‘Roseanne’ Revival: Sara Gilbert Explains Johnny Galecki’s Return, Teases More David Episodes For Season 11
Spoiler alert: This article contains spoilers from the Roseanne episode “Darlene v. David”
Roseanne fans were happy to see the return of Johnny Galecki on the most recent episode of the reboot of the ABC sitcom. Galecki made his highly anticipated appearance on the Roseanne episode, “Darlene V. David,” but his character’s return to Lanford after a long absence left viewers with more questions than answers.
While Roseanne characters David Healy and Darlene Conner (Sara Gilbert) will always have a connection—they are parents to two kids, Harris and Mark (Emma Kenney, Ames McNamara)—their love story could be over. But that doesn’t mean Darlene and David won’t face off again when Roseanne returns for an 11th season next year. Time was limited for Johnny Galecki’s appearance in the nine-episode Roseanne revival—the Big Bang Theory star only committed to one episode of the long-awaited reboot—but now that the show has been renewed for another season, fans could see much more of David Healy.
In an interview with TV Line, Roseanne star and executive producer Sara Gilbert said it was very important to her to get her longtime friend and co-star Johnny Galecki back for at least one episode of the Roseanne revival.
“Our relationship was one of the central themes of Darlene’s life 20 years ago,” Gilbert said. “And to leave it unanswered would be so unsatisfying to me personally and to the fans.”
Gilbert also revealed that producers are hoping to sign Johnny Galecki for future episodes of the ABC sitcom.
“We’re hopeful he will able to do more next year,'” the Roseanne star told TV Line.
Sara also addressed the side storylines that revealed that Darlene’s mom (Roseanne Barr) had been in contact with the globe-trotting David behind her back for years and that he hadn’t seen his son Mark (Ames McNamara) since he was a toddler. Gilbert told TV Line:
“One of the challenges we had was that we only had Johnny for one episode, so we had to accomplish a lot in 22. We had spoken at length about the fact that Mark might not recognize David. And that would be [opening up] a whole can of worms. And, with just 22 minutes, we would not have been able to properly serve that storyline.”
‘Roseanne’ Promo For Johnny Galecki Episode: It’s Darlene Vs. David A Generation Later https://t.co/FBw22s8qZn pic.twitter.com/9KmFxIElyW
— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) April 13, 2018
As for David’s new girlfriend, Blue, Roseanne producers knew they couldn’t have introduced a new character like her in this particular episode.
“We wanted the focus to be on David and Darlene,” Gilbert explained. “But I think it’s certainly a possibility that we’ll see Blue next season.”
Johnny Galecki previously told TV Line that he “would love to do more” episodes if Roseanne was renewed for another season, and now it sounds like producers are on board with the idea.
Take a look at the video below to see the reunion of Darlene and David on Roseanne.
Roseanne airs Tuesdays at 8 pm. ET on ABC.
