Warning! Spoilers ahead for The Conners season 7, episode 6, “The Truck Stops Here.”The Conners wraps with a nostalgic montage of footage from the Roseanne show, but it noticeably doesn’t feature Roseanne, and that’s intentional. Considering the tumultuous way that it started, ABC found a gem in The Conners, which stemmed from the cancellation of the original revival. Because of the overwhelming support of viewers, the network had to find a way to continue the show’s after Roseanne Barr was fired from the project. It wasn’t easy, but ABC couldn’t have hoped for the show’s performance, as The Conners has been embraced by old and new fans.
Coming into its truncated The Conners season 7, a lot of the ongoing plots in the show were already wrapped up in the previous year. Louise retired from touring, Harris inherited The Lunch Box, Becky found love, and Dan finally paid for the house’s mortgage. Jackie and Beverly even patched things up. So, the Roseanne franchise’s final season introduces a new arc that wraps up in its last episode, and it, surprisingly, revisits Roseanne’s death, which kickstarted the events of the spinoff sequel. Despite that, however, there’s no physical appearance for the character in The Conners‘ parting flashback sequence.
Roseanne Is Noticeably Left Out
The Conners season 7 used Roseane’s death for a final emotional arc for Dan and the rest of the family. Jackie convinces the clan to join a class-action lawsuit against the pharmaceutical company that made the pills. However, the process isn’t easy, since it requires them to revisit the tragedy. Ultimately, they don’t get much, but just enough for a small dinner at home. As everyone files out to leave, however, Dan is left sitting on the couch, and that’s when the montage plays of various scenes from their days in the Roseanne series.
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Dan, Becky, Darlene, and Jackie are focused on, but despite being a big part of the flagship, Roseanne is nowhere to be seen. Even DJ has a brief cameo despite Michael Fishman not coming back to the show for The Conners season 7. Admittedly, it’s an odd choice, considering that it would have been the perfect opportunity to physically feature The Conners family matriarch, but that doesn’t happen.
It’s All Because Of Barr’s Stipulation
Not featuring Roseanne in any of the flashback scenes when there are plenty of options to choose from is actually intentional — but not in the way that many would assume. In a post-mortem interview with Deadline after The Conners finale, executive producers Dave Caplan and Bruce Helford explain that they weren’t able to include any footage of Barr because of legalities. It’s no secret that the actor’s exit from the sitcom was rocky, to say the least. When she was booted out, one of her stipulations was that The Conners couldn’t use her likeness. Read the producers’ quote below:
CAPLAN: It was contractual.
HELFORD: She was very gracious in allowing us to continue the show because she had a say in that. When she realized it would be putting 300 people out of work when the initial reboot was canceled, she gracefully allowed us to continue without her. It really was about these people. This show was really about the lives of these other people in the family, the Conners, and we wanted to focus on them.
This is also the reason why there isn’t any clear photo of Roseanne in the Conners’ iconic Lanford home. The living room has some framed photos, but nothing clear with the matriarch. Despite what happened behind the scenes, at least The Conners is able to pay their respects to the actor and her character for her contributons to the sitcom through its last story.
Source: Deadline
7/10
- Release Date
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October 16, 2018
- Showrunner
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Bruce Helford, Matt Williams
- Writers
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Dave Caplan, Bruce Helford, Matt Williams
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