There may always be some regrets about past Roseanne characters who weren’t brought back on The Conners.
Ahead of the Wednesday, April 23, series finale, executive producer Bruce Helford listed some former Roseanne stars that were in consideration to make appearances on the spinoff, telling TVLine, “Martin Mull passed before we had a chance to [bring back Leon]. We would have liked Johnny [Galecki] to come back [as David after Season 2], but we respected that [he didn’t].”
Fellow executive producer Dave Caplan pointed out that they never brought back George Clooney, who appeared in the OG series.
“I don’t know what the hell else he was doing that was more important!” Caplan quipped before Helford added, “We did reach out to him numerous times and he said, ‘You know that I would, but if I do it for you guys, I gotta do it for everybody I’ve ever worked with who has a TV show because it would be wrong for me not to.’ So that was his out on that.”
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As for Mull, there were plans to bring the actor back before he died in June 2024.
“His name came up in the writers’ room about what we can do, but then it became a moot issue,” Caplan noted as Helford added, “It would have been a conversation, definitely for the finale.”
Roseanne originally aired on ABC from 1988 to 1997. After being briefly revived in 2018 — and after star Roseanne Barr’s eventual exit from the series amid controversial social media posts — the story transformed into The Conners.
After seven seasons on the air, the sitcom is preparing to wrap up — but not every familiar face is returning. Michael Fishman‘s character, DJ, and Estelle Parsons‘ Bev have both been confirmed to be absent from the final season.
That doesn’t mean there isn’t room to celebrate the show’s legacy. Emma Kenney hinted how certain characters will be addressed, exclusively telling Us Weekly in March, “The series finale does show tribute the way we could. We’ve had so many amazing guest stars and recurring roles over the years. Everybody has been so fun and brought in something different to the show.”
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Kenney’s costar and onscreen aunt Lecy Goranson addressed Barr’s character being brought up in the final episodes. “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,” Goranson shared with Us that same month. There’s touches of it without really landing on it and making it super heavy.”
Goranson, 50, went on to say how proud she was of how The Conners paid tribute to past characters.
“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,” the actress noted. “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.”
The Conners‘ two-part series finale airs on ABC Wednesday, April 23, at 8 p.m. ET.
