TV fans have had lots of questions about ABC’s upcoming Roseanne reboot, with a major one being “Why can’t I watch all of it already?” Other inquiries, naturally, have revolved around the myriad returning cast members bringing the Connor family into 2018. There are two specific O.G. characters who won’t be around, though, as youngest sibling Jerry Connor and Jackie’s son Andy will not be seen when the show returns. Roseanne Barr herself recently gave a pair of brief explanations about Jerry and Andy.
[Jerry is] on a fishing boat in Alaska. . . . We haven’t dealt with Andy, Laurie’s son yet, either, but we had so many stories to tell over the arc of these nine episodes that we were hoping for another season to bring more clarity to those characters.
While the marketing campaign for Roseanne’s return hasn’t quite gone into overdrive, none of the earlier promotional material even hinted at the existence of Jerry and/or Andy, even though we’ll get to meet not only Darlene and David’s two kids, but also D.J.’s daughter. That does seem quite strange, since both Jerry and Andy would be adults and probably wouldn’t just be missing from their family members’ lives like that. But it’s not like either of the boys went through waves of character development during the original run, so we’re not exactly missing out on guaranteed story gold.
Roseanne Barr shared this news with the crowds at the TCA winter press tour (via Popsugar), noting that the bit about Jerry being in Alaska is actually a line from the season premiere, though it was apparently cut from the version that was screened for critics. (Seems like a good way to keep a character hidden.) Within the show’s universe, Jerry would be 22, which makes him the proper age for Alaskan fishing boats, I suppose. And while the limited episode count is mostly to blame for the character’s story getting short-sighted, it’s worth nothing that original Jerry portrayers, twins Cole and Morgan Roberts, haven’t acted since Roseanne, and while it would be easy to hire someone new for the role, perhaps the producers are aiming to keep only the originals around.
On the flip side, Jackie and Fred’s son Andy didn’t even get a throwaway line to explain his whereabouts, despite actually gaining some characteristics by the time Roseanne ended in 1997. Because narrative attention was paid to whether Andy’s clothing was too feminine or not, his absence possibly allowed the writers to port those character traits onto Darlene’s son, whose early descriptions point out that he likes to wear girls’ clothes. (For the record, neither of the twin sets that originally portrayed Andy went on to big acting careers, either.)
But even though Roseanne’s first nine episodes back won’t feature modern-day Jerry or Andy, we will get to revisit with the rest of the Connor clan, along with some members of the extended family. Not to mention some old friends as well. And we’re hoping for more than a few surprises along the way.
Though some of the middle generation will be absent, Roseanne will return to ABC for this highly anticipated revival on Tuesday, March 27, with an hourlong premiere airing at 8:00 p.m. ET. Wondering what other new and returning shows are on the way? Head to our midseason premiere schedule.
