‘Roseanne’ Stars Reveal Why The Iconic Conner Couch Had To Be Replaced For ABC Reboot

Roseanne fans will see a lot of familiar things when the show returns for a nine-episode run on March 27. Twenty years after the original series signed off, the Conner home looks mostly unchanged—even the brown plaid couch with the patchwork afghan remains. So it may be surprising to know that the 2018 Conner living room is actually a knockoff because ABC’s budget didn’t allow producers to get the original set back for the Roseanne revival, according to People.

During a recent late-night visit to Jimmy Kimmel Live, Roseanne stars Roseanne Barr and John Goodman made their way to Kimmel’s stage by riding in on the recognizable plaid sofa. But the stars quickly admitted the couch was a recreation and revealed that the original Roseanne couch is currently housed in the Smithsonian Institute.

“This is a replica, this ain’t the real one,” Barr told Kimmel of the couch.

John Goodman revealed that the Smithsonian would have given Roseanne producers the show’s original couch, but that the price tag was beyond ABC’s budget.

“The Smithsonian Institute has the real one and they wanted too much scratch for it,” Goodman told the late-night host.

And in true Roseanne fashion, the show’s matriarch added that it might be a good thing that they didn’t get the decades-old couch back. “It smells just like butt,” Roseanne joked.

You can see the Roseanne stars talking about the sofa on Jimmy Kimmel Live below.

Earlier this year, Roseanne production designer John Shaffner talked to Entertainment Weekly about the painstaking process to recreate the set of the ABC sitcom on Soundstage 15 in Studio City, Calif. Shaffner admitted that it was challenging to find some of the retro items from the original Roseanne set.

“That became the challenge, recreating something when there was nothing in existence,” Shaffner tells EW. “They don’t print those (kitchen) wallpapers anymore. We had a devil of a time finding a sofa.”

Shaffner’s production team ultimately found a pair of sofas on Craigslist and cut one down to create the matching chair. The familiar brown fabric was bought from a company that upholsters RVs and it was embellished to look like the Conner couch of the 20th century.

“We ended up painting out lines in the fabric in the sofa,” Shaffner said. “They did the best they could to repurpose what they had.”

While the couch is a knockoff, the cast isn’t. Nearly every star and recurring guest from the original Roseanne series will return for the reboot. And fans will find plenty of other inside jokes and nods to the original series in the first episode of the reboot, titled “Twenty Years to Life.”

“The fans of the show are so devoted, so there are little winks and nods throughout,” Roseanne star Laurie Metcalf told Variety.

Roseanne returns for a nine-episode revival beginning Tuesday, March 27 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.