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Television in 2018, with all of its prestige dramas and reboots, is already complicated enough, but leave it to online theorists to make a crazy thing even crazier. This is a little story about how one of Pixar’s most beloved franchises, Toy Story, may actually be a continuation of Roseanne, possibly written by Roseanne Conner during her manic writing stage. Buckle up, everyone.
This theory first appeared on the hub for all internet insanity, Reddit, five years ago by the user bloogun. However, in light of Roseanne‘s recent reboot, it’s worth re-examining now. According to the theory, Jackie’s (Laurie Metcalf) son Andy was the same Andy who would later come to own Woody (Tom Hanks) and Buzz (Tim Allen). Everything that happened in Toy Story may or may not have been written by Roseanne.
The theory isn’t completely crazy. As the finale of Roseanne Season 9 shows, Rosie (Roseanne Barr) has been writing alone in her home for an indeterminate amount of time, the implication being that all of Season 9 was a story she wrote after Dan (John Goodman) died. The Reddit theory broadens this time range, assuming that Roseanne Conner wrote all during Seasons 8 and 9. As the theory goes, Jackie’s relationship with Fred collapses, she realizes she’s a lesbian, and moves with her young son to a new city to restart her life. That’s where Toy Story starts, meaning that this Pixar film is really a story about Jackie’s son figuring out how to make his own male role models while being raised by a single mom.
There are a lot of connections that transform this fan theory from insane to semi-plausible. Joss Whedon was involved in both projects first as a writer for Roseanne and later as the person who largely rewrote Toy Story‘s script. Metcalf voices Andy’s mom, who is never named and who is never seen to have a romantic partner in the franchise’s three films. While Roseanne is set in Illinois, Toy Story is set in Michigan, a roughly six-hour drive away. If Jackie really wanted to leave her old life behind, that would give her enough distance to start over while giving her the option to return to her sister if she wanted to visit. Then there’s the matter of the timelines. Roseanne ended in 1997. Assuming that the last two seasons were a product of Roseanne Conner’s imagination, that would mean she started seriously writing and excluding herself from the world in 1995 — the year Toy Story was released.
Of course there are some loose ends the theory can’t quite address. We know that Andy’s last name is Davis, not Conner, which is a fairly large plot hole. Andy and his mom also live in a surprisingly nice home compared to the Conner household. And then there’s the matter of author ownership. Does this theory imply that Toy Story was written by Roseanne in one of her stories, or that it actually happened in the “real” world? On one hand, that’s giving Roseanne the author a lot of credit; on the other having talking toys in Roseanne‘s universe is even crazier. Regardless, this is a fun fan theory to think about. Remember it next time you’re sobbing over Toy Story 3.
