Earlier this month, we noted that ABC was working on The Conners—its Roseanne Barr-free revival of Roseanne—with “heavy security,” to the extent that everyone was using hand-delivered notes instead of email. We pointed out that this seemed bizarre, since the only justification for being so mysterious would be if ABC was planning a major upheaval beyond cutting the main character out of the show. (We suggested replacing Rosanne the character with Rodan the pteranodon monster, but that’s looking increasingly unlikely.)
Now, the secrecy is looking even weirder, because John Goodman is now suggesting that The Conners is going to deal with sudden absence of Roseanne Conner in the most obvious way possible. This comes from The Sunday Times (via Deadline), which asked Goodman how his character is going to react when the show comes back, with him saying, “It’s an unknown. I guess he’ll be mopey and sad because his wife’s dead.”
Having Roseanne Conner die off-screen would be the easiest way to keep the show going, but Goodman’s uncertainty here is more telling than him saying his character’s wife is dead. Goodman saying “it’s an unknown” seems like a subtle code for “I have no idea,” which means he’s probably just assuming that The Conners will kill off Roseanne because—again—it’s the most obvious move. That means we don’t really know any more than we did before, beyond the implication that Goodman also doesn’t know much. That’s sort of comforting, right?