The ‘Roseanne’ Character ‘The Conners’ Totally Wiped From Existence

In the wake of the Roseanne, ABC forged ahead with The Conners. Although, one member of the Conner family hasn’t been seen or heard from. During the Halloween episode that aired in October 2020, Becky (Lecy Goranson) mentioned that she is one of Dan (John Goodman) and Roseanne’s three children alongside Darlene (Sara Gilbert) and DJ (Michael Fishman). Dan would go on to confirm her statement by saying that he and his late wife “had one favorite and two backups,” essentially wiping their youngest child, Jerry Garcia Conner, from existence. After the episode aired, The Conners showrunner Brad Helford clarified the situation in an interview with TVLine.

Jerry has not appeared in person on the Roseanne revival or on The Conners. But, during the initial revival of the comedy series, the show did mention the character, as Roseanne (Roseanne Barr) said that he was away on a fishing trip in Alaska. But, based on the latest episode of The Conners, it appears as though his existence has been completely wiped from the show. Helford explained that when ABC revived Roseanne in 2018, “we decided that some of the things from the 8th and 9th seasons wouldn’t apply, as they were either limiting to opening new creative roads for the characters or part of the ‘dream’ period, like winning the lottery. We didn’t really have room to add Jerry Garcia, but we had a soft spot in our hearts for him, so we put him on a fishing boat and said he rarely contacted the family.”

The showrunner continued to explain that with new characters joining the series (including Darlene’s on-again, off-again boyfriend Ben and Becky’s ex Emilio), there simply wasn’t space for Jerry on The Conners. “As we moved on to The Conners,” Helford continued, “we decided that, with the wonderful additions of Ben, Louise and Emilio, our cast was large enough to do stories for 40 episodes a season, and that since we hadn’t brought him up in three years, we wouldn’t pick up on the narrative of Jerry.” 

Even though the show has not touched upon Jerry’s story on The Conners, Helford didn’t rule out bringing up his story again on the ABC series sometime in the future. “Dan said he only had three children, but is he so angry at Jerry, for something we learn about later, that he denies him as a son?” Helford added, “We’ll just have to wait and see.”