I had a lot of pretty cool experiences in 2017, both in my personal and professional life. I went to 10 countries last year, visited countless sets and met many actors and actresses...including the CAST OF ROSEANNE. Yes! ROSEANNE! If you haven't heard yet, Roseanne is baaaack on ABC as of today, March 27th, and it's better than ever!
As a Generation Xer, I grew up with Roseanne on TV and always loved how real the characters and stories were. It was one of my favorite shows as a young teen, and when I heard that Roseanne was coming back to TV, I was excited beyond words...and then I found out that I was GOING TO VISIT THE SET OF ROSEANNE and I almost died.
Photo credit: Louise Bishop of MomStart.com
SPOILER ALERT: DAN IS ALIVE.
First things first, let's talk about the cast. Sara Gilbert is still Darlene Conner, Lecy Goranson is still Becky Conner-Healy, and Michael Fishman is still D.J. Conner - as well as Roseanne playing herself and good old John Goodman as Dan. "The Other Becky," Sarah Chalk, will be on the show as well, but in a different role. While we did get to meet Roseanne for a brief moment and take that amazing photo above, we actually got to sit down with "the kids" and have a talk about the show and what it meant to them to come back into America's living rooms this Spring.
Photo Credit: ABC/Robert Trachtenberg
Behind the Scenes Roseanne Interviews
Roseanne went off the air so long ago that many young people have never even heard of the show (their loss, for sure). Not that I am complaining of course, but why the decision to bring it back now? Sara Gilbert is an executive producer on the show and she answered that question for us...
Sara Gilbert said, “I feel like this is a working-class family that can have varying political views, even within the family, but still love each other. I thought, what a great way to try to help unite people and have people listen to each other. I strongly believe that we can disagree without being so divided. So, I’m hoping that we can help in that way. It’s almost like a hybrid between a comedy and a drama. You know, it doesn’t just feel like a sitcom. Sometimes we’re doing it and it’s like, wow, this is heavy, but we handle everything with humor. It’s exciting because we deal with all these heavy topics, you wanna be able to make an impact and help people see their stories represented on television. So, I feel really proud that I think we’re doing that, at least to some degree.”
Michael Fishman weighed in as well: “The show resonates with people because we deal with real-life topics, and it’s not always pretty and it’s not always easy. And real life’s not, either.”
Photo credit: Louise Bishop of MomStart.com
There are going to be new cast members, of course, as the kids are all grown up now with families of their own. The set...well, let's just say that it's going to feel like going home again!
During our interviews, the cast said that there would be some things brought back from the original series, or recreated if those items were lost - like the chicken tee shirt.
“People show up with shirts from the original run that were jokes then,” said Michael. “We’ve seen the meat stinks shirt. I saw a Wellman’s Plastics shirt the other day.” I don't know why this excites me so much, but it does. I am a sucker for throwbacks!
I won't lie...my favorite part of the whole NEW Roseanne experience was...taking a photo with Sara Gilbert and finally realizing why I have heard all of my life that I look like Darlene...
I never really saw the resemblance until I was standing next to her and we were totally twinning, down to the hair and style of jacket we were wearing!
The NEW Roseanne series premiers on ABC March 27th, don't miss it!
Get Social with the NEW Roseanne!
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