The Conners: Speculation and Spoilers

[peacheslatour]

40 minutes ago, jsbt said:

It's already being negotiated for a renewal.

Yay! I hope the writing gets better.

Edited January 9, 2019 by peacheslatour

[Bastet]

The season finale synopsis:

Quote

As Darlene grapples with a life-changing offer from Ben, an unexpected conversation with David turns her world even more upside down. Relationship problems lead Jackie to the bottom of the bottle at the last place she remembers being truly happy. Becky’s hopes of a happily ever after with Emilio are jeopardized when Dan delivers alarming news.

None of that sounds good (to put it mildly), but a lot of episodes have come out a lot better than they sounded on paper.  But looking at the pictures doesn't exactly inspire confidence.  I hope the return of Matthew Broderick is some totally unnecessary second "hit the road" from Jackie, yet there's a still of them kissing.  Come on.  And the Becky and Emilio crap?  Since when does she want a happily ever after with him?

I don't use a smart phone, so I'm not sure, but it looks to me like when she's holding hers up to show everyone bad news, it's just the main menu screen, not a text or anything.  So I can't tell from that what has her upset.  It would be pretty cruel to kill another one off; maybe they're going the Murphy Brown route and showing the effect of deportation.

[BeachDays]

Ah David is back!!   Let’s see if my (and I know I’m not the only one) theory that he and Darlene will get back together will come true.  

Regarding Becky, it looks like it’s the main menu screen to me too lol.   Also I’m wondering if the tears scene is before or after the scene in the snow.   

[Mr. Sparkle]

Are there really only two episodes left this season?? 

[BeachDays]

11 minutes ago, Superclam said:

Are there really only two episodes left this season?? 

 

Yup, 11 episodes total-  I need more!  

[BeachDays]

Here are the stills from the next episode.  Emilio is there too so we will have 2 episodes with him.  And Blue!  

 

https://www.disneyabcpress.com/abc/shows/the-conners/episodes/dont-shoot-the-piano-teacher/

[hnygrl]

The screen was the speaker phone. She was (by the look on her face) getting some really bad news.

My guess would be she's not pregnant anymore...

[bunnyblue]

Ah man, judging by her distress Becky is definitely getting bad news. Would they be so cruel as to kill off Emilio just as it looks like they are forming a relationship? It's either that or he's been deported. I don't think she'd get the news that she's miscarried via text. Poor Becky and Emilio. 

[BeachDays]

I’m thinking more deportation or something versus somebody dying-  but of course I don’t know.  

[WendyCR72]

Apparently, Becky is still pregnant:

[BeachDays]

Seems early for a baby shower 🤔.  There is probably a reason though.  

[WendyCR72]

22 hours ago, BeachDays said:

Seems early for a baby shower 🤔.  There is probably a reason though.  

Maybe a time jump?

[Pallas]

On 1/13/2019 at 2:37 AM, BeachDays said:

Seems early for a baby shower 🤔.  There is probably a reason though.  

So that Emilio can participate? Or the viewers, before the series concludes its run or its season?

11 hours ago, WendyCR72 said:

Maybe a time jump?

For a birth in the last episode, juxtaposed with the death announced in the first? 

[BeachDays]

https://m.eonline.com/news/1005908/the-conners-finale-promo-promises-a-big-return

 

omg omg omg!!!! The Lunch Box!!!! And a holy crap I know who Darlene is yelling at and I’m squealing lol 

[Bastet]

4 hours ago, BeachDays said:

And a holy crap I know who Darlene is yelling at and I’m squealing lol 

Ugh; I guess that means it's David.

I wonder what The Lunch Box is called now (they could have sold the name, along with the equipment, to the new owners, but it's funnier if it's a new name and something they hate).  It's funny that they'd go there now -- Roseanne probably forbade anyone to set foot in there, so it's only now that they can.

Edited January 17, 2019 by Bastet

[BeachDays]

8 minutes ago, Bastet said:

Ugh; I guess that means it's David.

I wonder what The Lunch Box is called now (they could have sold the name, along with the equipment, to the new owners, but it's funnier if it's a new name and something they hate).  It's funny that they'd go there now -- Roseanne probably forbade anyone to set foot in there, so it's only know that they can.

 

 

It seriously made me flip out when I saw it.  Was NOT expecting to see the Lunch Box (or whatever it’s called) again.  I’m almost more excited about that than I am about David.  Ok no I’m still most excited about David, but still lol

[jsbt]

So much for the "they erased the Lunch Box" claims.

