What Sara Gilbert's Co-Stars Have Really Said About Her

Sara Gilbert has been in Hollywood since she was child, beginning with a few small parts on TV shows before landing the role of Darlene Conner. It's safe to say Sara Gilbert's life was never the same after "Roseanne," which premiered in 1988 when she was 13 years old. As a teenager, she held her own comedically alongside adult pros like John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, and series creator and star Roseanne Barr.

It didn't take long before Gilbert established herself as an integral part of the series. So much so, that the show worked around her schedule when she headed off to Yale University rather than recasting her character — something evidently not afforded to her co-star Lecy Goranson, who was the first actor to play Becky on the series. After "Roseanne" wrapped in 1997, Gilbert went on to do other acting work on shows like "E.R." and "The Big Bang Theory." 

And then, in 2010, Sara Gilbert launched "The Talk," a panel show featuring five female celebrities in a format similar to "The View," but in an iteration that left its own mark on television. Gilbert is also credited with spearheading the revival of "Roseanne," with the original cast, which crashed and burned spectacularly after Barr's controversial tweets. But Gilbert was able to right the ship and lead the spin-off, "The Conners," retaining the cast and enough audience goodwill to last a full seven seasons before coming to an end in 2025. With such a long career that began in childhood, she's made her share of friends, and the occasional enemy, in Hollywood.

The original run of "Roseanne," created by Roseanne Barr, began in 1988 making household names out of not only Barr, but her co-stars John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, and a young Sara Gilbert. Gilbert played sarcastic middle child Darlene, perhaps the character most similar to her fictional mother with her sharp wit. 

After almost two decades off the air, the show was revived with its original cast, with Gilbert largely being credited for spearheading its return. Ahead of the reboot's premiere, which aired in March 2018, Barr told the Los Angeles Times, "I told [Gilbert] she would have to do all the support work, and she said she would." When Barr, Gilbert, and the series' other stars reunited on the set, it was like no time had passed. "It was a blast when we got back together. We just laughed and laughed, cracking jokes," Barr said. "And it was easy. These characters have a lot of history. We're comfortable and know each other so well."

The new iteration of "Roseanne" was off to a strong start, but it all came crashing down in May 2018 when the titular star fired off a racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett, a former member of the Obama administration. Roseanne Barr's problematic behavior led to the show's abrupt cancellation. Though she offered an apology, the damage was done. 

Sara Gilbert spoke out against Barr, posting on X at the time that her co-star's comments were "abhorrent and do not reflect the beliefs of our cast and crew or anyone associated with our show." Barr fired back against Gilbert in a 2019 interview with The Washington Post. "She destroyed the show and my life with that tweet," Barr told the outlet. "She will never get enough until she consumes my liver with a fine Chianti."

During a 2023 appearance on "The Megyn Kelly Show," Barr made it clear that the feud was still very much alive. "It wasn't enough that [Gilbert] stabbed me in the back and did what she did to me there, but she would go on her talk show every day and talk about how shocked she was at my racism." Barr also went on to claim that Gilbert's public reaction to her own post on X was why the show got axed. "I was floored. I was just floored," Barr told Megyn Kelly. "She ends up owning my work, and [executive producer] Tom Werner becomes her partner in owning my work."

In the immediate aftermath of Roseanne Barr's controversial tweets, the comedian did apologize to her co-stars for the drama, including Sara Gilbert and Michael Fishman, the latter of whom played her character's son, D.J., on the original series. "To michael fishman and sara gilbert: I forgive u both, love u both, just wish u could have called me personally 2 talk rather than do it in a public arena [sic]," Barr wrote on X (via Entertainment Tonight). "I understand, tho. It's ok." Both Gilbert and Fishman posted statements on X condemning Barr's comments about Valerie Jarrett.

Alas, in her aforementioned 2023 interview with Megyn Kelly, it was clear Barr's forgiveness was a thing of the past. She claimed Gilbert "begged" her to return for the revival and promised to support her, but as far as Barr was concerned, that did not happen. According to Barr, Gilbert told her ahead of the reboot, "This time I won't let anyone at you. I won't let anyone hurt you. I'm gonna protect you. I know you have mental health problems, but I'm gonna be there. I'm gonna stand in the way."

