There's been a lot of talk of revivals and reboots over the last couple of years so you may have missed the news that Roseanne is making a comeback. The hit American sitcom, which paved the way for many more dysfunctional family comedies over the years, will return after twenty years off the air.
Most of its stars are set to return too, including Roseanne Barr and John Goodman, although there was speculation as to how Goodman could come back given that his character supposedly died in the final episode.
Yep, in the most bizarre ending to any TV show ever, the final ever episode of Roseanne showed that the entire series had all been in the imagination of Roseanne, which was almost a relief given how strange that ninth season was.
The show changed up completely as the Conner family won the lottery, Dan had an affair and it was basically just one surreal episode after another. They had not only jumped the shark, but were a good two oceans away from it. John Goodman was also missing for a lot of it as he was filming The Big Lebowski.
In what was likely an attempt to redeem that awful ninth season, the final episode saw the reveal that the entire series was actually a story written by Roseanne Conner about her life. The family had never won the lottery, Dan didn't cheat, and in fact, the betrayal was that he actually died from his heart attack at the end of season 8. Also, it erased David and Darlene’s entire relationship - and instead paired David with Becky and Darlene with Mark.
Yep. It was a travesty of the highest order.
Thankfully though, it seems like they are just going to pretend that the final season, or at least its last episode, didn't happen, as TVLine has revealed that producers have begun looking for a young actress and actor to play David and Darlene's kids.
This would also give fans hope that David, played by The Big Bang Theory's Johnny Galecki, will also return to his role. For fans wondering if Scrubs' Sarah Chalke will reprise her role as Becky, that character is actually returning to the original actress who played her, Lecy Goranson, but Chalke is set to turn up in another role. However, Becky's partner Mark will either not feature or be played by a different actor due to the passing of Glen Quinn in 2002. Laurie Metcalf (Jackie) and Michael Fishman (D.J.) are also returning to their characters.
Back to David and Darlene's kids though - Darlene, played by Sara Gilbert, actually had David's baby in the final season (if in fact, that did actually happen), which would make her 20-years-old by actual maths but apparently, she will be played by a 14-year-old who will be just as surly as her mother was back in the day, while they are also looking for boy under 10 for the role of the other child.
ABC have not yet commented on the news and it is a while yet until we will get to see all of this played out on screen, with the eight-episode revival series not airing until mid-2018.