[Steff]

3 hours ago, BeachDays said:

https://m.eonline.com/news/1005908/the-conners-finale-promo-promises-a-big-return

 

omg omg omg!!!! The Lunch Box!!!! And a holy crap I know who Darlene is yelling at and I’m squealing lol 

ok, well now you have to tell me. 

[BeachDays]

33 minutes ago, Steff said:

ok, well now you have to tell me. 

Haha ok well I don’t actually *know*-  but my guess is it’s David. 

[tessaray]

5 hours ago, BeachDays said:

https://m.eonline.com/news/1005908/the-conners-finale-promo-promises-a-big-return

 

omg omg omg!!!! The Lunch Box!!!! And a holy crap I know who Darlene is yelling at and I’m squealing lol 

So for those looking for clues, a "season finale event" doesn't exactly sound like ABC slinking away from the show and cutting their losses.  (Just saying...) 

[llewis823]

15 hours ago, BeachDays said:

It seriously made me flip out when I saw it.  Was NOT expecting to see the Lunch Box (or whatever it’s called) again.  I’m almost more excited about that than I am about David.  Ok no I’m still most excited about David, but still lol

Do you think that maybe they sold the Lunch Box to Leon? And that way he could make a cameo appearance? Because we know he probably doesn't have time for a full time part on The Connors because of his new show The Cool Kids. I'd LOVE to see Leon again! I hope they didn't sell it to Nancy.

[blondiec0332]

58 minutes ago, llewis823 said:

Do you think that maybe they sold the Lunch Box to Leon? And that way he could make a cameo appearance? Because we know he probably doesn't have time for a full time part on The Connors because of his new show The Cool Kids. I'd LOVE to see Leon again! I hope they didn't sell it to Nancy.

 

Spoiler

According to the latest issue of TV Guide it is now a Chinese restaurant.

[Bastet]

The whole thread is spoiler-tagged, so there's no need for tags in individual posts.

I'm looking forward to the snark about the new restaurant - maybe some reference to how many restaurants have opened and closed in that space since whenever The Lunch Box went out of business, especially if some old fixtures are still around.  Funny, but also realistic, since the overwhelming majority of independent restaurants don't last long term.

I doubt Leon is running a Chinese restaurant, but I suppose he could be an absentee owner.  I don't know that it would be financially feasible for him, but I'd go with it if it meant we got a one-time appearance of the character; I hope if the show goes on, they'll work him in somehow.  Since we don't know who did and did not attend Roseanne's funeral, they could run into him somewhere and he could have a wickedly funny line about why he didn't come - or a wickedly funny line about some tacky aspect of the funeral.  Leon and Roseanne playing off each other was the greatest part of the character, but he was quite amusing with other people, too, so I'd like to see him again.

[tribeca]

So Becky gets a boyfriend who is either going to die or be deported and Darlene gets two guys fighting over her?

[BeachDays]

26 minutes ago, tribeca said:

So Becky gets a boyfriend who is either going to die or be deported and Darlene gets two guys fighting over her?

 

I don’t think Emilio is going to die.  Deported, possibly.   

[BeachDays]

For those who want bigger spoilers:

 

https://madison.com/entertainment/television/go-behind-the-scenes-of-the-conners-season-finale-with/article_8d786dc8-abde-555f-95a6-b795b45875b7.html

 

And a slightly less spoiler-filled, but also kinda spoiler-y, nice interview with Sara:

 

https://parade.com/734401/debrawallace/sara-gilbert-takes-us-behind-the-scenes-of-the-bittersweet-season-finale-of-the-conners/

[Bastet]

I'm going to come unglued if no one has an um, why would you move you and your kids in with some guy you've barely been dating? style reaction to Darlene's news.  While I think Becky's pregnancy is a bummer, I had no trouble imagining that only Dan and Darlene would express any concern/doubt, that overall her news would be met with happiness.  But everyone thinking this stupid moving in together idea is hunky dory would not ring true to me, so I'm curious to see how that's handled.  Fundamentally, I just hope Darlene decides not to because of her, not because of David.

And it's a good point about the effect Roseanne not being here has on Jackie continuing to date the moocher.  Roseanne would have seen and heard more about the relationship than the other characters are, and she'd have told Jackie she's falling back into old patterns and deserves better.  It sounds like we'll get another great scene between Jackie and Darlene out of this.

Edited January 22, 2019 by Bastet

[BeachDays]

I know whatever happens it’s going to feel super rushed.   That’s a LOT of plot to cover!  

