‘The Conners’: New Teaser Shows Empty Kitchen Without Roseanne

The latest teaser for The Conners brings fans right back into the family home, anticipating the premiere in five weeks.

The new spinoff series is almost here, and the show is looking to drum up some hype. After months of contract negotiations, rumors and hot takes on social media, The Conners‘ official Twitter account posted a teaser on Sunday asking the big question behind the show: “What’s next?”

The video shows the Conner family’s kitchen, just as it has always been since the 1980s. As the camera zooms in on the empty room, Carly Simon’s “Anticipation” plays for 15 seconds. The teaser then reminds fans that The Conners premieres on Tuesday, Oct. 16 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.

The 1970s classic song has been used in two other Twitter teasers for the show recently. On Friday, The Conners‘ account posted a similar video of the family home from the outside. A week earlier, a teaser showed the iconic couch in the familiar living room.

“What’s next?” is an apt question for the upcoming sitcom. The show will pick up right where the Roseanne reboot left off, but without Roseanne Barr. The show will have to handle the sudden loss of its eponymous star, and do so without sacrificing any punchlines.

Roseanne Conner could die an off-screen death with the season following the family through their grieving process. This would be a narrative feat for a show expected to deliver laughs on cue, but the producers are keeping tight-lipped.

“All I can say is that she will not be there,” said showrunner Bruce Helford in an interview with TV Line this week. “We don’t shy away from the heavy moments. I don’t know that there’s any show that can better handle [such a weighty storyline].”

Still, series star John Goodman suggested Roseanne would be dead in the new series. Last week, he gave an interview with The Sunday Times, casually throwing out the idea.

“It’s an unknown,” he said of Dan Conner. “I guess he’ll be mopey and sad because his wife’s dead.”

Goodman also expressed his shock that ABC had canceled the Roseanne reboot

“[B]ut I thought, ‘OK, it’s just show business, I’m going to let it go,’” Goodman said. “But I went through a period, about a month, where I was very depressed. I’m a depressive anyway, so any excuse that I can get to lower myself, I will. But that had a great deal to do with it, more than I wanted to admit. I’ll put it this way, I was surprised at the response … And that’s probably all I should say about it.”

Roseanne was canceled after Barr — the show’s creator, producer and star — posted a tweet comparing an African-American former politician, Valerie Jarrett, to a character from Planet of the Apes and a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

The Conners premieres on Tuesday, Oct. 16 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.