The Conners: Speculation and Spoilers

[Pallas]

Your topic to discuss the new ABC comedy starring Sara Gilbert, John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf. And yes: Here be spoilers!

[Whimsy]

My speculation is that they kill Roseanne during the surgery in her knee. 

[Skyfall]

My speculation is a tweet will be sent that gets this cancelled as well :p

22 minutes ago, Whimsy said:

My speculation is that they kill Roseanne during the surgery in her knee. 

I wonder if they are even allowed to say her name.

[tessaray]

I have a feeling this is going to be a low budget affair. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll ditch the casino set to save money.  (Sara Gilbert in that cocktail waitress uniform looked so uncomfortable.) 

[Suzysite]

My speculation is nobody will watch this mess and it will be canned after a few showings.   Roseanne was the draw, not Darlene. 

[Tom Holmberg]

My speculation is they bring in Sandy Duncan, as the Conner children's aunt, to be the matriarch of the family.

[chitowngirl]

They could bring in Sandy Duncan, Leah Remini, etc. as “replacement “ housekeepers interviewing for a job. Anyone else they could bring in that was a replacement on their show? They could use Sarah Chalke again! Not that the Connor’s can afford a housekeeper...

[anna0852]

My speculation is that the pregnancy alluded to in the series description is Darlene, because she and David never quite stopped messing around.

[tessaray]

Becky wouldn't be the first woman told that she had little to no chance of getting pregnant and ending up that way.  For me that would be much better than Darlene, especially if David isn't around.  Gina would be awkward, as long as she's half a world away. And just no to it being Harris.  At least Becky or Gina might be happy about it.  Can't see that with either Darlene or Harris. 

The writers really need to step back from the never-ending misery. 

[Wanda]

4 hours ago, anna0852 said:

My speculation is that the pregnancy alluded to in the series description is Darlene, because she and David never quite stopped messing around.

But it would be interesting if the pregnancy were DJs’ wife.....stationed half a world away from him....

[Kromm]

I think just like Dan dying was a dream now it will be the reverse. Roseanne died back when Dan supposedly did and BOTH the end of the original Roseanne show AND the reboot were fantasies. Thus they won't have to deal with Roseanne's death being fresh, because in actuality it would have happened far in the past in this third continuity. 

[Moose135]

18 minutes ago, Kromm said:

I think just like Dan dying was a dream now it will be the reverse.

Maybe Bobby Ewing comes out of the shower...

[Lili]

It'll probably be something simple, like Dan divorced from Roseanne, whom moved out.

[Jacqs]

Roseanne moves to Milwaukee to be with her old friend Chuck Cunningham.

[Tom Holmberg]

22 hours ago, chitowngirl said:

They could bring in Sandy Duncan, Leah Remini, etc. as “replacement “ housekeepers interviewing for a job.

Or what would be really funny would be to have Valerie Harper replace Roseanne.

[BusyOctober]

I would rather see a series with all the above "ghosted" sit-com characters living in some suburban utopia a la "Pleasantville" rather than watch Doomsday Darlene, Boozy-Floozy Becky & Sad Sack Dan Conner.  

[iMonrey]

Whatever they decide to do it won't be much of an investment, as a viewer. They're only signed up for what, 10 episodes? No big deal. 

The way they treated (or rather, did not treat) Andy and Jerry and Ed and some other characters in the reboot, it wouldn't particularly surprise me if they simply never mention Roseanne and carry on as though she never existed. It might also be somewhat amusing if they took that route. Certainly more so than killing her.

Edited July 3, 2018 by iMonrey

[funky-rat]

I watched the original show, but began to dislike it around the time that Rosanne added a new baby (who barely got mentioned ever), and stacked the cast with her personal friends (Sandra Bernhardt, Tom Arnold, etc) and the last 2 seasons were horrible.  I also stopped liking Darlene when she got with David on the original show.  It changed her character way too much and I found nothing likeable about her anymore, whereas I appreciated her tomboy-ish character and her off-beat sense of humor before.  We watched the reboot because I was curious to see how they'd explain away a lot of things (they didn't), and I found myself not only still disliking Darlene, but severely disliking her daughter (her son is OK).  So I'm not sure if I'll try to watch this re-re-boot or not.

[Marley]

I thought the reboot sucked so I prob won’t be watching this. Especially if the focus is on Darlene and her kids. Really disliked Harris.

[Jordan61]

3 hours ago, funky-rat said:

I watched the original show, but began to dislike it around the time that Rosanne added a new baby (who barely got mentioned ever), and stacked the cast with her personal friends (Sandra Bernhardt, Tom Arnold, etc) and the last 2 seasons were horrible.  I also stopped liking Darlene when she got with David on the original show.  It changed her character way too much and I found nothing likeable about her anymore, whereas I appreciated her tomboy-ish character and her off-beat sense of humor before.  We watched the reboot because I was curious to see how they'd explain away a lot of things (they didn't), and I found myself not only still disliking Darlene, but severely disliking her daughter (her son is OK).  So I'm not sure if I'll try to watch this re-re-boot or not.

