The Conners Season 7 cast and character guide: Meet the new and returning actors

The seventh season of The Conners recently premiered on March 26. The Conners season 7 also marks the final installment of the comedy show, bringing an end to the story that first made waves back in the early 1990s.

With a few exceptions, almost the entire recurring cast of The Conners is back for it's final season. It was previously reported by the showrunners that Johnny Galecki's character of David Healy would be spinning from the final season of the Roseanne spinoff.

Here's everything we know about the cast and characters of The Conners season seven.

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The Conners season 7 cast and character guide explored in detail

Keep reading to learn more about the characters from the ABC show and the actors who play them including their career journeys and notable projects.

1) Laurie Metcalf plays Jackie Harris

The character of Jackie Harris was first introduced as Roseanne's sister. She had traumatic upbringing after she was abused by her own father. The trauma never stopped chasing her as she went onto have several troubling relationships which led to her falling out with Roseanne. After Roseanne's death, Jackie's position in their family became untenable. Jackie provided support and comfort to their mother Bev after the latter fell prey to dementia.

Born in Carbondale, Illinois back on June 16, 1955, The Conners star Laurie Metcalf has had a long and fruitful career ever since 1978. She was present on the original Roseanne and played the character of Jackie's mother. Despite this, her most widely-known character to date has undoubtedly been Sheldon Cooper's mother Mary Cooper on The Big Bang Theory. Over the years Metcalf has time and again appeared on several sitcoms and television dramas, most recently including Elsbeth.

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2) Sara Gilbert plays Darlene Conner

There have been several phases of Darlene Cooper's life portrayed on the show. She started out as a whimsical and rebellious teenager who was sort of an underperformer at school owing to her struggles with depression. She dwelled in creative writing and and was fond of her father. Although she had several failed relationship in life, none of them affected her as much as her broken marriage with her boyfriend David.

The Conners star Sara Gilbert is another actor who broke out to fame with her portrayal of Darlene on the original Roseanne. She is also remembered for playing the character of Jane Figler on the seminal medical drama ER. Melissa Gilbert, the star associated with Little House on the Prairie is her sister. Apart from being an artist, Gilbert is also a producer on the ABC show.

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3) John Goodman plays Dan Conner

Dan Conner is the prominent patriarch of the family. Following the death of Roseanne, Dan has been trying to keep his family together. Dan's struggles have been further magnified now as all of his children have grown up and have issues of their own. It is interesting to note that he was shown to have died during the series finale of Roseanne's original run, but was once again brought back to life in the tenth installment of the show.

The Conners star John Goodman rose to fame with his moving portrayal of the blue collar worker Dan Conner on the original show. He was born in Afton, Missouri and has worked in both films and television. His notable works include The Borrowers, King Ralph and several of the films by director duo Coen Brothers viz. Barton Fink and Inside Llewelyn Davis.

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4) Lecy Goranson plays Becky Conner

Becky is the eldest among her siblings in the Conner family. From an early age Becky was looked upon as the care-giver for her younger siblings who were often entrusted to her care. A major turning point in Becky's life came when she reached adulted and became pregnant after having casual sex with an immigrant worker. The worker was subsequently deported and Becky went on to develop a relationship with Tyler in the sixth season of the show.

Lecy Goranson, also known as Alicia Goranson, hails from Evanston, Illinois. Like the others in this list, she found stardom with and was an integral part of Roseanne. She has also made appearances on the TV shows Fringe, Damages and Law & Order: SVU. Her film credits include the 1999 film Boys Don't Cry.

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Apart from these four prominent actors and their characters, The Conners season seven also features Seth Green as Chad, Jane Lynch as Jean, Sean Austin as Tyler and Zoe Perry as a police officer.

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Executive Producer opens up on The Conners season 7

The Conners executive producers Bruce Helford and Dave Caplan recently spoke in an exclusive interview with The Wrap wherein they revealed their process and approach to creating the latest installment of the ABC show. When asked their process of writing, Helford revealed:

"When we did the “Roseanne” reboot, the idea was to do one season just to finish off the original “Roseanne” in a better way than the lottery and all that stuff. Then that blew up and we had to do a new show. We thought we’d do another year to clear up the legacy of that mess. I tell you, we never expected it to go seven years. We were very happy that it went that way. But every year we had no contracts. Every year we had to decide whether we wanted to continue doing it or not, and we all decided to keep doing it each year. We were having fun and felt that the work was of quality. But we knew that there had to be a time, ultimately, where it had to come to an end."

He further added:

"So then we put our heads together… How do we want to be remembered? That was the original purpose. And also how to make this a six-episode event. A lot of times people just tune in for the last episode. We wanted this to be something special. So it’s six episodes that are all linked very carefully."

The Conners EP Caplan seconded Helford when he remarked:

"It was daunting to try to resolve the arcs of all the Conner characters in six episodes … But we did feel like there were big questions for especially the four main characters that had to be resolved. So we understood the marching orders, and we just had to get it done in six."

The Conners season 7 is exclusively available on ABC.