Jake Pentland Attacks Michael Fishman Over Roseanne Barr’s Ouster

The friction stems from Fishman’s recent decision to break his long-standing silence regarding the show’s cancellation. In an Instagram video, the actor who played D.J. Conner insisted that the network’s decision to pull the plug was justified, characterizing the defense of Barr’s comments as a political smokescreen. Fishman argued that dehumanizing language is indefensible and that the cast had been forced to contend with inaccurate narratives for years.

Pentland rejected this framing, telling TMZ that the cast never sought to understand his mother’s perspective before severing ties. He pointedly criticized Fishman for continuing to work on the spin-off, The Conners, which utilized the same production infrastructure as the original series. “I wish him good luck in finding work one day,” Pentland remarked. “Hopefully selling the woman responsible for his career out was worth it for him.”

The dispute underscores the lingering resentment surrounding the 2018 incident, when ABC canceled the show after Barr compared Valerie Jarrett to the Muslim Brotherhood and Planet of the Apes. While Barr initially apologized for her ignorance, she later shifted her stance, telling Variety in 2025 that she believed the controversy was a divine directive. As the cast moved on to subsequent projects, the divide between the show’s former family members remains sharp, with accusations of betrayal and political maneuvering continuing to define their public relationship.