When "Roseanne" began in 1988, Sara Gilbert's character's siblings were played by Lecy Goranson and Becky and Michael Fishman. The Conner kids felt like real siblings as they bickered and made up on screen, with the girls often scheming against their little brother. As previously noted, Goranson left the show during Season 5 to go to college, when she was replaced by Sarah Chalke. "It's not like I felt guilty going to college. I didn't feel I made the wrong decision, but maybe I wanted to check in with that other life and revisit it," Goranson told Vulture in 2018.

Goranson, along with Fishman, returned for the "Roseanne" reboot. And when said reboot was canceled, the cast gave it another shot with "The Conners," a series that followed the family in the aftermath of Roseanne's off-screen death. Goranson and Fishman both praised Gilbert for her efforts in reviving "Roseanne." As Fishman told Ashley & Company in 2018, "Sara really has taken the ball and run with this and brought everybody together. She's kind of modest in that standpoint, but she really has been a very pivotal part of that. I think we're all really thankful that we got this opportunity to be together again." Goranson added, "When I showed up to set and we were around the table and we were reading, I just felt so relieved and so connected and grounded in our world again. And it was just such a moving, beautiful thing."

After Lecy Goranson left "Roseanne," Sarah Chalke handled the role of Sara Gilbert's on-screen big sister, Becky for the 6th, 7th, and 9th seasons (Goranson briefly returned for Season 8). When the show came back for a 10th season in 2018, Chalke played Andrea, a woman who paid Becky (played by Goranson) to be her surrogate.

When Chalke first joined "Roseanne" in the '90s, the future "Scrubs" star, who was still fairly green, felt intimidated by the cast. As she told Yahoo! Canada in 2026, "I was in Grade 12, and it was the most fish out of water experience ever. I had absolutely no business being there. [It was] just a group of the most talented comedians and just watching John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf and Sara Gilbert and Johnny Galecki ... Fred Willard and Martin Mull, and Roseanne [Barr]... And I just remember watching all of them and being quite in awe."

Years later, Chalke appeared on an episode of "The Talk," a chat show produced and created by Sara Gilbert, where she gushed about working together on "Roseanne." "I thought Sara was the funniest thing and I watched her on the show for years, and then when I was starting, I was like, what an amazing acting class to get to sit there and watch you work," Chalke said.

As her on-screen dad in the original "Roseanne" and its spin-off, "The Conners," John Goodman has been in Sara Gilbert's life for a very long time. "The Righteous Gemstones" actor doesn't speak often about co-stars (or his private life for that matter), but in a 2025 interview with People, he described the cast of "The Conners" as "some of my favorite people in the world." Looking back on the cast of the original series, Goodman said, "The kids were wonderful, it was a great home for eight or nine seasons."

Before the "Roseanne" reboot and "The Conners" spin-off in 2018, Goodman and Gilbert reunited on "The Talk" in 2014. "I couldn't stop crying after we were done with [the show]," Goodman said (via E! News). "It just touched something in me. ... They were like my own kids. It's just a strange thing." He added that being a fictional parent to Gilbert and her onscreen siblings was a "great basic training for raising my own daughter." It was their appearance together on "The Talk" that helped spark the idea for the rebooted "Roseanne," and the two discussed the idea when he dropped by for another appearance in 2017. 

Oscar nominee Laurie Metcalf played Aunt Jackie "Roseanne," earning four Emmy nominations and three wins during the show's original run. Like Goodman, Metcalf has known Sara Gilbert for over thirty years and remembers first meeting her as a teenager on set. In a 2019 The New York Times profile of Gilbert, Metcalf remembered her onscreen niece earning the nickname "Scuffy" on the set. "She would just sort of scuffle along," Metcalf said of Gilbert, adding, "She's superintelligent with a wicked sense of humor. But very shy and very soft-spoken."

With "The Conners" reboot, Metcalf did occasionally second-guess her own performance, namely whenever she saw Gilbert going over notes with the writers. "But part of me has relaxed into trusting her when she puts on her producing hat," she told the outlet, adding, "It's going through the right channels. If anybody can do it, Scuffy can." Metcalf also praised Gilbert's acting chops in a 2018 People interview that touched on how "The Connors" navigated the death of the character of Roseanne. Metcalf said, "Sometimes when you're an actor and you have to go to that place, you substitute something, but in this case there was no need to do that, because it was there. And it was real. And still makes me choke up, because that part of it's been really hard."

