‘The Conners’ Muslim Neighbors Return During Halloween Episode

The Conners welcomed back the family’s Muslim next-door neighbors during the special Halloween episode.

Samir (Alain Washnevsky) and Fatima Al-Harazi (Anne Bedian) — who were first introduced during the Roseanne revival in an episode that sparked conversations — made a surprise return to the series during Tuesday’s new episode taking place on Halloween night.

As Dan prepared the house’s exterior decorations, the Al-Harazis and their son arrive for the party and wish him a Happy Halloween.

“Do not fear, it is not the real invisible man, it is our son Hassim,” Samir says.

“I don’t see anybody,” Dan jokes.

“I’m right here,” the boy says, before going inside.

“Thank you for inviting us over for Halloween,” Samir adds.

“We weren’t so thrilled about Halloween because last year you people vandalized us,” Fatima says, before Dan defends himself by saying it was a prank for the whole neighborhood.

“We thought about not doing your house but we thought you might feel discriminated against,” Dan adds.

The couple’s return comes a few weeks after The Conners showrunner Bruce Helford revealed the family would be coming back in some capacity to the series, and given that they live next door, we should expect to see them sporadically on the show.

“We definitely want them to return,” Helford told The Hollywood Reporter. “They’re their neighbors. They live right next door, so we definitely want to see more of them.”

Samir and Fatima were first introduced on Roseanne in an episode which featured the titular character (Roseanne Barr) walking next door to ask for their Wi-Fi password so they could talk to Geena overseas.

The episode started with Roseanne Conner being hesitant to approach her Muslim neighbors, fearing they could be terrorists, though she overcame her prejudice by the episode’s end and grew very close to the couple. The storyline was an idea Barr herself brought to the writers when the revival was in the works.

“Roseanne said, ‘what if a Muslim family lives next door?’ And all of the writers looked at each other for like five seconds and we said, ‘yeah… we’re doing that,’” Roseanne co-executive producer David Caplan said at the time.

As previously reported, Roseanne was canceled by ABC in May after Barr posted a racist tweet about Valerie Jarrett.

The shocking cancellation led to the creation of spinoff series The Conners, which after its first two episodes, has cemented its title as the No. 1 new comedy for the 2018-19 season. The series has been upgraded to an 11-episode first season.

The Conners airs Tuesdays at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.