When ABC announced that it was bringing Roseanne back to audiences for a brand new (portion of a) season, the only things that interrupted fans' jubilant cheers were inquisitive ponderings on how in the world the revival would explain and/or reverse the show's reviled finale and things that happened after the show went off the air. Some of those issues have been addressed, such as Dan's heart attack and the whole memoirs aspect, but not much has been said about the character Mark Healy, whose portrayer Glenn Quinn died in 2002. Now, a couple of details have come out.
For one, it doesn't sound like Roseanne is going to pull a "Darren from Bewitched" on everyone, or even a "Becky from Roseanne" on everyone, as the show's creative team reportedly won't be recasting the role of Mark. There are a few ways that this could work out within the narrative, but I think the most obvious and easiest case, at least logistically, would be the show paying tribute to late actor Glenn Quinn by also having Mark be deceased in the revival. That doesn't have to be the only way, of course, since he could also just be "away" somewhere.
As fans remember, the Roseanne finale flipped everything on its head by revealing that Roseanne Conner was actually writing the whole series, with some family details not at all how we'd believed them to be. Particularly in this case, Becky and David were actually one couple, while Darlene and Mark were the other couple, which did make a slight bit of sense, given everyone's personalities. But the revival won't keep that going, and it was announced recently that Darlene and David's children were being cast, and if TVLine's rumor turns out to be true, it will seemingly tip its hat to Mark's in-show death being how things play out.
It turns out Darlene and David's son just might be named Mark. The older daughter, Harris, was actually born during Roseanne's final season, and she'll be a mini-version of teenage Darlene. But little info had come out about the son role, beyond the fact that he would be younger than ten years old. If his name is Mark as a way of honoring the non-returning character, then the lack of initial details definitely makes sense.
After Roseanne ended in 1997, actor Glenn Quinn nabbed what's arguably his second most memorable TV role as the seer Doyle on Angel. His last onscreen role was for the film R.S.V.P. in 2002, Sadly, on December 3, 2002, Quinn was found on his couch by his friend, and his death was ruled an accidental heroin overdose. He was 32 years old.
There is still a while to go before Roseanne comes back to TV audiences with characters new and old, and ABC is prepping for a midseason 2018 premiere. To see when all the other new and returning shows are hitting the small screen soon, head to our summer premiere schedule.