I felt the same way. I liked it early on when it was about the working-class Conners, but liked it less and less as it morphed into the proudly white trash Roseanne Arnold show and started mirroring her real life.

[StaceyNotStacie]

I’m hopeful that without the distractions of the Roseanne character, this might be more of what the first few seasons of the original were (more family and work centered without the zaniness of the later seasons). 

I wonder if they’ll be able to use the original theme song for the spinoff and if they’ll have a similar opening segment with the family at the dinner table (the entire family should be laughing at the end instead of just one character). 

[Christina]

On 7/6/2018 at 4:05 PM, Marley said:

I thought the reboot sucked so I prob won’t be watching this. Especially if the focus is on Darlene and her kids. Really disliked Harris.

This is where my mother and I fall, and we were feeling like we were the only ones. We still may be in the minority, but it just wasn't enjoyable and Darlene and Harris were major fails for us. Becky was a miss, too, and Roseanne was an annoyance and no where as funny as she thought she was. I just don't think the snarkiness landed on the show.

On 7/6/2018 at 7:18 PM, Jordan61 said:

I felt the same way. I liked it early on when it was about the working-class Conners, but liked it less and less as it morphed into the proudly white trash Roseanne Arnold show and started mirroring her real life.

The working-class Conners living in middle America and undergoing the challenges of your average Americans was what made the show for me. Those old episodes still hold up but I have no desire to see repeats of the current episodes. Maybe with the time to regroup they will read reviews and adjust for The Conners, but it probably won't help my issues since I seem to be an outlier.

[funky-rat]

10 hours ago, Christina said:

This is where my mother and I fall, and we were feeling like we were the only ones. We still may be in the minority, but it just wasn't enjoyable and Darlene and Harris were major fails for us. Becky was a miss, too, and Roseanne was an annoyance and no where as funny as she thought she was. I just don't think the snarkiness landed on the show.

The working-class Conners living in middle America and undergoing the challenges of your average Americans was what made the show for me. Those old episodes still hold up but I have no desire to see repeats of the current episodes. Maybe with the time to regroup they will read reviews and adjust for The Conners, but it probably won't help my issues since I seem to be an outlier.

I actually liked what they did with Becky's character - she was one of the few on the show I did like, along with the cameos from some of the old time characters (Crystal, etc).  I felt it was the most "honest" likely outcome for her character.  Same for the brief time we saw David.  With his home life and the examples he had growing up, that was an honest outcome for his character.  Harris was horrible.  It was like they took every cliché they could think of and threw them at the wall, and saw if they stuck.  So you're not alone.  

[tessaray]

I think a lot of us saw Roseanne Season 10/the Revival as kind of a shakedown cruise and were looking forward to what they would come up with once that was out of the way.  No one expected to get The Conners but life is like that. 

I personally feel like it would be a mistake if they go the route of focusing on Darlene.  I want to see the whole Conner family pulling together. 

[iMonrey]

I think the idea to center the new show around Darlene stems from the likelihood that neither John Goodman nor Laurie Metcalf will sign on for more than these 10 new episodes, so if there is any hope of longevity for this spin-off it will have to be about an actor willing to commit to something more long-term. Sara Gilbert is probably more willing to do that since she sort of got the ball rolling on the reboot in the first place and doesn't have a big movie career like Goodman and Metcalf do. Understandably, Goodman and Metcalf (or their characters) are the bigger draw for most of the audience, but they're only doing this spin-off because they were under contract to do 10 more episodes before all the crap with Roseanne went down. So now they basically have to do it. I don't think they would have ever signed on for a spin-off show if that's how the whole thing had started.

[Chaos Theory]

I think Darlene is the ideal example of why it’s nearly impossible to write long term storylines for children.  They grow up.  Tom boys become young women.  Young women have first loves.  Sometimes the kid you see the first couple seasons is completely different then the young adult they are when the show ends five or six seasons later.    Roseanne’s original run was 9 seasons so that is 9 years of character growth from a tomboy kid to a surly teen  to a woman who became sure of herself.  It was actually a decently written storyline because it made sense mostly.    Not everyone stays a tomboy and Sarah Gilbert was not ready to come out so giving Darlene a girlfriend would have been cruel. Except for her depression storyline which I thought was heavy handed and not really well thought out I thought her entire story arc was well done.

