‘Roseanne’ Cast Reveals Biggest Secrets About Revival

Ever since its premiere, ABC‘s Roseanne reboot has dominated the conversation.

After premiering with monster ratings and earning an early season two renewal, it is clear that viewers are ready to spend a long time with the Conner family, and find out their secrets.

Entertainment Tonight sat down with the cast of the revival, revealing little behind-the-scenes secrets from the sitcom’s eight-episode reboot, including a secret inside joke.

Roseanne ran for nine season during its original run, from 1988 to 1997, and there were many memorable jokes and puns. According to the series stars, one behind-the-scene Easter egg had to be on set for the revival that many viewers were not aware of.

“We used to keep this crazy letter from a crazy fan in the freezer, and that was not there,” Roseanne Barr revealed. “But I found it ’cause I had taken a picture of it or somebody sent it to me, I can’t remember. But, we recreated that and I had that for a surprise for John [Goodman]. I was like, wait till he looks in the freezer!”

The cast also revealed the entire original casts’ willingness to return for the revival series, not hesitating when they first got the call.

“Everybody’s back. When Sara [Gilbert] and Roseanne [Barr] started this, everybody literally picked up the phone and was like, ‘Yes, yes, I’m in. I’m in,’” Sarah Chalke said.

The series also made sure both Beckys, Lecy Goranson and Chalke, would be able to return to series by giving Chalke the new character of Andrea, who wants to hire Becky to be her surrogate.

“They were both such an important part of the cast and we wanted to find a way to have them for us and also for the fans. There are a lot of die-hard fans and we didn’t want to let anybody down,” Sara Gilbert said.

Chalke told Entertainment Tonight she was particularly excited to return to the show in a completely different role.

“I’ll do anything. I’ll play any part you want me to play. I will do transportation, craft service,” she joked. “It was obviously such an incredible job for me the first time around and I learned so much, and I’ve always been grateful to Roseanne for hiring me when I had not done anything.”

And Roseanne didn’t just bring the regular cast back, as we can expect to see some of the biggest recurring characters come back in the new episodes.

“We really are so lucky to have everybody — both the regular cast, but all of the friends are back. To get James Pickens, Jr. to come back and to have Chuck and Anne Marie (Adilah Barnes), to have Crystal back; Natalie West is amazing. Oh, it’s so awesome,” Michael Fishman said.

“And I have to tell you. We got about half our crew back and half the writing staff are people who were with us the first time. So they give us that real authentic feel. Everybody coming back together, it makes everything fit together,” Fishman added.

The series’ stars also dished on the subtle way the show paid homage to original cast member Glen Quinn, who died of a drug overdose in 2002.

The revival addressed his death early in episode one, but Goranson teases the subject will come back in an upcoming installment.

“We actually just did an episode that is about a lot of those emotions surrounding [Glenn’s] passing, and you know, it’s still really funny, don’t worry,” Goranson said. “But it’s addressed in a really tender and humane way and as Becky goes through [it], Becky realizes that she really has almost been stuck since he’s been gone and we do an homage to him in the end. It’s been tough for us because he was such an integral part of our show and such a lovely and talented person, and just wonderful to be around.”

“We really miss him, but we keep him back there and everybody touches his face when they come onstage, and when we take our opening bows,” Barr added, referring to the photo of Quinn’s headshot, which sits in the Conner living room.

Roseanne airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.