ONE of U.S. television’s best-known families returned 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.

The original “Roseanne” ran from 1988 to 1997 and was praised for its realistic portrayal of working-class life.

The revival in March, in which Barr played a supporter of Republican U.S. President Donald Trump, was ABC’s biggest hit, drawing an average 18 million viewers per episode.

ABC canceled “Roseanne” in May after Barr sparked a furor with a tweet that compared black former Obama administration Valerie Jarrett to an ape.

Barr apologized and said the tweet was political, not racist, in its nature. But she agreed to step away from the show she created and will have no financial or creative involvement in “The Conners.”

“The Conners” stars original “Roseanne” actors John Goodman (Dan), Laurie Metcalf (Jackie) and Sara Gilbert (Darlene). (SD-Agencies)