[chitowngirl]

A great example of Tomboy > Young Woman is Valerie Bertinelli on One Day at a Time. A cute tomboy at the begininning, but puberty kicked in and it would have been a stretch to keep Barbara a tomboy.

[Chaos Theory]

On 7/8/2018 at 10:38 PM, Christina said:

 

The working-class Conners living in middle America and undergoing the challenges of your average Americans was what made the show for me. Those old episodes still hold up but I have no desire to see repeats of the current episodes. Maybe with the time to regroup they will read reviews and adjust for The Conners, but it probably won't help my issues since I seem to be an outlier.

I think one of the huge problems is thT it focused too much on politics.  With Real Roseanne being a Trump supporter conservatives came in thinking this would be a show they could watch with their kids with their belief system but then Harris and Little Mark are nothing like children written for conservative minded shows.  The actress who plays Harris is on Showtimes Shameless and she is actually playing a similar roll so it’s hard to say if it’s bad acting or just a badly written character that just needs to be mellowed out a little.  Honestly I have no issue with Darlene fronting a shown with Becky playing the sister roll that Jackie plays now.  I think it would be an interesting show.  

[peacheslatour]

2 hours ago, Chaos Theory said:

I think one of the huge problems is thT it focused too much on politics.  With Real Roseanne being a Trump supporter conservatives came in thinking this would be a show they could watch with their kids with their belief system but then Harris and Little Mark are nothing like children written for conservative minded shows.  The actress who plays Harris is on Showtimes Shameless and she is actually playing a similar roll so it’s hard to say if it’s bad acting or just a badly written character that just needs to be mellowed out a little.  Honestly I have no issue with Darlene fronting a shown with Becky playing the sister roll that Jackie plays now.  I think it would be an interesting show.  

That's a really interesting idea. I hope that's what it will be, with Dan and Jackie popping in and out like Bev and Ed did.

Edited July 15, 2018 by peacheslatour

[katie9918]

I’m pretty much in this for Dan and Jackie. 

 

If they develop the others better than they were able to last season, I’ll probably stay for them.

 

I really hope there are no heavy-handed meta potshots at Roseanne Barr the way Fuller House did the Olsen twins in their first episode. I hope they quickly deal with Roseanne’s absence (I’m hoping for death by knee surgery, which was beautifully set up last season) and move on.

[UYI]

On 7/15/2018 at 6:13 PM, katie9918 said:

 

I really hope there are no heavy-handed meta potshots at Roseanne Barr the way Fuller House did the Olsen twins in their first episode. I hope they quickly deal with Roseanne’s absence (I’m hoping for death by knee surgery, which was beautifully set up last season) and move on.

That pisses me off to this day. They were NINE MONTHS OLD when they were cast as Michelle. They have NO IDEA what it's like to not be famous. LET THEM BE!

*ahem*

I know everyone's posting joke speculation here, so I'll spoil the mood by going into sincerity mode:

I'll be happy if this season just leads to a proper ending for this show and its 30 year-legacy. Hell, I'd even be fine with one additional season if they need that for it to truly work. But I don't need this to run a very long time. I just want it to end on a high note. 

[SmithW6079]

7 hours ago, UYI said:

I'll be happy if this season just leads to a proper ending for this show and its 30 year-legacy. Hell, I'd even be fine with one additional season if they need that for it to truly work. But I don't need this to run a very long time. I just want it to end on a high note. 

I think Roseanne's behavior and actions have tarnished the show's legacy. Still, it'll be interesting to see how it concludes. 

[Chaos Theory]

On 7/18/2018 at 8:28 AM, SmithW6079 said:

I think Roseanne's behavior and actions have tarnished the show's legacy. Still, it'll be interesting to see how it concludes. 

The thing is Roseanne's behavior hasn’t exactly changed.  It’s our acceptance of it that has.  This is the same woman who made a fool of herself singing The National Anthem.  She has always been abrasive and outspoken but times have changed and the invention of twitter has given everyone long memories.  Do I think Roseanne is a racist? I don’t know.  Do I think she should have handled the entire situation differently?  Definitely.  

[chocolatine]

Per this article, Roseanne is being killed off and there will be an unexpected pregnancy. I really hope the unexpected pregnancy isn't Harris's. Most likely Darlene since she slept with David in the revival, or possibly Becky after being told she's less than 5% likely to get pregnant.

It's also been confirmed that Big Bang Theory has just one season left to go, so that leaves the option open for Johnny Galecki to be more involved if The Conners gets renewed.

[Tom Holmberg]

On ‎8‎/‎27‎/‎2018 at 4:55 PM, chocolatine said:

Per this article, Roseanne is being killed off

 I wonder if someone in the cast kills Roseanne? :)   Sandy Duncan, pack your bags, you're back in the big time, baby!

