Ugh, sometimes TV just really has a way of ruining perfect storylines. Back in the late 1980s, Roseanne premiered on ABC and our new favorite couple, Roseanne and Dan Conner, graced the small screen. On the show, Roseanne (played by Roseanne Barr) and Dan (portrayed by John Goodman) were a happy, working-class couple raising three kids in the Illinois suburbs — but everything changed during Season 9, when we saw Dan cheat on his wife.
In the beginning of the series’ final season — which aired from September 1996 until May 1997 — Dan announces he was going on a trip to California to visit his mother (played by the late Debbie Reynolds). When he returned to Illinois a few episodes later, Roseanne’s sister, Jackie, caught Dan flirting with his mom’s nurse over the phone and his affair with the woman is subsequently revealed. Roseanne then promptly kicked her husband out of the house, a decision which is ultimately devastating.
The next episode — titled “Hit the Road, Jack” — showed Roseanne aimlessly driving around town and indulging in lots of fast food as she tried to figure out why Dan cheated on her. Dan then decided to travel back to California but changed his mind at the last minute and instead settled into a nearby motel. Later, Becky Conner’s boyfriend, Mark Healy, told Roseanne that Dan hadn’t left town and the Conner patriarch desperately wanted to mend his relationship with his wife.
A few more episodes later, Dan and Roseanne finally reconciled in “A Second Chance.” At the end of the season, Roseanne strangely revealed the entire series had been fiction and her husband, Dan, had actually died from a heart attack so the whole heartbreaking cheating storyline didn’t even really happen. Interestingly, the beloved series is now returning for an eight-episode reboot series — and the final show’s changed plot will basically be erased! So while we do know Dan (and actor John) will thankfully be in the revival, we’re honestly not quite sure if the cheating scandal will be referenced again in the upcoming revival. Guess we’ll just have to wait and see!
