22-04-2025
The Conners EPs Reveal the Roseanne Vets They Wanted — But Never Got Back
When it comes to regrets, the executive producers of ABC's The Conners have a few.
'Martin Mull passed before we had a chance to [bring back Leon],' Bruce Helford laments. 'We would have liked Johnny [Galecki] to come back [as David after Season 2], but we respected that….'
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'And we never got Clooney!' fellow EP Dave Caplan interjects. 'I don't know what the hell else he was doing that was more important!'
That, of course, would be George Clooney, who was a relative unknown when he recurred as Wellman Plastics foreman Booker Brooks during Season 1 of Roseanne.
'We did reach out to him numerous times,' Helford reveals, 'and he said, 'You know that I would, but if I do it for you guys, I gotta do it for everybody I've ever worked with who has a TV show because it would be wrong for me not to,' so that was his out on that.' (TVLine has reached out to Clooney's reps for comment.)
As for Mull, Caplan tells TVLine that they tossed around ideas for The Lunch Box's former co-owner after they secured a final-season order: 'His name came up in the writers' room about what we can do, but then it became a moot issue [once Mull died last June].'
According to Helford, had Mull been alive, 'It would have been a conversation, definitely for the finale.'
As TVLine previously reported, neither Michael Fishman (DJ) nor Estelle Parsons (Bev) will appear in Wednesday's franchise closer. Regarding Parsons, Helford maintains that they were 'very fortunate' to get the Oscar-winning nonagenarian back for 12 episodes since Roseanne's 2018 return. 'We weren't able to bring her in for this,' he says. 'It was just too much. But we do mention that she's still out there in America, wandering around.'
series finale airs Wednesday at 8/7c on ABC (and streams next day on Hulu).
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