The Conners far exceeded anyone’s expectations — including my own. Having risen from the ashes of the Roseanne revival in 2018, this quasi-spinoff went on to run an astounding seven seasons, falling just two seasons shy of matching its predecessor’s original nine-season run. But along the way, the powers that be began to play fast and loose with continuity. Rather than embrace the franchise’s rich history, they often wrote around it (or worse, forgot about it entirely).
Right off the bat, the revival disavowed canon and resurrected Dan Conner. Quite frankly, it was the only way forward. But then they began to rewrite the legacy as they saw fit, suggesting not only that Season 9 was a lie, but that any late-in-run development they had no desire to see through was a figment of Roseanne Conner’s imagination — a part of her unsold manuscript collecting dust in Dan’s garage.
First, they did away with all of Jackie’s character development and reimagined Laurie Metcalf’s alter-ego as a spinster. Her ex-husband Fred? Didn’t exist! And Andy? Well, if Fred didn’t exist, neither did their son! Occasionally, Metcalf found ways to make it work — her comedic and dramatic prowess was on full display in the Season 2 classic “Slappy Holidays,” and any scene opposite Estelle Parsons (aka Bev) was pure gold — but more often than not, one of our greatest living actors was left twisting in the wind.
Now, just imagine for a second if Andy had existed and was estranged from Jackie. Not only would their eventual reunion have afforded Metcalf a strong showcase, but it would have offered audiences an explanation for why Jackie grew increasingly isolated in her older age, and why it took her so long to feel like she was deserving of love. What if that had been a part of her journey in the lead-up to meeting (and marrying) Neville?
Eventually, Dan and Roseanne’s fourth child, Jerry, was also scrubbed from the record books. At first, he was holed up on some fishing boat in Alaska. Three years later? Poof! Gone! Had he never been mentioned, I doubt I would have cared. The revival had a hard enough time figuring out what to do with their other son, DJ, before they ultimately let Michael Fishman go. After the revival planted the seeds for DJ and his father to go into business together repairing motorcycles — a storyline that would’ve harkened back to Dan’s days owning and operating a bike shop — the first season of The Conners hammered home that Darlene and Becky’s younger brother was in therapy, still battling demons from his time in the Army. But just like his wife and daughter, those ideas evaporated into thin air.
In truth, though, I’m more disappointed with how they handled the absence of David. There was a way for Johnny Galecki to remain off screen and not make Darlene’s ex-husband a deadbeat dad — a development that never quite meshed with the version of David we knew and loved from the original run of Roseanne. All it would have taken was the occasional line of dialogue to indicate that David, who still lived in Lanford, took an active role in Mark and Harris’ lives; the kids were old enough where it would have been believable if he and Darlene were never in the same room together once their divorce was finalized in Season 2.
Despite my qualms, I did, in fact, enjoy a lot of what The Conners accomplished. The writers delivered a masterclass in how to handle the unforeseen death of a central character, then did a superb job navigating not only Dan’s heartbreak, but his conflicted feelings about moving on with Louise. They couldn’t have found a better on-screen partner for John Goodman than Katey Sagal, though the award for best replacement spouse — and the very best revival addition — goes to Jay R. Ferguson’s Ben Olinsky. As a longtime Darlene and David ‘shipper, I never expected to like Darlene with Ben as much as I have, but Ferguson immediately felt like he belonged, and played well off of just about everyone.
Last but not least, I’d be remiss if I didn’t applaud Becky’s arc. The character lost her way in the later seasons of Roseanne; for whatever reason, they just never wrote as well for Sarah Chalke as they did for Lecy Goranson. Thankfully, Goranson stayed put after she returned for the revival, and we got to watch Becky confront her vices, become a mom and finish grad school. As the producers put it, Becky became the person she was meant to be all along. The fact that she found a sweet, sensitive boyfriend in Tyler was an added bonus.
All told, I’m glad we got another seven years with the Conner clan… even if I would have handled a few things differently. But now I want to hear from all of you who also saw this sitcom through to the end: What did you like (and dislike) about the combined run of Roseanne Season 10 and The Conners? Did the revival ultimately make up for the poorly received final season of the original show? Drop your thoughts in a comment below.
