Roseanne was a long-running sitcom series that began in 1988 and ran until 1997.
It was brought back briefly in 2018.
The series starred Roseanne Barr, John Goodman, Michael Fishman, Sara Gilbert, and Johnny Galecki.
Following the anything-but-typical suburban life of the Conner family and their friends, Roseanne has multiple generations of fans, and reruns continue to play on television to this day.
Who Is Still Alive From Roseanne?
Nearly all of the cast members from Roseanne are still alive, except for Glenn Quinn.
This iconic Irish actor had his life cut short at 32 years old, following a heroin overdose on December 3rd of 2002.
Quinn was found in his friend’s house in North Hollywood, where the coroner believes he died from an accidental overdose hours before the police officers found his body.
He had begun abusing drugs when he was only 17 years old, only a year before moving to California.
When Glenn Quinn first moved to California with his mother and 2 sisters, he took on whatever television commercials he could before landing a spot in Richard Marx’s music video for the song Satisfied.
Quinn made a name for himself when he appeared in the 1991 movie Shout, opposite John Travolta and Gwenyth Paltrow.
Even as Quinn’s career was improving, his drug use was escalating and becoming a persistent problem.
His drug abuse cost him the ownership of his nightclub Goldfinger in 1997.
That same year, Quinn returned home to Ireland to be around a solid support group and attend a rehabilitation center.
To continue his acting career, Glenn Quinn returned to Los Angeles.
After returning from Ireland, Quinn appeared in films such as Some Girl, At Any Cost, and R.S.V.P.
Quinn also tried his hand at voice acting for video games, such as Outlaws and The Curse of Monkey Island.
The late actor could also be seen in shows like Fair City and Angel, the Buffy the Vampire Slayer spin-off.
Following his death, his Roseanne co-star Michael Fishman established a memorial fund for Quinn. Glenn Quinn’s story is a reminder that being successful doesn’t equate to being cured of addiction and that anyone can struggle with substance abuse.
Is There A Roseanne Spin-Off?
Yes, there is a Roseanne spin-off called The Conners that follows the lives of the Conner family after Roseanne’s sudden and tragic death.
John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, Sara Gilbert, Alicia Goranson, and Michael Fishman are back from the original series.
The series also introduces Emma Kenney as Harris Conner-Healy, Ames McNamara as Mark Conner-Healy, and Jayden Ray as Mary Conner.
Harris was born during the ninth season of Roseanne, with the last 1997 episode focusing on her being brought home from the hospital.
When Mark Conner-Healy was first introduced on The Conners, he made headlines for being one of the first adolescent transgender characters to regularly appear in a network sitcom.
Throughout the show, Mark had been rewritten to focus on his nerdy nature.
The Conners was put into development immediately following the cancellation of Roseanne, which is partially why the new series was able to use all the same cast members and sets from the original series.
Production began on August 31st of 2018 at the Warner Bros. Studio lot in Burbank, California.
By October 26th, ABC announced that they had ordered an additional episode to bring the show’s first season total to 11 episodes.
The Conners was renewed for a second season on March 22nd of 2019, which originally consisted of 13 episodes.
By May 14th of that same year, ABC ordered an additional six episodes to create a 19-episode season.
Season 2 of The Conners premiered on September 24, 2019.
That same year, The Conners won the ASCAP Award for Top Television Series.
In 2021, The Conners won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Multi-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series and was nominated for Outstanding Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Series.
What Happened To Jerry In The Conners?
Jerry Conner has been written out of The Conners because showrunner Bruce Helford felt the cast of characters was large enough to sustain the writers for plenty of plot points.
Helford told TVLine, “Our cast is large enough to do stories for 40 episodes a season and since we hadn’t brought him up in three years, we wouldn’t pick up on the narrative of Jerry.”
Fans were made aware that Jerry would no longer be a part of the narrative when Becky Conner stated that Dan had three children, including herself, Darlene, and DJ. Dan confirms what Becky is saying by replying that he had “had one favorite and two backups” with his late wife.
Although Helford was set in stone about Jerry Conner not being brought up or being written into the story anytime soon, that doesn’t mean that fans will never see or hear of the youngest Conner sibling again.
Helford teased, “Dan said he only had three children, but is he so angry at Jerry, for something we learn about later, that he denies him as a son? We’ll just have to wait and see.”
The character Jerry Conner was born during the Halloween episode in season 8 after Roseanne had a dream of herself holding a baby and meeting The Grateful Dead’s singer Jerry Garcia.
Roseanne had announced that she was pregnant during season seven and Roseanne Barr actually became pregnant three months later, causing her character to be pregnant for over a year on the show.
In a much later season of Roseanne when Jerry would be in his 20s, Roseanne is saying grace at dinner and prays aloud, “Please watch over our son Jerry who’s on that stupid fishing boat, where apparently they don’t get phone calls.”
Who Has Been A Guest Star On Roseanne?
Roseanne had a long list of guest stars and was known for the way they would sneak in different actors who loved the cast or the show.
Throughout the series, fans can spot some of the biggest stars of the time in the background or even interacting with the main cast.
Leonardo DiCaprio was one of the students in Darlene’s home economics class in episode 16 of season three when Roseanne came to talk to Darlene’s class about being a homemaker.
DiCaprio can be spotted in a green and red striped sweater vest with a flannel underneath.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt was the actor behind one of DJ’s friends and appeared in 4 episodes across seasons 5, 6, and 7.
Gordon-Levitt played a young boy named George who was new to DJ’s school and loved to talk, causing both the Conners and his own family to be annoyed with him at times.
George Clooney played Booker Brooks, who was Jackie and Roseanne’s original boss at Wellman Plastic.
Jackie and Booker began dating after failing to keep their relationship a secret, but Booker Brooks wouldn’t be seen again until season 4 when he was dressed up as a moose.
Jay O. Sanders and Brad Garett were guest stars in the same episode, in which Sanders plays Roseanne and Dan’s free spirit friend, and Garett plays their successful friend Doug.
In the episode, Dan and Roseanne want to open a motorcycle shop and the trio goes to Doug to ask for a loan.
Toby Maguire appeared in season 3 to play the friend of a boy who had a crush on Becky, with Roseanne misreading the situation and believing that he had a crush on Darlene.
During a dream sequence in season 4, Neil Patrick Harris as Doogie Howser walks into Roseanne’s breast reduction surgery appointment.
