WhileRoseannestar Roseanne Barr claims she was offered a role inThe Conners, I’m so glad that this never happened.The Conners’ large cast of characterswas always a problem for the series. Ever sinceRoseanne’s 2017 revival, the family sitcom was never sure who to follow in a given episode. Roseanne Barr’s Roseanne was the title character, but she wasn’t as central to many season 10 episodes as her daughter, Sara Gilbert’s Darlene. Similarly, Roseanne’s sister Jackie played a pivotal role, but it was no bigger than her niece Becky’s part.
However, when Barr was fired from the show for racist tweets, Darlene didn’t become its replacement protagonist. Instead, the series becameThe Conners, and its focus shifted between members of the titular family for seven seasons. While this approach may have worked for earlier family sitcoms likeModern Family,The Connersseason 7’s endingproves thatRoseanne’s spinoff never quite got the hang of balancing its many main characters. That said, things could have been much worse.
Roseanne Barr’s Reported The Conners Season 7 Return Explained
Roseanne Barr Claims The Conners Creators Wanted Her To Return
In her 2025 documentary “Roseanne is America,”Barr claimed that the creators ofThe Connersoffered her a chance to play Roseanne’s ghost on the spinoff. Per Barr, ”They called me and asked me if I would like to come back as a guest star. ‘You’re coming back as a ghost.’” Barr went on to claim that she was offered the role of Roseanne’s ghost due to the dwindling ratings ofThe Conners, but it is worth noting that the spinoff’s ratings held steady from seasons 4-7.
Unless Barr was offered the role before season 4, this explanation seems illogical. That said, Barr reprising her role in season 4 or earlier would have been even more jarring, as the family was only just beginning to get over her death at that stage. Understandably,The Connersattempted to address the story of Roseanne’s accidental overdose on opioid painkillers with tact and grace, so a plot twist where her ghost appeared seems like a difficult tonal swerve.
The Connersseason 7’s Roseanne return wouldn’t have been unprecedented as late TV characters have returned as ghosts before, but Roseanne’s contested ghost cameo would still have been a disaster for numerous reasons.
In any case,the creators ofThe Connersrefuted Barr’s claims.Barr didn’t specify when the cameo would take place within the timeline of the series, but it seems intuitive that the final season would have been the most likely to include a comeback from Roseanne.The Connersseason 7’s Roseanne return wouldn’t have been unprecedented as late TV characters have returned as ghosts before, but Roseanne’s contested ghost cameo would still have been a disaster for numerous reasons.
How Roseanne’s Ghost Appearance Would Have Changed The Conners' Ending
Roseanne Returning As A Ghost Would Have Been Surreal And Bizarre
Roseannewas always notable for its grounded tone. This is what made season 9, wherein the Conner family won the lottery and became millionaires overnight, so uniquely hated among reviewers and fans alike. A lot of shows could have pulled off a plot twist this surreal and silly, butRoseannebecamean incredibly influential network sitcomspecifically because the show treated issues like income inequality, unemployment, lack of access to healthcare, and unstable work seriously.
Ames McNamara
Mark Conner-Healy
That said,Roseannewasn’t without its occasional flights of fancy. Season 2, episode 8, “Sweet Dreams,” featured a string of absurd, elaborate dream sequences, and numerous episodes featured flashbacks to the childhoods of the show’s heroes. As such, Barr could potentially have appeared as a ghost inRoseanne’s original run, particularly in the cartoony, critically slated season 9. However,The Connershad an even more pointedly grounded tone thanRoseanne, so her proposed cameo appearance would never have made any sense.
Ghosts didn’t exist in the world ofThe Conners, a realistic, grounded vision of working-class middle America that was devoid of anything supernatural or surreal.The Connerswasn’tCommunityor30 Rock, or even a much less heightened show likeThe Fresh Prince of Bel-Airwherein the characters could still occasionally lean on the fourth wall. As such,Roseanne returning toThe Connersas a ghost would have been so tonally jarring that any impact the cameo itself made would be outweighed by the necessary scenes spent justifying its existence.
The Conners Season 7 Was Better Without Roseanne’s Ghost Appearance
Roseanne’s Tragic Death Shaped The Entire Spinoff Series
The Connersdidn’t have the sort of silly, surreal, or playful tone where such a thing could happen and, as such,The Connerswas better off without Roseanne’s return as a ghost. Due to conflicting reports from Barr and a source forTVLine, it remains unclear whether this plan was ever in place. What is clear is that, by cutting this potential cameo from the show’s original star,The Connersmaintained the show’s grounded tone until the very end. Since season 7 already featured some silly twists, it is just as well this wasn’t vastly exacerbated by ghostly visitations.
The Conners season 7 already over-emphasized the importance of revisiting old storylines over creating new plots.
Jackie returned to the police force in season 7, a plot that was moderately funny thanks to sitcom veteran Laurie Metcalf but which felt divorced from her character’s personality and previous arc.The Connersforgot supporting stars like Beverly-Roseto prioritize this plot which, aside from courting nostalgia from fans ofRoseanne’s original run, served little purpose. This highlights just how much season 7 already over-emphasized the importance of revisiting old storylines over creating new plots.
Ideally,The Connersseason 7 could have passed down the show’s focus from Roseanne’s generation to her children and grandchildren, focusing less on Jackie and Dan and more on Becky, Darlene, Beverly-Rose, Mark, and Harris. However, seemingly driven by nostalgia for the show’s original run, the final episodes instead brought back the painful memory of Roseanne’s death as Dan fought the pharmaceutical company that manufactured her opioid painkillers and lost. This downbeat plot didn’t offer the family much of a future.
As such,Roseanne returning forThe Connersseason 7 would have been disastrous.The Connersseason 7’s dropped storylineswere frustrating, but the show at least avoided literally reanimating dead characters to focus further on the show’s past. Centering the final outing on such a maudlin, morbid plot was a major risk, and it came at the cost of screen time for the show’s younger characters.The Connersseason 7 bringing backRoseannestar Roseanne Barr would have made this even worse, meaning the show was right to keep its former heroine off-screen.
