Roseanne ended with more twists than an episode of This Is Us. In the series finale, Roseanne (Roseanne Barr) revealed she had rewritten a lot of her story. Sister Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) was a lesbian, her daughters were with each other's spouses and Dan (John Goodman) died after his heart attack. The character dictated her story. Forget about that.
At the 2017 TCA Summer Press Tour, Channing Dungey, president of ABC Entertainment, revealed some of those twists are going away.
"I'm not going to talk too specifically about the season," Dungey said about the finale reveals. "I wouldn't say that it's ignoring the events of the finale, but I can say that Dan is definitely alive."
As for The Big Bang Theory's star Johnny Galecki's involvement, discussions are ongoing, Dungey said. Regarding the show's creative direction, Dungey said, "We had a lot of conversation with Tom Werner when he first came in…We've now heard the broad strokes of the creative for these eight episodes and feel confident that it'll return to the show we all love."
"It is very much tonally similar to the original show. It is unflinching, it is honest, it is irreverent at times, and it's also really, really funny," Dungey said about the new season. "Very topical. We're not talking specifically about the universe that we live in in that way, but we are addressing issues like foreclosure. We're addressing how difficult it is for people to get medical insurance. We're talking about topics in a bigger, broader way. We're not necessarily talking about the occupants of the White House."
Finale problems are nothing new for TV revivals. Will & Grace is undoing its finale that saw Will and Grace have kids and drift apart.
"I kind of think the very…that was more or less a fantasy, it was a projection, that episode, into the future," co-creator David Kohan told audience members at the Will & Grace panel. "And I think what we missed was the dynamic between the four of them more than we missed the possibility of what their lives would be like as parents."
"We never would've gone in that direction if we thought we weren't ending the show," co-creator Max Mutchnick said.
"Happy endings aren't really funny," Eric McCormack said. "We just took part out that little part at the end."
See how much to Roseanne cast has changed below.
Roseanne will return for eight episodes on ABC midseason.