Regarding Darlene, I always got a sense that her entire dating situation this season have all been reactions to David, from dating someone similar, to dating someone opposite, to considering moving in once she knows Blue wants to start a family with him.  I don’t know if I was supposed to get that impression but here we are.  I will be reading the comments tomorrow even though I won’t be able to watch the ep until Wed bc I can’t wait lol.   I hope someone tells her she shouldn’t rush in too-  I’m curious what the kids themselves will say.   I can’t imagine they would feel comfortable with it.  

[BeachDays]

Another great interview with Sara, she addresses the finale and possible season 2 plot points

 

https://tvline.com/2019/01/22/the-conners-finale-recap-season-1-episode-11/

[Cupcake04]

https://tvline.com/2019/01/23/the-conners-ratings-season-1-finale-renewed-or-cancelled/

Season 2 looking good.  This is ABCs #2 show behind only Greys.  

[tessaray]

6 hours ago, Cupcake04 said:

https://tvline.com/2019/01/23/the-conners-ratings-season-1-finale-renewed-or-cancelled/

Season 2 looking good.  This is ABCs #2 show behind only Greys.  

It could be a while before we hear anything official but it sure looks good. 

Usually I try to avoid reading the comments for articles like the one above but it was nice to see the praise for Lecy there.   

[Lili]

I remember a lot of people talking about boycotting the show. They must have been in the vocal minority, with how well it's done so far.

Which reminds me, I wonder if Roseanne Barr watched any episodes of the Connors. It must be weird. Just imagine watching what used to be your show (since The Connors is more or less Roseanne without Roseanne), only to not see yourself there.

[blondiec0332]

9 hours ago, Lili said:

I remember a lot of people talking about boycotting the show. They must have been in the vocal minority, with how well it's done so far.

Which reminds me, I wonder if Roseanne Barr watched any episodes of the Connors. It must be weird. Just imagine watching what used to be your show (since The Connors is more or less Roseanne without Roseanne), only to not see yourself there.

A lot of people including myself boycotted the revival of Roseanne because of Roseanne Barr.  Once she was gone those viewers including me tuned into the Conners.

[CherryAmes]

On 2/1/2019 at 5:45 AM, blondiec0332 said:

A lot of people including myself boycotted the revival of Roseanne because of Roseanne Barr.  Once she was gone those viewers including me tuned into the Conners.

Yep.  This is me and it's also most of my family and a few friends too.  We're Canadian so I guess we're not included in the ratings but I suspect we're representative of at least some segment of The Conners viewers that as far as I've noticed hasn't really gotten any media attention.  

[blondiec0332]

53 minutes ago, CherryAmes said:

Yep.  This is me and it's also most of my family and a few friends too.  We're Canadian so I guess we're not included in the ratings but I suspect we're representative of at least some segment of The Conners viewers that as far as I've noticed hasn't really gotten any media attention.  

That is what really bothered me about all the media coverage when it was transitioning from Roseanne to the Conners.  It's all about how many viewers are they going to lose.  I never once saw a story about how many viewers they were going to gain. Roseanne was a polarizing figure and IMO the show is much better without her. Is it as good as the early seasons of the original?  No.  But it is miles better than the later seasons.

[jumper sage]

On 1/9/2019 at 2:41 PM, BeachDays said:

Ah David is back!!   Let’s see if my (and I know I’m not the only one) theory that he and Darlene will get back together will come true.  

This is my take on David being back.  TBBT is at the end of it's run and the actor is looking for his next job.

[peacheslatour]

Interesting, if true:

It appears Peg Bundy’s going to make another run at Dan Conner.

TVLine has learned exclusively that The Conners is courting Katey Sagal to return for a significant Season 2 stint. The Married With Children vet would reprise her Season 1 guest-star role of Louise, a former high school friend of Dan and Roseanne’s who left Lanford to pursue a career in music. Now back in town and tending bar at Casa Bonita, Louise made a play for Dan in last season’s 8th episode, but the grieving widow (gently, respectfully) rebuffed her advances.

From TVLine.com.

[bobalina]

31 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

Interesting, if true:

It appears Peg Bundy’s going to make another run at Dan Conner.

TVLine has learned exclusively that The Conners is courting Katey Sagal to return for a significant Season 2 stint. The Married With Children vet would reprise her Season 1 guest-star role of Louise, a former high school friend of Dan and Roseanne’s who left Lanford to pursue a career in music. Now back in town and tending bar at Casa Bonita, Louise made a play for Dan in last season’s 8th episode, but the grieving widow (gently, respectfully) rebuffed her advances.

