The Conners’ John Goodman Explained Why The Show Ending Is So Hard On Him

Throughout the history of the TV shows Roseanne and The Conners, the show’s characters and actors dealt with a lot of drama. On the plot side of things, the franchise had some horrible storylines, Johnny Galecki’s character was treated awfully, and some onscreen relationships were mishandled. The stars of The Conners also had to cope with all the drama around the show’s original star and when one of the actors passed away.

While The Conners seemed like it could be a headache to work on, the show made its cast rich, and they seemed to love each other. With that in mind, it makes sense that John Goodman revealed that he is really struggling with The Conners ending.

John Goodman Is Struggling With The Conners Ending

When people talk about the most successful actors ever, names like Denzel Washington, Julia Roberts, and Tom Cruise come up. The thing that many people don’t consider is that it can easily be argued that John Goodman should be included in that discussion.

An actor who has been starring in movies since 1983, John has been a staple of the film industry for decades. Over that time, John has starred in movies like The Big Labowski, 10 Cloverfield Lane, O Brother Where Art Thou?, and Monsters, Inc., among others.

Despite John headlining so many movies over the years, it still seems like he was the most invested in his biggest TV role. With that in mind, it makes sense that John has been struggling with The Conners ending.

Since 1988, John Goodman has been portraying Dan Conner off and on as a part of the shows Roseanne and The Conners.

On April 23rd, 2025, fans of The Conners saw the show come to an end when the show’s finale aired. That same day, People published an article after talking to John about the show coming to an end after so many years.

During People’s interview, they spoke to John when they visited the actor on the set of The Conners.

During John Goodman’s many years portraying Dan Conner on Roseanne and The Conners, he has been nominated for awards. Most notably, the official website for The Television Academy revealed John was nominated for the Outstanding Lead Actor In A Comedy Series Emmy every year between 1989 and 1995.

During that interview, John revealed that he was already struggling with the prospect of The Conners ending. Furthermore, John told the outlet that he anticipated continuing to be upset about The Conners ending for some time to come.

It’s really hard. It’s something I’m going to miss for a while. I’m old and resistant to change.

Between the Roseanne revival that was quickly canceled and The Conners, John starred in eight seasons of the two shows since the franchise was brought back. Fans first saw John return to his role as Dan Conner in the year 2018.

In March 2018, E! Online spoke to John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, and Roseanne Barr about returning to work together for the first time in many years. During that discussion, John expressed his opinion that working with his former castmates again felt natural. “Like we never left.”

Even though John got to work with his The Conners co-stars for many years again, it didn’t feel that way for him. Instead, John told People during the aforementioned interview that he felt like his years working on The Conners went by “so fast.”

It was so exciting when we got this together, and it seems like it was two weeks ago.

While still speaking to the outlet, John elaborated on how he felt about working with his The Conners castmates.

When People asked him about what it was like working on The Conners, John spoke about how much he enjoyed working on the sitcom.

“Showing up every day and just being here with everybody. It’s a great place to work. “It’s just being here every day and like [my costar] Jay [R. Ferguson] said, we just come in and laugh a lot.”

While reflecting on not getting to work on The Conners anymore, John made another telling remark about his emotional distress. While John didn’t explicitly say he was talking about The Conners ending when he made this statement, the implications of his remark seem very clear.

John Goodman Left A Special Mark On The Conners’ Finale

In April 2025, The Wrap published an article about The Conners coming to an end. For that article, the outlet spoke to The Conners’ executive producer, Dave Caplan, who revealed how John Goodman affected how The Conners ended.

During the final scene of The Conners’ last episode, the show’s cast were shown sitting together on The Conners’ and Roseanne’s legendary living room set. Then, the show’s main cast members were shown saying good night to John Goodman’s character one at a time while getting highly emotional. Ultimately, John was left alone sitting on the couch that longtime fans know incredibly well.

After clips from the show Roseanne’s past were shown, the show cut back to John who broke the fourth wall by looking directly at the camera. In a perfect moment, John then gave viewers closure by giving them a simple departing message.

While speaking to The Wrap, Dave Caplan revealed that John was the one who decided to create that moment and the show’s producers had no idea what he was going to do.​​​​​​​

“It was a surprise to us. We did not know they were going to get there emotionally. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in a sitcom, or maybe even a drama, where the actors show the real emotions they are having. It was so touching and so real that we decided to leave. Dan saying goodbye to the audience, that was all John and it was wonderful.”

That revelation speaks to the fact that John clearly has great instincts as an actor.