NEW YORK —

One of television’s best-known families returned on Tuesday without its matriarch, as the character of feisty Roseanne Conner was killed off through an accidental opioid overdose.

Comedy series “The Conners,” featuring all the main characters in the blue-collar family from “Roseanne” except for its star and creator, Roseanne Barr, had its premiere on Disney-owned channel ABC, five months after “Roseanne” was canceled following a racist tweet by Barr.

Audiences had last seen Roseanne Conner hiding an opioid addiction stemming from knee pain and about to undergo long-delayed, costly surgery.

“We regret that ABC chose to cancel Roseanne by killing off the Roseanne Conner character. That it was done through an opioid overdose lent an unnecessary grim and morbid dimension to an otherwise happy family show,” Barr said in a statement.

In the first episode of “The Conners,” the family is shown struggling to come to terms with the death of Roseanne from what is first thought to be a heart attack but is later revealed to be an opioid overdose.

— Reuters

They find she had been hiding painkillers all over the house, and getting them from a circle of friends who shared medication to avoid costs. The original “Roseanne” ran from 1988 to 1997 and was praised for its realistic portrayal of working-class life. — Reuters