Following the eventful wedding of Dan and Louise Conner, Dan’s former wife, Roseanne, will still be referenced in The Conners. Played by Roseanne Barr, Roseanne Conner was the former matriarch of the Conner household, until the character’s death by accidental opioid overdose. Barr was written out of the show after making racist remarks on social media, which resulted in the revival of her original series, Roseanne, being cancelled.
Roseanne ran for nine seasons from 1988 to 1997 on ABC. During its run, the show received generally positive reviews and even managed to reach the number one spot in the Nielsen ratings from 1989 to 1990. In 2002, TV Guide ranked the series as number 35 on their list of the 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time. Barr’s original show was a massive success, which spurred ABC to revive the series in 2017. The revival, which served as the show’s tenth season, was short lived, lasting only nine episodes. However, it managed to rake in over 27 million total viewers during its premiere. An eleventh season was subsequently cancelled after Barr’s racist comments. So, the network re-tooled the series into The Conners, which included most of Roseanne’s original cast, excluding Barr. The Conners season 4 premiered in September, and its latest episode saw Dan remarry another woman, Louise.
During an interview with TV Line, The Conners executive producers, Bruce Helford and Dave Caplan, discussed their intentions of the series still referencing Dan’s former wife, Roseanne, after the marriage. Caplan, in particular, explains that the spin-off series has never “shied away from discussing Roseanne Conner’s impact on the family.” Helford also explains that “there are things that come up,” in reference to mentioning Roseanne, as Louise moves into the Conner household. View Caplan and Helford’s full quote below:
CAPLAN | That was a big topic of discussion in the writers’ room, about how much to have that discussion [in these early Season 4 episodes]. We took such care during the whole first season, after the character wasn’t in the show anymore, and we’ve never shied away from discussing Roseanne Conner’s impact on the family. Dan had such a difficult time dealing with her death and moving on, and we felt like we were very thorough there, and very respectful of both the Roseanne character and of Dan’s feelings.
And by the way, we’re not done discussing that. There are things that come up as Louise moves into the house, as it is appropriate and as it feels real.
The Conners sitting around the living room.
From the very beginning of The Conners, Roseanne’s sudden death (off-screen) left a lasting effect on the entire household. The show’s debut episode saw the surviving family members dealing with the grief of her death. Although the spin-off utilized humor to get past the dark times, it also featured genuine moments of drama, particularly when Dan confronts the woman who provided Roseanne with the pills that ultimately killed her. While The Conners has not shied away from referencing Roseanne (as Caplan said above), her presence was noticeably absent from Dan and Louise’s wedding in episode 4. Though the wedding was interrupted by a tornado, not one character mentioned Roseanne’s name.
While the show’s executive producers say that Roseanne will still come up in the spin-off series moving forward, with her noticeable absent in the wedding scene of The Conners episode 4, it will be interesting to see how much the show actually mentions her in future episodes. It seems that after carefully moving the story past Roseanne’s death, The Conners may be ready to move out of Barr’s shadow. Although, fans of the original show can rest assured knowing the spin-off will still bring up the former matriarch from time to time.
