Roseanne, one of the greatest sitcoms of the 1980s and 1990s, is reportedly making its way back to TV with a revival project that will put audiences right back in front of the Conner family, 20 years after the show first ended. One might wonder how they're going to get this off the ground, considering Dan is presumably six feet under the ground, but a blue collar family always pulls through. And luckily, there are a few details about what to expect.
The acclaimed (but still arguably under-appreciated) Roseanne is supposedly being developed on the quiet side, and the goal is to put an eight-episode limited series together. According to Deadline, key cast members are set for reprising their roles, and that list includes boistrous namesake Roseanne Barr, the patriarch of patriarchs John Goodman, and the maestro of surliness Sara Gilbert. Laurie Metcalf and others are said to be in talks to also sign on and bring back more beloved characters. And yes, current Big Bang Theory star Johnny Galecki is part of that crowd.
Interestingly, this project isn't automatically being set up at ABC, where Roseanne aired for nine seasons. The network is reportedly in the running, of course, and it is among other bidders such as the revival-friendly Netflix. No other networks or studios were mentioned.
Perhaps strangely, this news comes quite soon after John Goodman and Sara Gilbert were asked on The Talk about a Roseanne revival or reboot. At the time, it seemed kind of odd, considering that super-messy final season, and Dan's death. (It did give us a pretty solid revival spoof, though.) But if the creative team can figure out a way to spin a new story for this tried and true American family, I'm willing to let lottery-winning bygones be bygones.
Perhaps not so strangely, though, this news comes after a ton of other shows have been brought back out of the woodwork, including NBC's Will & Grace and Netflix's Fuller House. So there's precedents for both comedy's place in the revival market, and for Netflix to swipe a project from its original network. We can't wait to see where it goes.
Roseanne may be the latest TV show to find new life in a revival, but it's almost certainly not the last. To see what others are on the way, along with a bunch of other shows, head to our summer premiere schedule.
