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John Goodman Reveals How ‘Roseanne’ Reboot Will Bring Dan Back To Life

By Victoria Miller
Published on: 11:45 PST, Jun 9, 2017

John Goodman is coming back from the dead — or at least his Roseanne character is. In a new interview with ABC News, Goodman confirmed that his signature sitcom character, Dan Conner, will be brought back to life in the upcoming reboot of the long-running ABC comedy. Fans of the original series, which ran from 1988 to 1997, know that Goodman’s character died of a heart attack in the series finale.

For the eight-episode ABC reboot, John Goodman says he can’t be completely sure his character’s death will be addressed because he hasn’t seen any scripts yet, but he has a pretty good idea that the show won’t go all This Is Us on us.

“I think they’re just going to ignore it,” John said of Dan’s death.

“There might be a funny reference to it.”

Although most of the original cast will return for the Roseanne reboot, including John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, Sara Gilbert, Michael Fishman, both Becky’s (Lecy Goranson and Sarah Chalke), and the queen bee, Ms. Barr herself, Goodman conceded that it won’t be the same sitcom fans first fell in love with in the late 1980s.

“It’s going to be all new turf,” John, now 64 years old, told ABC.

“We were in our 40s when we left off. I myself have applied for Medicare. We’re going to have grandkids. It’s just like a new life. I don’t know what they’re going to do, but I’m excited to try it this way.”

While times have certainly changed since Roseanne‘s heyday, Goodman thinks audiences will still be able to relate to the paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle that the Conners embodied for most of the series. (Until that fairytale lottery win, that is.)

“Sure, we both are probably still working,” Goodman said of his blue collar Roseanne character. “Didn’t have the luxury of retiring, probably didn’t have a pension, living paycheck to paycheck. I guess we kept the house. A lot of people are going through the same thing. There are a lot of people who can’t retire when they’re in their 60s.”

In the past, John Goodman admitted he didn’t appreciate what he had during the first go-around of Roseanne. The actor has been vocal about his battle with alcohol back in the day. Now, Goodman just wants to make sure the beloved show doesn’t wear out its welcome.

“People are excited because they have fond memories of the old show, which is still running,” John said. “You run the risk of disappointing people, but don’t think it’s going to happen.”

When news of the eight-episode Roseanne revival was announced last month, an insider told TV Line that pretty much “everything that went down” in the series finale will be ignored in the reboot. That means John Goodman’s character will be very much alive, Jackie (Metcalf) may or may not be a lesbian, and the Conner daughters may not have switched romantic relationships with brothers David and Mark (played by Johnny Galecki and the late Glenn Quinn, who died of a drug overdose in 2002).

In addition to John Goodman, Roseanne co-star Laurie Metcalf talked about the buzzy reboot to Jimmy Fallon, telling the Tonight Show host that there may be some new characters on the show because both the Jackie and Roseanne characters had “little tiny tots” when the original series ended 20 years ago. Those “tots” will now be adults — if they’re not just ignored. Metcalf also credited John Goodman’s recent spoof with TV daughter Sara Gilbert on her CBS chatfest The Talk for spawning the idea of the Roseanne reboot.

The eight-episode Roseanne revival premieres in spring 2018 on ABC. You can see John Goodman and the rest of the cast in the promo below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TDMhiFGls48

[Featured Image by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for TV Land]

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