The biggest question that I've pondered about the new television series, "
The Connors," is how ABC plans to address Roseanne Connor's absence from the program. ABC has avoided saying for sure, but it's pretty much
assumed that that Roseanne Connor will be killed off, presumably during the knee surgery that was scheduled to begin after the final "
Roseanne" episode:
In a recent interview with The Hollywood Reporter, ABC Entertainment president Channing Dungey was asked to address that very issue, but instead of clearing things up, she skirted around the question and insisted that the showrunners want everything Conners-related to remain one big secret.
The logline for The Conners suggests that Roseanne has died: the series “will follow the Conner family who, after a sudden turn of events, are forced to face the daily struggles of life in Lanford in a way they never have before.” When asked how Roseanne’s departure will be addressed on the spin-off — and if the logline’s implications are true — Dungey said that this topic is “the thing [she] can’t talk about...”
Dungey went on to explain that The Conners will share Roseanne‘s core DNA in that it will be targeted towards the working class and middle America. “None of that has changed. This is still the same family. It’s still the Conner family,” said Dungey. “It’s still Dan dealing with what he’s dealing with, Darlene dealing with what she’s dealing with. All those issues that were set up so well in the first nine episodes will continue.”
Despite the political conversation surrounding the series, the ABC exec insisted that The Conners is simply a show is about one particular family in one particular small town. “People keep wanting to make it about red vs. blue [states] and we dealt with that very effectively in the first episode with Roseanne and Jackie’s different political views. The subsequent episodes are very much not about that. It’s a family comedy.”
So... confirmation of the death, but not confirmation. Except that I cannot imagine any other reason why Roseanne would leave her entire family for any other reason besides death.