On "Roseanne," Johnny Galecki played David, Darlene's teenage boyfriend and eventual husband. Galecki and Sara Gilbert have remained lifelong friends since their time on the show and even dated for a time in the '90s. But Gilbert was secretly struggling with her sexuality, coming out years later as gay. During a 2013 episode of "The Talk," Gilbert shared the story of coming out to Galecki, who she remembered supported her and kept her secret until she was ready to tell the world. When she wanted to talk about her sexuality on "The Talk," she reached out to Galecki to make sure he was cool with her talking about their personal history in a public forum. "And he was like 'Yeah, no, of course' and 'I love you' and 'I think it's really important' and 'I'm so proud of you,' and he said, you know, if you want I'll be there and I'll hold your hand," she recalled, per the Los Angeles Times.

In 2016, Galecki appeared on an episode of "The Talk" (via Broadway World) where he waxed nostalgic with Gilbert about their friendship and time together on "Roseanne." Like Metcalf, Galecki remembered everyone calling Gilbert "Scuffy." "All the crew knew that Sara was coming from around the corner because you just heard 'scuff scuff scuff,'" he said, explaining the noise came from her heavy boots. The duo also joked about Gilbert calling Galecki "Charlie" and Charles" after red carpet photographers misheard his name.

Sara Gilbert and Johnny Galecki worked again years after the end of the original "Roseanne," with Gilbert appearing on Galecki's hit show "The Big Bang Theory." She played a physicist who worked with Galecki's character, Leonard, who was involved romantically with him as well. In a 2010 chat with The A.V. Club, Galecki admitted that he had some reservations about bringing Gilbert aboard at first. "There was a concern—I had a concern—that it would come off as gimmicky," he said. "Chuck [Lorre] and I talked about it, and the truth of the matter is that life's just too short to not work with people that you adore working with and spending time with."

Galecki also had Gilbert star in the short-lived sitcom "Living Biblically," which the former executive produced. He told Variety in 2018 that Gilbert was always in consideration for her role but joked that he made her audition. "I knew how much she wanted to inhabit a character again," he told the outlet. "So I knew that she would come at it, despite all of her years of experience, with a whole lot of commitment and a whole lot of excitement. And she did tenfold."

Sara Gilbert created "The Talk" for CBS in 2010. The morning chat show, which was a direct competitor of "The View," featured a panel of women discussing news and lifestyle topics daily. Gilbert was part of the original lineup of hosts, which also included Julie Chen Moonves, Sharon Osbourne, Leah Remini, and Holly Robinson Peete. The panel went through several iterations, but for the first nine seasons of the show, Gilbert and Osbourne were mainstays. 

When Gilbert left "The Talk" in 2019, Osbourne broke down in tears on the show. "I think that Sara has, since she took over this seat, has just been slamming it every show," she said (via ET). "And you've all seen her dry humor that comes out of nowhere, and she's so quick and so sarcastic and so fabulous that we just think that as women, we have been slamming it and we just have just got this great thing going on here right now, and nobody gets on my nerves on this table this season."

The truth about Sharon Osbourne is that she often clashed with her other cohosts, especially Sheryl Underwood, who she got in a feud with that led to the former reality star's firing in 2021. The outspoken personality later told Deadline she wished she hadn't apologized to Underwood and was still angry about the situation but sought therapy on the advice of Gilbert. "It helped a lot because I honestly didn't want to carry that around and be a victim," Osbourne said.

Julie Chen Moonves was one of the original hosts of "The Talk," and when the show was created, she supported Sara Gilbert's work. "It's not easy to find, let alone two people ... and then to find five people, and five women who get along who are 'talent' in front of the camera? That's kind of unheard of," she told Larry King in 2017. She explained that the show, while similar to "The View," came about after Gilbert struggled finding camaraderie with other women following the arrival of her second child. "She said, 'I want to create a show for moms at home, women at home, that need that connection," Chen Moonves said.

In 2018, Julie Chen Moonves left the show after her husband, Les Moonves, was fired as the head of CBS for alleged sexual misconduct. He denied any wrongdoing and Chen Moonves stood by her husband's side. Reflecting on her exit without naming any names, she told "Good Morning America," "That was a hard time. I felt stabbed in the back. I was, you know."