'The Conners' Earns Emmy Nomination for Very Special Episode
The Conners was one of the many shows that received some love from the Emmys on Tuesday. The show received a nomination for one of its most significant episodes to date, "The Wedding of Dan and Louise." As the title suggests, the episode saw Dan Conner (John Goodman) marrying Louise (Katey Sagal), whom he sparked a relationship with following the death of his first wife, Roseanne.
The Conners was nominated for Outstanding Cinematography for a Multi-Camera Series for Dan and Louise's wedding episode. The episode aired in October at the beginning of The Conners' fourth season. This isn't the first time that the ABC comedy has been recognized by the Emmys. The show was nominated four times prior and won in 2021 for Outstanding Multi-Camera Picture Editing for a Comedy Series.
"The Wedding of Dan and Louise" was a major one for The Conners, as it saw Dan officially moving on following Roseanne's death. Despite the fact that the event marked a big turning point in Dan's life, some characters were mysteriously missing from the episode including his good friend Chuck (James Pickens Jr.) and Roseanne and Jackie's mother Bev (Estelle Parsons). However, there were simple reasons for their absences, as executive producers Bruce Helford and Dave Caplan explained to TV Line.
"James Pickens Jr., for instance, has this really hardcore schedule over on Grey's Anatomy, and it's very hard for Estelle Parsons to travel right now, so that was all in the midst of the discussion," Helford explained. "There would have been a lot of those people, but they weren't available. We also had in mind that we didn't want to crowd the stage during COVID." After Dan and Louise wed, the pair went through a major adjustment period, which fans got to see take place during Season 4. In an interview with PopCulture.com, Helford and Caplan reflected on this very period.
"A lot of what's coming up in the season is really Dan and Louise adjusting to life together," Helford tells PopCulture.com. 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."