 'Roseanne' Canceled After Racist 'Ape' Tweet

But Barnum's view doesn't carry the same weight now, given the current political and social climate, when a careless word on Twitter or a reckless opinion posted to Instagram stories can tear apart a person's reputation or career. Just ask Roseanne Barr and ABC-TV.

The network struck ratings gold this spring with a nine-episode 10th season of Barr's eponymous sitcom, which originally aired from 1988 to 1997. Only a few days after the "revival" season of "Roseane" debuted in March, ABC ordered a 13-episode 11th season.

All that success was undone in May, though, after Barr, a vocal Trump supporter, fired off an insulting and racially charged tweet directed at Valerie Jarrett, a senior adviser in President Barack Obama's White House who also worked for Chicago Mayors Harold Washington and Richard Daley. The outspoken celebrity alternately blamed the post — since deleted — on her use of the sleep medication Ambien and her mistaken belief that Jarrett was white.

RELATED: Roseanne Defends Valerie Jarrett Tweet: 'I Thought She Was White'

As quick as it was to initially renew the series, ABC was just as swift dropping the axe on "Roseanne" in the tweet's aftermath. But rising from the ashes of that PR dumpster fire like some nostalgia- and ratings-fueled phoenix, "The Conners" was born.

Normally, such public drama and upheaval would not bode well even for a wildly popular series. But instead of creating a "dead show walking" situation, the change from "Roseanne" to "The Conners" could end up being a messy blessing in disguise.

Ever since announcing the new series in June, ABC has billed "The Conners" as a spinoff. But for all intents and purposes, the show that aired Tuesday night is a direct continuation of "Roseanne," picking up the original series' 11th season, minus one significant performer, of course. Think of it as the 21st century equivalent of another late-'80s, early-'90s TV series set outside Chicago, "Valerie, which changed its name to "The Hogan Family" after Valerie Harper, the show's star, was dropped over a contract dispute.

The similarities between the two series don't end there, either. Like "Valerie"/"The Hogan Family" before it, "The Conners" deals with the behind-the-scenes loss of its titular star with a rather permanent onscreen development for the character Barr portrayed. Tuesday's series premiere begins with the family struggling with (fictional) Roseanne's death from an overdose of prescription painkillers, medication the character had been using — and abusing — in the previous season.

One of the best things the original "Roseanne" run had going for it was the strength of its cast. The popularity of its (then) star might have launched the series, but the show's overall success relied on the talent surrounding Barr.

Patch's "Roseanne" Season 10 Recaps:

• Episode 3, "Roseanne Gets the Chair"
• Episode 4, "Eggs Over, Not Easy"
• Episode 5, "Darlene v. David"
• Episode 6, "No Country for Old Women"
• Episode 7, "Go Cubs"
• Episode 8, "Netflix & Pill"

Throughout the show's first incarnation, John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf — Roseanne's onscreen husband, Dan, and sister, Jackie, respectively — consistently turned in outstanding performances that weren't showy and elevated the actors and actresses around them. But a noticeable shortcoming of the revival's first season was that Goodman and Metcalf were woefully under-used, thanks to a combination of the show's sprawling ensemble and a shorter-than-average season that had too many characters vying for limited screen time.

Even though the cast of "The Conners" remains large, Barr's absence is a case of addition through subtraction in that it gives the other deserving performers a chance in the spotlight. Take this touching exchange between Goodman and Sara Gilbert, who plays daughter Darlene. It shows a father and daughter using humor to try and make sense of a family tragedy, as well as providing a bit of meta-commentary:

DAN: She was going to do what she was going to do. She never listened to a damn person in her life.

DARLENE: I want to call her and say, 'How am I supposed to do all this?'

DAN: Your mother once told me that everything you needed she gave to you before you were 5.

DARLENE: [Pause] I have no idea what that means.

DAN: I never could figure it out either. I think it's something she got off a Snapple cap.

Given how the final episode of "Roseanne" squandered a great deal of promise, the solid efforts by Goodman, Gilbert, Metcalf and the rest of the main cast in the first episode of "The Conners" go a long way toward erasing the memory of the previous frustrating season. And while those performances make up for the episode's half-baked "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" riff — as well as a criminally wasted Mary Steenburgen — will they be enough to convince audiences to make "The Conners" appointment viewing for another 12 weeks? Probably not, especially now that Barr and the element of unpredictability her presence brought to the show have been removed.

YOUR TURN: Did you watch Tuesday's debut of "The Conners?" If so, what did you think? Will you continue to tune in to the series? Share your thoughts and opinions about the episode in the comments section.

The cast of "The Conners" (Photo via ABC | The Walt Disney Co.)