‘The Conners’ Star Praises Final Season’s ‘Tasteful’ Tribute to Roseanne: Here’s How the Show Handles Her Legacy

The death of Roseanne (Roseanne Barr) was the catalyst that launched The Conners, the spinoff of Roseanne that followed the surviving family members. With Season 7 concluding the series, Roseanne’s death is revisited, but the references to the character are done in a “tasteful” way according to franchise star Lecy Goranson.

In the original Roseanne, Goranson shared the role of Becky Conner with Sarah Chalke. For The Conners, Goranson reprised the role, and she’s still enjoying it so much, she wants her own spinoff. In a new interview with Us Weekly to discuss the end of The Conners, Goranson addressed how references to Roseanne are handled in the final season. As fans saw, that began with the Season 7 premiere introducing a storyline with the Conner family considering a lawsuit against Big Pharma for Roseanne’s death.

As Goranson said, “It’s a really interesting thing. [The idea of] when to bring her up, how it has been through the series is when it seems right. There’s touches of it without really landing on it and making it super heavy.”

“I think the way that Roseanne passed away on the show — and the fact that that was something that there’s a lot of in this country — that people say, ‘Hey, wait a second, it’s too easy for people to find these opioids and to get hooked on it.’ What’s important in our country is that the people have a voice,” Goranson continued. “We know that a lot of these companies knew that these drugs caused addiction. They knew, and Becky is all on top of this as an addict and now that she’s in school for addiction counseling.”

She added, “There’s something really dark about these companies making these drugs readily available to people who then get hooked on them and it becomes sometimes fatal. I think our show has always done [a good job] bringing up a difficult subject in a pedestrian way. That’s really powerful.”

Roseanne Was Killed Off After Roseanne Barr’s Controversy

The original series aired from 1988 to 1997. It was brought back for a revival in 2018, and despite its success, it was over just as quickly as it began due to Roseanne Barr’s social media controversy. The Roseanne revival was canceled and it was announced soon after that Barr’s character was getting killed off so the rest of the cast could launch The Conners. Barr’s exit was given a certain degree of criticism as well, though The Conners would find success of its own without her.

“If it felt like this is a Hollywood thing to bring all the guest stars back, that’s exciting for the audience. But it’s not really true to the world of the show,” Goranson also said. “We’ve had people have feelings about the show since Roseanne left. But with what we have, it’s been really, really tasteful and well done, so I’m proud of it.”