After three iterations, a combined 17 seasons and nearly 40 years on the air, don’t expect The Conners to end with a big happy ever after.
Laurie Metcalf, who has starred as Aunt Jackie on the family sitcom since Roseanne‘s 1988 debut on ABC, recently explained that the show’s current reboot won’t “have a big bow tied up” when the six-episode final season kicks off Wednesday at 8/7c.
“There’s a lot to wrap up and I think the writers are really working hard to get everybody’s storylines sort of … not completed,” she told People. “It’s not going to have a big bow tied up with the Conners.”
The Oscar nominee added, “And it will remain true to their storyline, what happens to them in the final episode. But, it’s a very short amount of time to wrap up this many seasons of a family that’s covered decades.”
Lecy Goranson, who reprised her role as Becky Conner in The Conners, noted they aren’t planning on “doing something wacky or kind of culminating” for the finale, adding: “It’s just not really our style. Our show is about real people and real life situations, so I feel like we don’t need to do that. It’s enough just saying that the characters are moving on in the future together as family.”
After Roseanne Barr starred as the titular middle-class in matriarch in Roseanne for nine seasons from 1988 to 1997, she reunited her onscreen family for a revival in 2018. After the updated series was renewed for another that year, Barr was terminated from the show for racially insensitive tweets.
The Conners premiered as a spin-off in October 2018, focusing on the eponymous family in the wake of Roseanne’s death from an opioid overdose. ABC announced the abbreviated seventh and final season last May.
