The laugh is back. Roseanne, the Emmy-winning ABC comedy that ran from 1989-1997, has risen from the ashes of canceled TV shows for another round of episodes 20 years after it left the airwaves. And if series star and creator Roseanne Barr has her way, this won't be the last you see of the infamous Conner clan.
"We'd love it to continue if people like it, then we hope it will," Barr told E! News about the show's future after these nine episodes.
John Goodman said he was "overjoyed" when the show was brought back to life. Series star Sara Gilbert, now an executive producer on the series, helped jump-start the revival with the cast's appearance on her talk show, the appropriately titled The Talk. After a sketch on the CBS talk show, Gilbert called Barr.
"Three weeks later we had a deal and we were at some publicity thing in New York," Goodman said about the fast-tracked revival. That "publicity thing" was the ABC Upfronts where a majority of the cast marked the show's return on stage, complete with that iconic couch.
"It was really fast," Barr said.
Everybody from the original cast is back, including Barr, Goodman, Gilbert, Lecy Goranson, Michael Fishman and recent Oscar nominee Laurie Metcalf.
"It was pretty spectacular," Barr told us about the first table read. "Very emotional."
"Like we never left," Goodman said.
"It was," Barr added.
Metcalf said it was easy to return to the character of Jackie Harris because of the writing. "Because the writers stayed really true to the characters. What was on the page was just so familiar, and yet so 2018. Different topics are addressed. It's this family, plucked up, and set back down again, but it was like riding a bike again. Once we got in the table read, things just clicked," she said.
The new season finds the Conners exactly where viewers left them. "In some ways, they're thriving," Goodman said. "They're better off than a lot of people. They're still struggling, but they have their family and they have their friends and they're still trying to put it together."
Metcalf said Jackie is still very much a "hot mess." "She's fun, I guess, but she's needy and intense," Metcalf laughed. "She says she has a job in the revival, we never see her at her job…"
And yes, the events of the original series finale will be explained. We've seen the episode, but cannot spoil how Roseanne resurrects Dan Conner, but it will be undone. Goodman is out there doing press, so Dan clearly lives.
"Stem cells," Goodman joked about his character's return to life. "Stem cells and vodka."
Watch the videos above for more.
Roseanne returns Tuesday, March 27 at 8 p.m. on ABC.