Weeks after it was cancelled, ABC has officially revived Roseanne in the form of a spinoff series, The Conners.
The new iteration of the muti-camera sitcom will follow the Conner family who, in a twist of fate, must face the daily struggles of life in a way they have never before encountered.
The Conners will take over the Tuesday 10PM slot to premiere this fall.
While Roseanne has been resurrected with The Conners, Roseanne Barr remains cancelled, and will have no financial or creative involvement in the series.
Said ABC in a statement:
“The Conners’ stories demonstrate that families can always find common ground through conversation, laughter and love. The spinoff will continue to portray contemporary issues that are as relevant today as they were 30 years ago.
In a joined statement, cast members John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, Sara Gilbert, Lecy Goranson and Michael Fishman, said:
“We have received a tremendous amount of support from fans of our show, and it’s clear that these characters not only have a place in our hearts, but in the hearts and homes of our audience. We all came back last season because we wanted to tell stories about the challenges facing a working-class family today. We are so happy to have the opportunity to return with the cast and crew to continue to share those stories through love and laughter.”
UPDATED with full press announcement:
ABC Picks Up ‘The Conners’ (Working Title) Straight to Series to Premiere This Fall
John Goodman (‘Dan’), Laurie Metcalf (‘Jackie’), Sara Gilbert (‘Darlene’), Lecy Goranson (‘Becky’) and Michael Fishman (‘D.J.’) Are Set to Star as Their Iconic Conner Characters“The Conners” (working title), a spinoff of the groundbreaking family comedy “Roseanne,” has been greenlit to series with an order of 10 episodes for fall 2018. After a sudden turn of events, the Conners are forced to face the daily struggles of life in Lanford in a way they never have before. This iconic family – Dan, Jackie, Darlene, Becky and D.J. – grapples with parenthood, dating, an unexpected pregnancy, financial pressures, aging and in-laws in working-class America. Through it all, the fights, the coupon cutting, the hand-me-downs, the breakdowns – with love, humor and perseverance, the family prevails.
The series, featuring John Goodman (“Dan”), Laurie Metcalf (“Jackie”), Sara Gilbert (“Darlene”), Lecy Goranson (“Becky”) and Michael Fishman (“D.J.”) as their beloved Conner characters, is set to air Tuesdays (8:00-8:30 p.m.).
Additional cast members and a premiere date will be announced later.
Roseanne Barr will have no financial or creative involvement in the new series.
“The Conners’ stories demonstrate that families can always find common ground through conversation, laughter and love. The spinoff will continue to portray contemporary issues that are as relevant today as they were 30 years ago,” ABC shared in a statement.
In support of their new series, cast members John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, Sara Gilbert, Lecy Goranson and Michael Fishman said, in a joint statement:
“We have received a tremendous amount of support from fans of our show, and it’s clear that these characters not only have a place in our hearts, but in the hearts and homes of our audience. We all came back last season because we wanted to tell stories about the challenges facing a working-class family today. We are so happy to have the opportunity to return with the cast and crew to continue to share those stories through love and laughter.”
Tom Werner will executive produce, along with Sara Gilbert, Bruce Helford, Dave Caplan, Bruce Rasmussen and Tony Hernandez. Bruce Helford, Dave Caplan and Bruce Rasmussen are also writers. The series is from Tom Werner and Werner Entertainment.
What you do think? Are you relived Roseanne will be survived by The Conners? Still disappointed about Roseanne‘s demise? Disappointed the show is back in any shape or form?
Looks like they will have to kill off the character in order to make her absence seem logical. While it’s not exactly normal for somebody to die from knee surgery, the last episode of the season did leave them set up perfectly for such an option.
Since Roseanne (the character) was known to be misusing prescription opiates to manage her knee pain, a plausible scenario here would be for her to still have those opiates in her system at the time she went into surgery, but not making her doctors aware of this fact. The interaction of these opiates with the anesthesia caused a drug interaction which resulted in her never regaining consciousness after the surgery. Death would be simpler, but they could also make her a vegetable (ironic, given Barr’s political leanings) which would explain the “medical expenses” alluded to in the press release.
I’d rather they just buried the character and the rest of the cast moved on with what the show was supposed to be about… without the Cheeto propaganda elements of the previous season.
This spinoff will never fly. We already have enough shows about liberals, without Roseanne and her characters conservative views it’s just another snowflake show. Besides Darlene is about an interesting as dirt.
Actually what I loved about the show was the balance of political views. Roseanne’s sister was obviously liberal and they went back and forth with that. It was well done and I will miss it and will not watch the spin off.
As long as the entertainment industry is mostly liberal they will look for excuses to kill conservative TV (i.e. Last Man Standing) so they were just waiting for her to make a mistake and they pounced. Sick of it all.
Sincere apologies have been made. Roseanne and fans of the Hit show have been punished enough. A show with out Roseanne won’t be for me. Ask Valerie Jarret if she has accepted Roseanne’s apology.
When they revived “Roseanne” all of the funniest parts were with Roseanne. So I honestly don’t think Rhe Connors is going to be worth watching. Sorry folks I find her and her character hysterically funny.
Lets be honest! We all knew Rosanne Barr was an outspoken Trump supporting Conservative. ABC knew what they were getting. This is not about racism. This is about Hollywood Liberal run Trump HATERS taking their shot at the current sitting Prsodent and his supporters whom they LOATHE. This is about hatred 100%. I am an outsider from Canada watching a country USA implode because of politics. I wish it were about a righteous cause making the world or the US a better place but it’s not. Its all out war….blue against red. Don’t try to hide behind standing up for whats right. Its just a down and dirty fight between countrymen. Its really getting old though!
FYI Roseanne is a moderate democrat who is a Trump supporter. She was asked on a late night talk show “when did you change from being a democrat?” Her response “I didn’t change you all did”. I am an Independent. That change did happen on both sides. The dems went way far left and the right went way far right.. Myself and a lot of other people are in the middle and don’t know how to fix it because the radicals don’t want to fix it!
What’s next-the 2019 Corvette…sans engine? No thanks, Gilbert has the view to push the liberal agenda not to mention most of the MSM.
I predict the first few episodes may pull some numbers as folks tune in to see how silly Roseanne will be without Roseanne. Then, the number drop off I think. If Roseanne was a “Trump-basher” she could have gotten away with it by a simple apology…you know, like the Libs do when they bash President Trump or his family.
I have removed ABC from my favorite guides. With all the stuff that the liberal agenda have said publicly, they had no right to fire Rosanne. The other cast members should have stood up and fought for Rosanne. Instead they jumped on the bandwagon, I will never watch anything that they are in again. As Rosanne said she didn’t even know that women was black, or she would not have said what she did. Personally I always thought she was Hispanic.
The worst part about Roseanne way back was Roseanne. I did not like her obnoxious character, she couldn’t stop yelling. But I liked all the other characters. I agree with others though I’m not sure the show can make it, but I’m willing to give it a go. I was very hesitant about watching it when Roseanne was going to be in it, so I’m more interested in seeing it now.
I think they should recast Roseanne’s character with Maxine (Mad Max) Waters. Comedy gold.
As much as I love the cast of Roseanne and the characters they portray, the fact is this show was Roseanne’s baby. It was HER show, HER ideas, HER story! While I vehemently disagree with her Twitter comment, I don’t think she deserved to have her show canceled, much less have it revived without her! At most the network should have perhaps imposed a stiff fine upon her and left it at that. No matter how curious I might be about how the story of The Conners will continue without Roseanne, I just can’t bring myself to watch it without its star. This whole thing has left such a bitter taste in my mouth that I can’t even watch the original show anymore. Pity, because I loved it.