Katey Sagal has been on the mend in recent weeks after a driver hit the actress with their Tesla on Oct. 14. Luckily, it seems like she’s set to rebound quickly, according to the producers behind The Conners. Sagal, 67, was walking in a pedestrian crossing in Los Angeles when the driver struck her with their vehicle. (No drugs or alcohol were involved, and the driver was not charged.) In an exclusive interview with PopCulture.com, The Conners executive producers Bruce Helford and Dave Caplan revealed that she was back on set recently. Helford notes her first post-accident episode sees her character, Louise, not moving around much, but after the winter break, they believe she’ll be back in action.
“She was determined to make it back on the set,” Caplan told us. “And of course, we were delighted. We didn’t want to rush her, but we were delighted as soon as she could get back. She said, ‘No, no. I’m coming in.’ And there wasn’t a lot of movement in the scene as Bruce was saying, but she said, ‘I’ll see you guys in January,’ meaning she fully expects to be moving around just fine in a few months.”
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Helford adds, “She’s tough, man. When she was on stage, I could see that she was in some discomfort still. I mean, she went through a lot. You don’t get hit by a car and just walk away from that, but she toughed it out. … We’ve heard recently that she’s feeling that in January, she can be right back where she was.”
It will be great to have Sagal — who’s also known for her roles in Married… With Children and Sons of Anarchy — return for the back half of the season, being as she and Dan Conner (John Goodman) are just starting their marriage. Louise will be trying to make her place clear in the Conners family, and Dan will be doing what he can to make room for her. In the latest episode, which aired on ABC on Wednesday and is now streaming, Dan struggles to fulfill his promise to Louise of throwing out his old bedroom set to buy them one of their own.
“A lot of what’s coming up in the season is really Dan and Louise adjusting to life together,” Helford said. Caplan added, “The furniture’s kind of symbolic of the challenge of squeezing her way into the Conner clan, which is pretty tight-knit. They’ve been through a lot, and they’re close. And there’s a lot of them. And that’s kind of intimidating for Louise on some level. So making room for her furniture is really like making room for her. And while Dan wants to enthusiastically do it, it’s tricky to make room for new memories when you have so many old memories in a place.”
The Conners airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m. ET on ABC. If you miss the show live or need to catch up on Season 4, you can stream episodes via ABC.com or Hulu. Stay tuned for more from our interview with The Conners executive producers Bruce Helford and Dave Caplan.
