What’s next for the Conners? Roseanne fans will soon find out. In the first teaser for the ABC spinoff of Roseanne Barr’s now-defunct sitcom revival, it’s pretty clear something is missing.
The 15-second clip, posted by Variety , shows the recognizable Conner living room with an empty couch, save for the iconic knitted afghan hanging on the back of it. As Carly Simon’s “Anticipation” plays in the background, the words “What Next?” appear on the screen.
Unfortunately for fans of the original 1980s series, there’s no “what’s next” for the Conner matriarch played by Roseanne Barr, who was fired from the show she helped create after she posted an offensive tweet about former White House aide Valerie Jarrett back in May.
While The Conners spinoff will include all of the other stars from the 2018 revival, Barr will not appear on it after forfeiting all creative and financial rights to the new show. Barr said in a statement that she agreed to the settlement to save the jobs of “200 beloved cast and crew.”
The new teaser seems to point to the question of what the sitcom family will do after the still-unexplained demise of their matriarch. You can see it below.
The new video is a far cry from the promos for the Roseanne revival earlier this year, all of which featured Barr — or at least her laugh.
ABC has given few details on what the premise of The Conners will be, but a synopsis for the new series states the following.
“After a sudden turn of events, the Conners are forced to face the daily struggles of life in Lanford in a way they never have before.”
John Goodman, who played Roseanne’s husband, Dan Conner, on Roseanne , recently suggested in an interview with the Sunday Times that Barr’s iconic character will be killed off on The Conners . Goodman said his character will “be mopey and sad because his wife’s dead.
The new teaser comes on the heels of the release of the first-ever set photo for The Conners . As the Inquisitr previously shared, ABC released a photo that shows series stars Gilbert (Darlene Conner), John Goodman (Dan Conner), Lecy Goranson (Becky Conner), Michael Fishman (DJ Conner), Laurie Metcalf (Jackie Harris), Emma Kenney (Harris Healy), Ames McNamara (Mark Healy), and Jayden Rey (Mary Conner) at a table read set at the Conner family’s kitchen table.
For longtime fans of Roseanne, which originally ran on ABC from 1988 to 1997, it is indeed odd to see the family at that table without their longtime matriarch doing her familiar cackle.
The Conners will premiere Tuesday, October 16, on ABC.