Roseanne was a hit television series which initially lasted for an impressive nine seasons. The show won Emmys and put the cast on the map. In fact, audiences felt so close to these characters that the original series finale was widely regarded as one of the worst conclusions in television history.
In 2018, a Roseanne revival premiered, hoping to right this wrong. However, Roseanne Barr herself would ruin this with a racist tweet. The Conners, a spin-off focusing on the rest of the family after her character was killed off, premiered shortly afterward. This lasted a surprising seven seasons, with the show recently coming to an end. It fittingly paid tribute to Roseanne the character and not Roseanne the person.
Dan Struggles With Losing Roseanne During The Final Season Of The Conners
For The Conner‘s seventh and final season, viewers get a chance to see the effects of Roseanne’s death on Dan Conner, played by John Goodman. During the episode that aired April 16, the Conner family continued their preparations for a lawsuit against the drug manufacturer responsible for making the drugs that led to Roseanne’s accidental opioid overdose.
Jane Lynch plays an attorney named Jean who tries to get Dan to open up emotionally when discussing Roseanne’s death. This is the only way for the deposition to be a success.
“I have been practicing with Dan and I can’t get him to be emotional when he talks about what happened with Roseanne. He just stuffs it down,” Jean tells Jackie in the episode. “I even sent him links from depositions where loved ones really broke down to show him what will move a jury and he never opened them.”
Dan eventually confesses to his daughters, Darlene and Becky, that he was “hiding” from Jean in order to avoid dealing with his emotions. “She keeps pushing me to be more emotional for my deposition. I am just not good at opening up,” Dan tells them. “I drink to get in touch with my emotions, but after five or six beers, I forget what I am supposed to be feeling.” Dan cites his experiences during childhood as the reason for him avoiding his feelings. He then admitted, “It probably won’t hurt me to try something different.” He later shed a tear while having a drink as Jean and Jackie sang the song “Danny Boy.”
Roseanne Barr won an Emmy for her role in the original Roseanne series. The show dominated American households from October 1988 to May 1997. The family’s home in the fictional town of Lanford, Illinois popped up on television screens again two decades later in March 2018. However, just two months later, ABC canceled the series following Roseanne’s racist tweets. ABC’s parent Walt Disney Co. called her comments “abhorrent, repugnant, and inconsistent with our values.”
On October 16, 2018, The Conners premiered on the ABC network. Roseanne’s character was killed off in the first episode. Roseanne herself has made no secret of her dislike of the show. In 2023, she told the Los Angeles Times that she “just can’t bear” to watch The Conners.
2:06
Related
The Conners Season 6 Might Destroy The Only Remaining OG Roseanne Relationship
Laurie Metcalf’s expanding role in The Conners season 6 may threatening this long-standing relationship.
“When they killed my character off, that was a message to me, knowing that I’m mentally ill or have mental health issues, that they did want me to commit suicide,” she said. “They killed my character… And all of that was to say thank you for bringing 28 million viewers, which they never had before and will never see again. Because they can kiss my a**.”
The Conners Paid Tribute To Roseanne Conner In The Final Episode
Given the history of the original Roseanne sitcom, it has surprised many that The Conners has been on the air for seven seasons. This has to do with the success of Roseanne Barr during the original series, which has led to The Conners being possible. Without her presence, many weren’t sure if viewers would still want to keep up with this family.
As it turned out, many people still cared about these characters. Even with knowledge of Roseanne’s tweets and her subsequent comments about the series, some viewers still wondered if she would somehow appear in The Conners finale. It turns out, to nobody’s surprise, she doesn’t.
“I’m sure there were a lot of fans who would like to have seen it,” executive producer Bruce Helford told USA Today. What the episode does do is pay tribute to Roseanne Conner, the character, as the family gathers at her graveside for a farewell. “She’s not there physically,” Bruce said. “But we wanted to honor something that she really gave birth to and cared for. We did right by her memory. The audience certainly loved her and her family.”
2:46
Related
Every Time A Shameless Cast Member Appeared On The Conners
Multiple actors from Shameless have appeared on The Conners alongside Emma Kenney, who stars as Darlene’s daughter.
