'Roseanne' Returns Home With 2018 Revival on ABC

Original cast members, including Roseanne Barr, John Goodman, Sara Gilbert, Laurie Metcalf and Michael Fishman, will reprise their roles on the eight-episode series.

May 17, 2017

AceShowbiz -

It's been nearly two decades since "Roseanne" signed off the air. However, ABC, the home network of "Roseanne", has handed out an eight-episode straight-to-series order for a revival of the broadly popular family sitcom. The revival is set to be released sometime midseason on the network with exact date announced at a later date.

"We're rebooting 'Roseanne'. It is planned for the midseason. We're still at the early stages," ABC president Channing Dungey confirmed on Tuesday, May 16. She added, "The Conners' joys and struggles are as relevant-and hilarious-today as they were then, and there's really no one better to comment on our modern America than 'Roseanne'."

Original cast members, including Roseanne Barr, John Goodman and Sara Gilbert, are set to return for the revival. Also returning to the sitcom are Laurie Metcalf (Jackie), Michael Fishman (D.J.) and Lecy Goranson (Becky). Sarah Chalke, who portrayed Becky after Lecy in later seasons, will also return in a different role.

Running for nine seasons from 1988-1997 on ABC, "Roseanne" followed the working-class Conner family as they tried to scrape out a living in the fictional town of Lanford, Illinois. The comedy drew 17 million viewers during its final episode.

Roseanne earned one Emmy out of four nominations from the show as well as one Golden Globe out of total five nominations. John also received seven Emmy nominations for his performance on the series and won one Golden Globe among four nominations. Sara, meanwhile, was bested by Laurie in two Emmys' Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series category.

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Roseanne and Sara will serve as executive producers, joining returning EPs Tom Werner and Bruce Helford. With ABC canceling "Last Man Standing" and "Dr. Ken", "Roseanne" will be the only multicamera comedy on the network on its 2017-2018 schedule.

Roseanne shared on her Twitter a portrait of the Conner family reuniting during ABC's upfront presentation on Tuesday, May 16. "Awesome," so she simply captioned the photo.