Jerry Seinfeld says firing Roseanne was 'overkill'

Jerry Seinfeld has come to the defence of Roseanne Barr, after she was fired and had her sitcom axed following a racist tweet.

Sort of.

Speaking to USA Today about ABC’s shock decision, the comedian said: “I don’t even know why they had to do that.

“It seemed like, you don’t need to murder someone that’s committing suicide. I thought the firing was overkill. She’s already dead.

“But I never saw someone ruin their entire career with one button push. That was fresh.”

In a separate interview with Entertainment Tonight, he offered up another choice to the broadcaster, which is already plotting a spin-off series without Barr’s character, called The Conners.

“They brought Dan Conner back. He was dead, and they brought him back. So why can’t we get another Roseanne?” the comedian said.

“There’s other funny women that could do that part. You need to get the comic in there. I hate to see a comic lose a job.”

Barr has said that she has ‘lost everything’ since the show was cancelled, despite bringing in record ratings for ABC.

The network acted after Barr, who has long peddled fringe right-wing conspiracy theories on her Twitter account, made a racial slur against Valeria Jarrett, a former member of Barack Obama’s administration.

However she’s since claimed that she didn’t know that Jarrett was black.

Speaking on a US podcast, she broke down, saying: “I didn’t mean what they think I meant, and that’s what’s so painful. But I have to face that this hurt people – and when you hurt people, even unwittingly, there’s no excuse, so I don’t want to blabber off on excuses.

“I apologise to anyone who felt offended and thought that I meant something that I, in fact, did not mean to my own ignorance.”

The Conners, which will star John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf, is set to air later this year.

However, it’s been claimed that the cast are ‘at war’ over the script.

An insider told RadarOnline: “They new script seems to be all over the place, and they fear that the audience will drop off after the first few episodes because it is just not as funny without Roseanne.

“They just overcame the hurdle of how to kill of Roseanne’s character, and now they are desperately trying to decide who the new comic relief will be. Roseanne was the glue that held the show together.”

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