Originally appeared on
E! Online
The Conner family is saying goodnight.
The Conners
has officially ended, more than three decades after audiences first met the sitcom family. In the emotional one-hour special on April 23, Dan (
John Goodman
), Becky (
Lecy Goranson
), Darlene (
Sara Gilbert
) and Jackie (
Laurie Metcalf
) quite literally said goodbye to viewers.
The first episode of the two-part finale, titled “Exercise Bands, Money Plans, and Faraway Lands” follows Dan as he prepares for the deposition against the pharmaceutical company that issued the opioid that killed his wife Roseanne (
Roseanne Barr
).
Darlene’s 19-year-old son Mark (
Ames McNamara
) shocks her when he tells her he is moving to New York City, and while she isn’t exactly ready for him to leave, she finds her own way to say goodbye. Meanwhile, Becky and boyfriend Tyler (
Sean Astin
) take a big step in their relationship, decide to take a big step in their relationship with a joint bank account.
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Everything You Need to Know About
The Conners
And in the second part, “The Truck Stops Here,” Dan describes his late wife as “the love of his life” in a touching testimony, leading the company to award Dan with a check. Though as the entire family—including Jackie, Becky and Darlene—gather at Roseanne’s grave to share the moment together, it’s revealed the check is revealed to be worth just $700 and not the large payout they’d expected.
Still, each member of the Conner family says goodbye to Roseanne, sharing their successes as a family. For Jackie, it’s being back on the police force, and both daughters show their mom the men they are in love with.
Meanwhile, Darlene and ex David’s eldest Harris (
Emma Kenney
) tells her grandmother that she owns her grandmother’s restaurant, the Lanford Lunch Box. And Louise (
Katey Sagal
), Dan’s second wife, gives him his own private moment at Roseanne’s grave, giving him a moment to reflect on their family, telling her, “We always said if the kids were still alive at the end of the day we did our job. I think we did better than that.”
Later that night, they each take turns saying an emotional goodnight to one another, the last being Dan on the coach looking directly into the camera, saying goodnight to the audience at home.
For the ending, executive producers
Dan Helford
and
Dave Caplan
wanted to make sure that the family’s story would continue beyond the finale, leaving their stories open. “I don’t think we wanted a kind of ending where somebody turns off the lights and closes up shop,” Dave told
TV Insider
on April 18. “The Conners go on.”
As Dan added, “It’s true to their characters, which I think the audience of this show particularly wants.”
Indeed, that’s been the case with the Conner family since 1988 when
Roseanne
, centered around the titular comedian’s tight-knit blue-collar family debuted, ultimately running until 1997. Though in 2018, 21 years after season nine concluded, ABC revived the sitcom with the entire original cast returning—including John, Lecy, Sara, Laurie and
Michael Fishman
.
However, amid its successful season 10, Roseanne sparked controversy over a racist tweet about an official in former President
Barack Obama
’s administration, leading to her firing from the show and the series being
refashioned into a spinoff
in which her character has
recently died
from an accidental drug overdose. But despite
The Conners
’ rocky origins, family endured and now, seven seasons later, the rest of the cast is saying goodbye to these beloved characters.
“We always knew this would come to an end, but somehow it felt like it would be forever,” Sara, who plays Darlene, told
Us Weekly
on April 18. “The best thing television can do is make people feel connected.”
And the head of the family Dan, played by John, hopes his character and the show is remembered by how audiences connected with their television family.
“I would hope that the legacy of this show would be that people saw a little of themselves in us,” John explained to
Us Weekly
. “Humor has always been the thing that has pulled this family through.”
He added, “I am going to miss it very, very much. Above all, we had fun.”
Keep reading for more shows that made their way to the small screen this year.
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