During a visit to Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Roseanne Barr and John Goodman revealed the original Roseanne couch is locked away
Roseanne may be returning to ABC in a highly-anticipated revival, but the iconic brown plaid couch and its colorful knit blanket the Connor family had in their living room won’t be the same one they sat on throughout their original nine-season run.
During a visit to Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Thursday, stars Roseanne Barr and John Goodman revealed the original Roseanne couch is locked away in the Smithsonian Institute.
“This is a replica, this ain’t the real one,” Barr, 65, said.
Turns out, the Smithsonian would have given Barr and company back the show’s original couch, for a price far beyond ABC’s budget.
“The Smithsonian Institute has the real one and they wanted too much scratch for it,” Goodman, 65, said, suggesting a surprised Kimmel talk to ABC parent company’s Walt Disney Company president Bob Iger about it. “Talking to Mr. Iger.”
Perhaps that’s a good thing. “It smells just like butt,” Barr joked.
The couch won’t be the only thing familiar about Roseanne when it returns.
Original stars Sarah Gilbert, Laurie Metcaf, Michael Fishman, Sarah Chalke and Alicia Goranson will all be reprising their roles — though the Conner family will be expanded (yup, Roseanne’s got grandkids!).
One other big surprise? Roseanne’s a Trump supporter.
“My show has always been, I have always attempted to portray a realistic portrait of the American people and of working class, you know, working class people. And, in fact, it was working class people who elected Trump,” Barr explained at the Television Critics Association Winter Press Tour in January. “So I felt that, yeah, that was very real, and something that needed to be discussed. And especially about polarization in the family, and people actually hating other people for the way they voted, which I feel is not American.”
The actress added, “I noticed in the Roseanne shows I’ve always tried to have it be a true reflection of the society we live in. So I feel like half the people voted for Trump, and half didn’t, so it’s just realistic.”
Metcalf, who is returning to her role as Jackie Harris, gushed about the revival earlier this year — telling PEOPLE that she was eager to “jump back into that world again.”
“We were a family for nine seasons and I had a feeling that as soon as we stepped back onto the stage again it would just reappear and it did,” she said. “I knew that the fans would be really curious to see this family that they knew and see what they’re up to again. Why not revisit these people who were so funny and close and had such a crazy dynamic between them?”
ABC is planning a special hour-long premiere for Roseanne at 8 p.m. ET on March 27. The sitcom will settle into its regular time slot of 8 p.m. ET on April 3.
