John Goodman Reveals Roseanne Will Be Dead on ‘The Conners’

Ever since it was announced that Roseanne would continue on without Roseanne Barr in the form of a spinoff called The Conners, people have been speculating as to how the show would write out its lead character. Now, thanks to an interview with John Goodman published in The Sunday Times, we know that Roseanne Conner… will be dead.

When asked how his character Dan Conner will be different when the spinoff kicks off in October, Goodman said he wasn’t sure but he had a hunch. “It’s an unknown,” said Goodman. “I guess he’ll be mopey and sad because his wife’s dead.”

This of course answers the question everyone had on their mind the moment The Conners was given the go-ahead back in June. ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey even avoided answering the question, opting instead to talk about how the new show will focus on “Dan dealing with what he’s dealing with, Darlene dealing with what she’s dealing with. All those issues that were set up so well in the first nine episodes will continue.”

The first nine episodes she’s referring to are the most recent revival season of Roseanne, which aired in early 2018 to blockbuster ratings even after the spectator interest in the show waned. The second season of the Roseanne revival was set to be the center of ABC’s fall comedy lineup, no surprise considering just how well it fared in the ratings. Then star Roseanne Barr tweeted racist conspiracy theories on the day that the writing staff went to work, prompting ABC to swiftly cancel the show.

That initial cancelation was hard on Goodman. “I was broken-hearted, but I thought, ‘OK, it’s just show business, I’m going to let it go,'”said Goodman. “But I went through a period, about a month, where I was very depressed. I’m a depressive anyway, so any excuse that I can get to lower myself, I will. But that had a great deal to do with it, more than I wanted to admit.” Goodman has also maintained that Barr, his co-star of almost 30 years, “is not a racist.”

The show was then resurrected as The Conners, with the writing staff and the rest of the cast put back to work while Barr cut all financial ties to the spinoff. Now we know that not only will Barr be out of the picture behind-the-scenes, the show itself won’t leave any wiggle room for an eventual cameo either. Killing off titular characters isn’t new to the world of sitcoms, as those familiar with the story of Valerie Harper and Valerie/The Hogan Family will recall.

The Conners will premiere on ABC on Tuesday, October 16.

(via IndieWire)

Where to stream Roseanne