Today John Goodman is one of American’s most beloved character actors, known for his roles in movies like The Big Lebowski, Argo, 10 Cloverfield Lane, and the just released Kong: Skull Island. But for a whole generation of TV viewers, he will always be Dan Conner, the world’s greatest ever blue collar dad from the sitcom Roseanne. Goodman starred as Conner family patriarch for nine seasons on ABC, from 1988 to 1997.
One of the Conner family’s two daughters on the series was played by actress Sara Gilbert, who played the sarcastic middle child Darlene for all 9 seasons of the show. Post Roseanne, Gilbert launched successful career of her own, which includes being co-creator and host of the currently running daytime series The Talk.
Via Variety, on an episode of The Talk this past week, Gilbert reunited with her former TV dad John Goodman to play their characters from Roseanne for the first time in 20 years. The old Conner living room set was recreated (as best as possible), and we were treated to a skit of Dan and Darlene watching TV, just like the good old days. Only this time, Darlene has something she wants to tell her dad: “I don’t know how to say this. I’m a talk show host.” Dan jokes that he was expecting her to reveal something else….
Of course, the whole joke here is that Gilbert has been an out and proud lesbian since 2010, when she revealed she was gay shortly before launching her show The Talk. Considering that Roseanne was one of the first American sitcoms to portray gay characters as normal everyday folk, I’d like to think that if Darlene actually did come out as a teenager on the series back in the day, Dan and Rosie would have been pretty cool parents about the whole thing. You can watch the entire The Talk skit above.
What did you think of the ever-so-brief Conner family reunion? Let us know your thoughts down below in the comments.
Images: CBS Television
