‘The Conners’: How The ‘Roseanne’ Reboot Celebrated 100 Episodes & Whether The Producers Expect To Do More
11.04.2024 - 02:13
/ deadline.com
SPOILER ALERT! This story contains plot points from Wednesday’s episode of The Conners on ABC.
The Conners celebrated a big milestone — 100 episodes! — by doing what it does best: telling stories about small-town life and reminding folks that it has one of the most experienced ensembles on broadcast TV. Here, executive producers Bruce Helford and Dave Caplan talk about their six-season odyssey and whether it’s time to start planning for a seventh year on ABC.
DEADLINE: I still remember the day when former ABC Entertainment President Channing Dungey abruptly canceled the Roseanne reboot. And now, the spinoff, The Conners, is celebrating 100 episodes.
DAVE CAPLAN: We have a hard time believing that ourselves.
BRUCE HELFORD:There are a couple of milestones. This is the first time to have the whole cast of a show hit the 100-episode milestone twice.
DEADLINE: Because you are celebrating 100 episodes, did you purposely give a shout-out to old Roseanne characters like Nana Mary and Crystal Anderson-Conner?
HELFORD: It worked into the story and we thought it would be nice. I don’t know how many people remember that Shelley Winters played the grandmother on the show, the mother of Stella Parsons [Beverly Harris]. We’re very proud of that. And Crystal was always a wonderful part of the show. We haven’t really had a way to work her voice into this, so this was a nice way to bring her back.
DEADLINE: The smash and grab storyline at the hardware store was a pretty clever to way to go, especially given how relevant it is these days.
CAPLAN:We weren’t really trying to do an issue show, per se. We were just trying to examine what happens in the life of a small town business and how the odds are so stacked against those little