From TVLine.com.

This could be a really good way to have John Goodman out of some episodes. Dan wanted to be a musician and this could be a second chance for him.

[theredhead77]

19 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

Interesting, if true:

It appears Peg Bundy’s going to make another run at Dan Conner.

TVLine has learned exclusively that The Conners is courting Katey Sagal to return for a significant Season 2 stint. The Married With Children vet would reprise her Season 1 guest-star role of Louise, a former high school friend of Dan and Roseanne’s who left Lanford to pursue a career in music. Now back in town and tending bar at Casa Bonita, Louise made a play for Dan in last season’s 8th episode, but the grieving widow (gently, respectfully) rebuffed her advances.

From TVLine.com.

Oh, I love her! I hope she and Dan become platonic friends without her pining for him.

[Bastet]

2 hours ago, theredhead77 said:

Oh, I love her! I hope she and Dan become platonic friends without her pining for him.

She handled him turning her down just as well as he handled saying thanks but no thanks, so there's definite potential for them to develop a friendship that then may (or may not) organically develop into romantic companionship, rather than it being a dynamic where she's constantly hoping that will happen. 

Everything was so damned rushed the first season, with them not knowing if there would be future episodes, so hopefully they'll settle down and let storylines - including whatever they have planned for Louise and Dan - breathe this time around.  Because my oh, it's just so nice seeing these characters again mellow is only going to temper my ugh, these stories frustration for so long.

Speaking of which -- It's not too long now until this will be back, so I better start gearing myself up for the inevitable David/Darlene reunion saga.

[theredhead77]

13 minutes ago, Bastet said:

She handled him turning her down just as well as he handled saying thanks but no thanks, so there's definite potential for them to develop a friendship that then may (or may not) organically develop into romantic companionship, rather than it being a dynamic where she's constantly hoping that will happen. 

They handled the situation like the late 50s or early 60 y/os they are (or are supposed to be).

If they want to go down the slow burn road I'm all about it but I really don't want to see a WTWT or one person pining after the other imbalanced friendship on this show. It's never been a long-term thing on the show and I don't want it to become one now.

Let's show adulty adults acting like adults.

[BeachDays]

Just got back from the season 2 episode 2 taping-  so good!!  I’m so excited for this season!! 

[Annber03]

That's so cool, @BeachDays! I'm glad you had a great time :). I imagine you can't divulge anything about the specific episode in question, of course, so I won't ask about that, but if you've got any cool stories just from the general taping experience itself you'd like to share, feel free!

[BeachDays]

7 hours ago, Annber03 said:

That's so cool, @BeachDays! I'm glad you had a great time :). I imagine you can't divulge anything about the specific episode in question, of course, so I won't ask about that, but if you've got any cool stories just from the general taping experience itself you'd like to share, feel free!

They didnt make us sign anything so I can share if you guys want but totally up to you.   General info-  just like last years taping they filmed SO MUCH.  I’m going to be kinda sad seeing how cut down the actual ep will be. But the episode itself was very funny and snappy and has heart.   There was a thread that was messaged last season that seems like it will be addressed this season, and also something happened that happened on the original show that wasn’t clearly addressed but possibly addressed in the season opener?  Vague I know but I don’t want to intentionally spoil anything!  

The cast is on fire.   I was overwhelmed by how good they are.   Everyone knows their characters so well.   And the crew was amazing too.  In this particular ep they filmed a very long scene that goes from living room to porch to living room and finally to kitchen.  I was just impressed all around.   I think the director was Gail Mancuso, who knew exactly what she wanted.   The ep I saw filmed last year was directed by Kimberley McCullough and she did a great job but it was more of a “let’s try this... ok try it this way”, and this was more boom boom boom.  They did alter a few things but I feel like most of it was already sorted from rehearsal.   Also I felt like Sara Gilbert had a lot of pressure on her (possibly self imposed) to make sure last years episode was good (as producer it makes sense), but here she was able to just act.   Speaking of Sara, we kept seeing her walking and running around the lot and the studio before taping-  no wonder she is so fit!  And at the end we saw Michael Fishman giving handshakes as people were leaving which I had heard about but didn’t see last year.  Someone was talking to him so I ducked out without a handshake but that’s so nice of him.  The cast gets along so well, you can see how much they all truly care for each other.   So many hugs and laughter on set.  I guess I feel like a weight has been lifted between last year and this year.  

[Bastet]

2 hours ago, BeachDays said:

Vague I know but I don’t want to intentionally spoil anything!  

It's the spoiler thread.  Please share.