Edited August 31, 2018 by Tom Holmberg

[katie9918]

Frankly, if this show wants any of the eventual amounts of realism that set it apart m, Roseanne will have died due to an unforeseen complication from knee surgery.

 

I sincerely hope they don’t take any cheap

shots at Roseanne, because it’ll just seem like a cheap shop. Move on, everyone.

Just now, katie9918 said:

Frankly, if this show wants any of the eventual amounts of realism that set it apart,Roseanne will have died due to an unforeseen complication from knee surgery.

 

I sincerely hope they don’t take any cheap shots at Roseanne, because it’ll just seem like a cheap shot at someone who might deserve our compassion, but not necessarily out sympathy. Move on, everyone.

[Jacqs]

They could take a cue from Doctor Who and make Roseanne a man this time ;)

[Tom Holmberg]

On ‎8‎/‎31‎/‎2018 at 4:17 PM, Tom Holmberg said:

I wonder if someone in the cast kills Roseanne?

Maybe we should vote on the most likely candidate for murder.  My vote would be New Becky, she has the best motive. 

[peacheslatour]

22 hours ago, JacquelineAppleton said:

They could take a cue from Doctor Who and make Roseanne a man this time ;)

I'd pay good money to see Danny Devito play Roseanne.

[TomGirl]

On 7/3/2018 at 12:55 AM, Moose135 said:

Maybe Bobby Ewing comes out of the shower

Maybe Dan wakes up in bed with Suzanne Pleshette.

[StaceyNotStacie]

I wonder if Vicki Lawrence is available so Dan can date Phyllis Zimmer. It would be interesting to see the kids’ reactions knowing that Roseanne didn’t care for her. 

[peacheslatour]

On 9/8/2018 at 12:01 PM, Stacey1014 said:

I wonder if Vicki Lawrence is available so Dan can date Phyllis Zimmer. It would be interesting to see the kids’ reactions knowing that Roseanne didn’t care for her. 

She is starring in a new show on Fox. From Wiki:

The Cool Kids follows "three guy friends in a retirement community are the top dogs until they’re blown out of the water by the newest member of the community, a female rebel who's ready to challenge their place – it’s high school with 70 somethings."

[FairyDusted]

On 9/10/2018 at 11:51 AM, peacheslatour said:

She is starring in a new show on Fox. From Wiki:

The Cool Kids follows "three guy friends in a retirement community are the top dogs until they’re blown out of the water by the newest member of the community, a female rebel who's ready to challenge their place – it’s high school with 70 somethings."

I'm all in! Thanks for the lead @peacheslatour .

[peacheslatour]

I did not come back for Roseanne. I never liked her after season 7. Her bossiness and inability to stay out of other people's business got to be overwhelming. I came for Laurie, John, Lecy and Sara.

[FairyDusted]

On 9/15/2018 at 3:41 PM, peacheslatour said:

I did not come back for Roseanne. I never liked her after season 7. Her bossiness and inability to stay out of other people's business got to be overwhelming. I came for Laurie, John, Lecy and Sara.

LALALALA! I don't acknowledge those seasons. I won't even spin those DVD's. Nooooooo. 

 

ETA* I meant to clarify. I started watching the original Roseanne because I had seen her specials but I tuned into the Reboot for the cast. Sorry. I think much faster than I type;)  

Edited September 19, 2018 by FairyDusted
spelling

[CelticBlackCat]

It's official.  Roseanne reveals Roseanne Conner's demise in "The Conners"

SPOILERS:

https://theblast.com/roseanne

[FairyDusted]

I think that was the best way to handle it and it fits the current climate.

[Jacqs]

I hope they retcon the retcon, forget Harris was "fifteen" and just make her Emma's age.

[AgentRXS]

Gawd, she is such an asshole for spoiling it.

A tiny part of me is sad that the Roseanne Conner I grew up with would die in such a way, but the larger part of me is glad that Roseanne Barr's character is getting that kind of send off.

The commercial of the kitchen makes me sad because its almost like looking back on my childhood. I long for the good parts of Roseanne Conner/Barr and wish to forget how obnoxious Roseanne Conner became as Barr bought into her own fame. I still hate Barr for what she's done to the show's legacy and to Roseanne Conner's legacy.However, a tiny part of me will always love the person that brought early Roseanne Conner to the small screen and fought to keep her realistic. Her and Bill Cosby really broke my heart once I found out who they really were.

[Not4Me]

I think that’s unfortunate how the writers chose to end Roseanne Connor because now it leaves a stain on what is now a deeply flawed character. In spite of how horrible Roseanne Barr turned out in recent years I think Roseanne Connor deserves a more respectable, but muted, ending rather than ending up as a statistic, if you can separate the art from the artist.

Edited September 19, 2018 by Not4Me