Spoiler warning for anyone who hasn’t caught up with The Conners’ latest episode on ABC or streaming next-day with a Hulu subscription.
The final season of The Conners is somehow already half over, and it’s thus far delivered the traditional mix of heavy family moments with gallows humor and fun guest stars like the punch-taking Seth Green and Laurie Metcalf’s real-life daughter Zoe Perry. The latest episode, “Applications, Accusations and a Man-Bag,” delivered an all-timer of an argument between Becky and Dan, and star Lecy Goranson talked to CInemaBlend about bringing that crushing scene to life opposite John Goodman.
Lecy Goranson Shares High Praise For Longtime Co-Star John Goodman
The final season’s overarching story focuses on the forever-downbeat family’s only possible shot at a financial windfall through a legal battle centered on Roseanne’s pharma-related death. Reopening old wounds has put a strain on the entire family, with Dan understandably taking longer than anyone to see the presumed upsides.
Because maybe Dan had something to get off of his chest that was similar to feelings roiling inside Becky, and each shouted piercing daggers of blame at the other for not seeing the obvious signs of Roseanne’s pill addiction. When I asked Lecy Goranson about taking on such a heartbreaking father-daughter fight, she gave her longtime co-star John Goodman credit where it was due, saying:
I have to say, if you look at the history of the show, and you look at the Dan and Becky scenes, there's a lot of really dramatic moments with the two characters. And I always feel like whenever I'm in a scene with John, I get really, really excited because I know that I'm working with a top dog. I mean, great actors bring you up, and I feel like John does that for me. There's just a trust there. There's a depth and a trust there that has history, and also feels very immediate. That's a real testament to him as an actor, but also the chemistry and the history.
It's wild to see just how far the two actors have come since the earliest years of Roseanne, which goes a long way in adding all the built-in emotion of seeing such a scene play out. And on a sitcom, no less, where it's all in the performances and not fancy camerawork or heartstring-tugging music.
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Lecy Goranson On Becky And Dan's Big Fight
Anyone who's had a particularly memorable fight with a beloved family member — be it biological, spouse, partner, etc. — knows that for all the shared good-nature, there's often also a dark side that rears its ugly, candid scalp. Leading to moments like Dan bluntly calling Becky out for having been too drunk all the time to notice her own mother was going over the edge.
Lecy Goranson spoke to going "there" with Becky and Dan, saying:
Being able to be vulnerable, I think, is a big thing, and I think you could really feel the pain that both Becky and Dan have. I think even though Becky is in the healing profession, in the mental health profession, that we all, no matter who you are, we still have blind spots, right? And we don't always land where we want to be, even if we're trying to be compassionate.
Not that Dan is wholly to blame here, since Becky wasn't exactly pulling punches either by pointing out how much closer he was to the situation as her husband. But there's really no right or wrong, only being human, which Goranson tapped into in saying:
You see, kind of how Becky can't really process her pain, and she's putting it onto her dad, which I think is something that we can all relate to. Because I think as kids, we we don't know what to do with that vulnerability, so it's easy to pass it off on the stronger person, right? It's what we, I think, unconsciously do. But yeah, I'm really proud of those scenes.
She also shared that one other element that helps the actors hit those non-comedic high notes when filming is the relatively large number of people both making and watching it happen.
It's interesting because, you know,, we're not like in a vacuum, so people are watching us perform the scenes live, and we have the big crew. And whenever there's like a Dan / Becky scene that's dramatic like that, we really feel the emotion is palpable in the room, on stage. So it's really special.
Obviously we're talking about The Conners, which doesn't veer from its multicam format in either scene length or episode length. But while watching that scene play out, it didn't really help knowing that laughs were coming, because I wanted them to land right then and there to interrupt the harshness.
To that end, Lecy Goranson championed The Conners for being a network comedy that never balks at bringing a relatable edge to its stories. In her words:
Well, that's the great thing about The Conners is that's when the laughs come in. It's such a relief, right? And going in, I think a lot of comedies steer away from that completely, but I really feel like some of that drama brings real kinda character-driven laughter, and it's so satisfying.
One of many TV shows ending in 2025, The Conners airs Wednesday nights on ABC at 8:00 p.m. ET. Hopefully Dan and Becky got all those icky feelings out of their system, and it's all hugs and good fortune from here on out. This black cat crossing my path probably isn't a good omen, though...