[peacheslatour]

2 hours ago, Bastet said:

It's the spoiler thread.  Please share.

I second this!

[SoMuchTV]

4 hours ago, Bastet said:

It's the spoiler thread.  Please share.

Yeah, but it is a Speculation and spoilers thread, so would it be appropriate to spoiler-tag it?  Or should the threads be split out?  Or should we just not read, if we don't want spoilers, even if we want to see the speculation?

[Bastet]

5 minutes ago, SoMuchTV said:

Yeah, but it is a Speculation and spoilers thread, so would it be appropriate to spoiler-tag it?  Or should the threads be split out?  Or should we just not read, if we don't want spoilers, even if we want to see the speculation?

The thread itself is spoiler tagged, which means no tags in the posts within it -- here be spoilers, so enter at your own risk.

If you want another thread for non-spoiler speculation only, I guess you can just create one, and then the mods will remove it if they don't think there should be two, but it's probably better to PM a mod and ask first.

[SoMuchTV]

11 minutes ago, Bastet said:

The thread itself is spoiler tagged, which means no tags in the posts within it -- here be spoilers, so enter at your own risk.

If you want another thread for non-spoiler speculation only, I guess you can just create one, and then the mods will remove it if they don't think there should be two, but it's probably better to PM a mod and ask first.

Fair enough; I'll just avoid it, or read at my own risk.   Unless anyone else is interested enough to start a new spoiler-free speculation thread.

I'm interested in hearing about non-spoiler episode-taping info, but not a big deal

[BeachDays]

6 hours ago, Bastet said:

It's the spoiler thread.  Please share.

Ok-  please skip this post if you don’t want spoilers.   

By the second episode, Becky has had the baby.   It’s a girl and she is a preemie.   I’m assuming it’s addressed that Harris was a preemie in the first episode?  Unless that was re-written.  It’s not addressed at all here.   Also the warm-up guy said the baby is named “Bev Rose”.  The entire audience “awwwww”d at that.  I’m not sure if it’s Beverly Rose or literally just Bev Rose.  We hear DJ calling the baby “Bev” at the start of the ep.  Becky is having a terrible time-  she feels like an awful mother, she isn’t sleeping, she can’t pump any breastmilk (until she does, then promptly spills it)-  Lecy does an EXCELLENT job in this ep.   I was in tears.  I also don’t know if Bev (older Bev) is still around or not.   Dan does some great parenting with her.  John Goodman is a legend.  

Mark has had his first kiss with a classmate.  They get in trouble for pda and have a meeting with the principal (who is played by the same actress who played Mark’s teacher last year).  The other boy’s grandma is basically a homophobic bully and her grandson denies everything.  Mark is very hurt and in another emotional scene we see him taking his nail polish off and wishing he wasn’t gay.  Darlene and David do some great parenting with him (lots of great parenting in this ep!)

Which brings me to the love triangle-  yup it’s there, we all predicted it.  So I’m a bit confused bc the warm up guy said that Johnny wasn’t at last weeks taping, but I’m guessing he had filmed some scenes beforehand that they had shown to the audience, otherwise this would have come out of nowhere.   At any rate I almost pulled my sisters arm off when I saw Johnny put an altoid in his mouth bc it’s obvious why he would do that haha.  Apparently he had Darlene have been sneaking around and sleeping together, and only Jackie knows about it.  Ben doesn’t know Darlene is also with a David and David doesn’t know that she is also still with Ben, and everyone else still thinks she is just with Ben.  Ben notices her being really anxious and recommends she gets therapy.  Jackie advises her to just pick Ben, but Darlene is torn.

Since things seem to be going so well from David’s POV (getting along, great sex, great co-parenting), he wants to tell everyone that he and Darlene are back together.  In order to prevent him from doing this, she pulls out the first thing that comes to her head, which is what Ben told her (and this is the thread that got pulled from last season bc Blue mentions it too)-  she tells him first he needs therapy.   He agrees but says she needs to go too.  And Jackie is like what is wrong with you, the therapist is going to be able to tell you are seeing 2 guys, Darlene is like #crap.  Lol   

So my guess is we will definitely have a therapy ep or two in the near future.   Which is actually good bc if they are going to make it work, they need therapy.  I’m still leaning towards David and Darlene ending up together in the end, but you know they will take their sweet time in getting there.  

And Jackie?  Was SO FUNNY this entire episode.   As usual.   Laurie Metcalf is so freakin fantastic.  At one point Sara just cracked up so hard bc of her.   I love this cast so much!