‘Roseanne’ Reboot: Laurie Metcalf Reveals How Revival Plan Started With A ‘Fluke’


The Roseanne reboot has many fans buzzing about what the classic sitcom will be like in this modern age, and star Laurie Metcalf recently revealed how quickly it all came together.

Roseanne is coming back for an eight-episode revival in 2018 on ABC over 20 years after its final episode aired. All of the series’ main cast members will be coming back, including Roseanne Barr, John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, Sara Gilbert, Lecy Goranson, Michael Fishman, and Sarah Chalke.

Metcalf revealed in a Today interview this week that the plans for a Roseanne reboot came together in a flash with Goodman appearing on Gilbert’s show, The Talk, and discussing the possibility.

“I think it was just a fluke that John Goodman was on Sara Gilbert’s show, and they started talking, ‘would you do a reunion’, ‘well yes I would, would you’ and Sara got on the phone and called everybody, and everybody said yes right away,” Metcalf said.

Metcalf reunited with Gilbert, Goodman, Barr, and Fishman at ABC’s television upfront presentation in mid-May, gathering around the classic Connor family couch. Speaking about why the series was brought back, Metcalf noted that it felt like the best time.

“The timing was just so right. It fell together so naturally that it was meant to be. I saw everybody at the upfronts and it was like old times together,” she said. “We might even be on the same set we were on, all these years later.”

TV revivals and reboots have been a trend over the past few years, to varying degrees of success and quality. Yet, even 20 years later, Metcalf is confident in the sharp writing of Roseanne to reflect reality no matter what decade in which the show is set.

“The writing was always so good and it was so timely. And you pluck that family that we know up and out and set them in 2017,” Metcalf said, to which Today hosts Kathie Lee Gifford and Hoda Kotb laughed at the potential hijinks the Connor family might be up to.

It’s not yet clear what the plot of the Roseanne reboot will entail, though ABC is suggesting that the Connor family’s economic woes will continue, much as they were present in the original series.

“The Conners’ joys and struggles are as relevant–and hilarious–today as they were then, and there’s really no one better to comment on our modern America than Roseanne,” Dungey said in a statement. The only tease given thus far states: “the Conner family will continue to deal with the economic challenges of living pay check to pay check in 2018.”

One question many Roseanne fans have already asked is what they’re going to do about Dan, Goodman’s character. It was revealed in the series finale that most of the series itself was a fiction written by Roseanne’s character to help cope with some of the more difficult hardships in her life. One of those was that husband Dan had a heart attack and died, with Roseanne being left alone in the house. However, a source told TVLine recently that this story line won’t necessarily continue in the reboot.

“Dan is very much alive,” the source said, adding, “They’re going to pretend like it never even happened.”

It remains to be seen if other major revelations in the final episode will be undone as well, including Metcalf’s character, Jackie, being a lesbian and Roseanne’s kids being with different boyfriends.

Barr and Gilbert are slated to executive produce the show, alongside Tom Werner, Bruce Helford, Whitney Cummings, and Tony Hernandez.

ABC has not yet announced a specific premiere date for the Roseanne reboot other than 2018.

[Featured Image by Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images]

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