What does life look like without Roseanne Conner (and Roseanne Barr) on The Conners? A lot like life with Roseanne.
In the above sneak peek of The Conners, the famous TV family gets on with life after a sudden turn of events (according to Barr, they're killing her iconic character off by way of opioid overdose), that includes planning the holidays.
"I thought we should take about a game plan for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas," Laurie Metcalf's Jackie says.
"I say we follow the Conner tradition: spend every dime we have on Halloween and then we have nothing to be thankful for or buy gifts with," Sara Gilbert's Darlene says. This, of course, is a reference to the famous Halloween episodes of Roseanne. The revival didn't do one before being canceled following Barr's racist tweet about Barack Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett.
ABC canceled the comedy after its successful first revival season and replaced it with The Conners. Barr will have no financial or creative ties to the new series that continues the stories of characters from Roseanne.
The above sneak peek features scenes of Jackie going doing a deep clean (a form of grief?), one of Dan's (John Goodman) poker games and also features the family in church with new series regular Maya Lynne Robinson. Robinson plays Geena Williams-Conner, DJ's (Michael Fishman) wife and Mary's (Jayden Rey) mother. Her character first appeared in the Roseanne episode "White Men Can't Kiss."
"We're thrilled to welcome the incredibly talented Maya Lynne Robinson to the cast this season. Her character 2nd Lieutenant Geena Conner, whom a younger DJ was reluctant to kiss in his school play, comes full circle as his wife and Mary's mother, bringing back a little piece of Conner history. Yet, while Geena is no stranger to the family, viewers old and new will enjoy seeing how her ‘military-style' discipline meshes with the Conners' more laid-back attitude," Bruce Helford, showrunner and executive producer, said in a statement.
The Conners debuts Tuesday, Oct. 16 at 8 p.m. on ABC.