‘The Conners’ Boss Says Coronavirus Storyline Will ‘Absolutely’ Be Part Of Season 3
The Conners will be addressing the coronavirus health pandemic in its third season.
The Roseanne spinoff, which is set for a season 3 renewal by ABC, will incorporate the real-time health crisis into the show’s storylines as the Conner clan deal with the financial impact of the COVID-19 pandemic later this year.
Showrunner Bruce Helford said the series will “absolutely” be dealing with the real-life issue in the upcoming third season because The Conners is a show that “reflects reality,” according to TVLine.
The executive producer explained that the Conner family’s blue-collar jobs could be affected by the pandemic when the show returns next season.
“I would think somebody in the family would be taking the jobs no one else wants, [like] working in grocery stores,” he said. “They’d be taking jobs that put them at risk because they need the money, like most of blue-collar America.”
Fans of the ABC sitcom know that Dan Conner (John Goodman) has been struggling with his construction business and his granddaughter Harris (Emma Kenney) has worked in a retail store, Price Warehouse, in the past.
The Conners producer Bruce Rasmussen also teased that business at Lunch Box — the rebooted diner co-owned by Jackie (Laurie Metcalf) and Becky (Lecy Goranson) would likely be impacted by the pandemic.
On the plus side, the Conner patriarch “may be getting some mortgage forgiveness” as he faces foreclosure on the Conner family’s Lanford abode. A teaser for the Season 2 finale shows that Dan is at risk of losing the family home due to his missed mortgage payments.
Like its predecessor Roseanne – which aired on ABC from 1988 to 1997 before its one-season revival in 2018 – The Conners is known for addressing real-life social issues. In its first two seasons, the spinoff series has touched on the opioid crisis, infertility, alcoholism, immigration, and single motherhood.
In an interview with CinemaBlend, veteran cast member Michael Fishman (DJ Conner on the show) said no topic is off-limits for the series as it strives to connect with its audience. The actor said that the writing staff, as well as the show’s production team and all of the cast members, have “always had a real awareness” regarding how to address real-life and hot button topics on the series.
“We’ve never had anything be off-limits or out of bounds, ” Fishman said last fall. “And I think what we try [to do] is deal with the things people are dealing with every single day. Take a really authentic look and then find the humor in that, because that’s kind of how you cope in real life.”