The rest of the family has carried the weight of the original series on their backs for the past seven seasons. John Goodman has lost an impressive 200 pounds since first appearing on Roseanne. He was supported by Laurie Metcalf, who played Roseanne’s sister Jackie. Sara Gilbert played Darlene and Lecy Goranson played Becky, the now-grown daughters who are also parents themselves.
The Final Episode Leaves Roseanne Barr Out Of A Montage Of Vintage Clips
During Roseanne‘s 1997 finale, the entire series was revealed to be a fictionalized account of Roseanne Conner’s life, with Dan having passed away. This has often been regarded as a loathed outcome by fans of the series. The 2018 revival set out to right those wrongs. “Our whole mission to start this thing was to undo that,” Bruce said.
Following Dan’s deposition in which he shows passionate support for his deceased spouse, the entire family gathers at Roseanne’s grave to open the settlement payment. Unlike the family winning the lottery in the Roseanne finale, this time they get a paltry $700.
“We wanted to stay true to what’s really happening in the legal system,” Bruce said. “It’s about family resilience, and shows that money does not create happiness. That comes from the group.”
Each family member takes their turn in saying farewell to Roseanne. Dan goes last, saying, “Well, Rose, we always said that if the kids were alive at the end of the day, we did our job. I think we did better than that.” Dan also told Roseanne that he is “cool” if she has found love again, “wherever you are.”
At the start of the spin-off, John Goodman told Bruce that he didn’t want Dan to enter a new relationship too soon. In the show’s fourth season, Dan remarried high school classmate Louise Goldufski, played by Katey Sagal. While the couple certainly loved each other and showed great affection, Dan made it clear in his deposition that Roseanne was still “the love of my life.”
“He declares that in front of Louise,” Bruce said. “We hit that in an interesting way.”
It turns out that the $700 is only enough to pay for a pizza party for the entire family. They all gather around the family’s famous couch and afghan. The only ones who have seats are the show’s core characters. Dan, who is sitting in the center, gives the final toast by saying, “No matter how much crap life throws at us, all we got to do is look around. Because if we hang together, nothing can stop us.”
Jackie is the first one to leave, tugging at viewers’ heartstrings with an emotional, “Good night.” Darlene and Becky follow suit, with their exits also feeling more emotional than you would expect from a pizza party. According to Bruce, this was certainly intentional.
“That was ‘goodbye’ forever,” Bruce said. “They wanted to say goodbye to each other. So that’s the actual people saying goodbye, breaking the fourth wall. Once Laurie (Metcalf) said hers at the door, and said it for real, everyone got emotional.”
Dan is the last one who is left, and he ends the episode with one final, “Good night,” as he walks off-screen. The episode ends with a montage of clips from the original Roseanne series. However, Roseanne herself is not present even in these clips. It does, however, show viewers how close this family (and cast) has become in the past four decades.
2:03
Related
The Conners Affirms How Badly Johnny Galecki’s Character Was Treated On Roseanne
In the 2018 reboot of Roseanne, Johnny Galecki’s character David rarely appeared, portraying him as a deadbeat dad
“These actors have been friends for 37 years, playing these characters for 15 of these years,” Bruce said. “Literally, Sara Gilbert and Lecy Goranson grew up on this show. Just seeing the changes in everyone and the passage of time shows how momentous this is. Roseanne was a very big thing in people’s lives. For many people, this is their family.”
The Conners
- Release Date
-
2018 – 2025-00-00
- Network
-
ABC
- Showrunner
-
Bruce Helford
- Directors
-
Fred Savage, Jody Margolin Hahn, Lynda Tarryk, Bob Koherr, Gail Mancuso, Jude Weng, Michael Arden
- Writers
-
Bruce Helford, Bruce Rasmussen, Emily R. Wilson, Mitch Hunter, Amy Fox, Jana Hunter, Erica Montolfo-Bura, Debby Wolfe, Simone Finch
-
-
Laurie Metcalf
Jackie Harris
-
Sara Gilbert
Darlene Conner
-
Alicia Goranson
Becky Conner
