}
Roseanne Conner Roseanne Conner (née
Harris) is played by
Roseanne Barr. Roseanne, in a takeoff of her stand-up comedic and presumed real-life persona, is a bossy, loud, caustic, overweight, and dominant woman. She is also portrayed as smart, resourceful, and witty. She strives to control the lives of her sister, husband, children, co-workers, and friends. Despite a domineering nature, Roseanne is depicted as being a loving wife and mother who works hard and makes as much time for her husband and children as possible. She and her younger sister, Jackie, are the daughters of Beverly and Al Harris. Roseanne is married to Dan Conner and when the series begins they have three young children: Becky, Darlene, and David Jacob ("D.J."); a fourth child, Jerry Garcia, is born in the eighth season of the series. Roseanne and Dan mostly live paycheck-to-paycheck, raising a family amid the many hardships of poverty, obesity, and domestic troubles with love and humor. Roseanne works at the Wellman Plastics factory at the beginning of the show's run and quits after a conflict with her overbearing boss, Mr. Faber; she leads a walkout that includes Jackie and other co-workers. She is intermittently unemployed and holds jobs as a fast-food restaurant employee, a telemarketer, a bartender, and a shampooer/hair sweeper/receptionist at a beauty salon. Subsequently, she works for several years as a waitress in the luncheonette at Rodbell's department store located in the Lanford Mall (much to the chagrin of her daughters Becky and Darlene, who regularly hang out there). Unlike her slender sister, Roseanne has always had difficulty controlling her weight, inspiring an episode in which she and Dan go on a diet. Her bad dietary habits are shown to be symptomatic of her emotional health, often overeating fattening foods for comfort when stressed or merely for pleasure and reward. Roseanne is happily married, though Dan's laziness in performing household chores occasionally causes friction. A loving mother, she raises her children to be independent, individualistic, and self-sufficient. She is also close to Jackie, who is neurotic, and insecure, and has many short-term romantic relationships. Her relationship with her parents is more complicated. Her passive-aggressive mother, Bev, dotes on her two daughters, but she is often critical, interfering, and sometimes pits Roseanne and Jackie against each other by exploiting their individual insecurities. Roseanne's father, Al, initially portrayed as jovial and easy-going, is later revealed as a philandering husband and an overly-strict father who used corporal punishment to discipline his daughters over minor offenses, leaving Roseanne unable to trust men, including Dan, for many years. Roseanne later co-owns a moderately successful restaurant, the Lanford Lunch Box, along with Jackie, and her friend Nancy. She and Jackie reluctantly accept their mother Bev as a fourth partner when more money is needed to open the business. Her annoying former Rodbell's luncheonette boss, Leon Carp, becomes a partner after Bev sells him her share as retaliation against Jackie and Roseanne for diminishing her role. In Season 9, Roseanne and Jackie win a state lottery in excess of $108 million. At the end of the season, it is revealed that they never won the lottery and most of what previously happened on the show is actually from a fictional book Roseanne wrote. Her account of Dan having an affair was false and he actually suffered a fatal heart attack at the end of Season 8. Roseanne explains that his death was as if he had been unfaithful and left her. However, in Season 10, set twenty years later, the events of Season 9 are
ret-conned out of existence. By this time, Roseanne is still married to Dan and is now a grandmother of three and posthumously of four. In 2018, Roseanne Barr was fired from the show after she wrote a racist
tweet describing
Valerie Jarrett, a black woman and one of President
Barack Obama's senior advisers, as the offspring of the "
Muslim Brotherhood &
Planet of the Apes." In the spin-off
The Conners, Roseanne has died of an accidental opioid overdose. The series, which ran for seven seasons, concluded with Dan suing the company which prescribed the opioid pills for Roseanne. In June 2010,
Entertainment Weekly named Roseanne one of the
100 Greatest Characters of the Last 20 Years. In 2009, she was listed in the Top 5 Classic TV Moms by
Film.com. In May 2012, she was one of the 12 moms chosen by users of
iVillage on their list of "Mommy Dearest: The TV Moms You Love".
AOL named her the 11th Most Memorable Female TV Character.
Dan Conner Daniel "
Dan"
Conner is played by
John Goodman. Dan is Roseanne's husband and father of Becky, Darlene, D.J., and Jerry. Dan is a lovable, good-natured, blue-collar family man who works as a
drywall contractor. Like Roseanne, he is overweight and leads a mostly sedentary life when not working. Although Dan is a steady provider, faithful husband, and a good father, he defers most child-rearing decisions to Roseanne. While Dan is a hard-working contractor, he often shirks household duties, preferring to watch TV when at home. He often seeks refuge in the garage, tinkering on various projects to escape family stresses. In Season 1,
Life and Stuff, an overworked Roseanne berates Dan for not helping enough with domestic chores. When Dan indignantly states he will cook that night's dinner, Roseanne sarcastically exclaims that he "just fixed dinner three years ago". Dan is the only child of Ed and Audrey Conner. When Dan is around forty years old, he gains a half-brother and half-sister after Ed marries Roseanne's friend, Crystal. Dan had an uneasy childhood, and his parents' divorce and his mother's mental illness has taken an emotional toll. Dan often suppresses his feelings, which can affect his reasoning. He unfairly claimed his father, Ed, caused his mother's psychiatric problems, though he gradually accepts that Ed was blameless and actually attempted to shield his son from the truth. Their relationship remains strained, however, and in
The Conners, Ed and Dan no longer communicated. Dan learns of his father's death by reading about it in the obituary column. Ed's passing reunites Dan with his estranged half-brother, Ed, Jr. During the final episode of Season 9, which was later retconned out of existence, Roseanne reveals that the entire series was written as a fictional book based on her life and family in which she selectively altered unpleasant events. Most notably, during the final season, Dan and Roseanne are shown as briefly separating after Dan has a short-lived dalliance with another woman while in California, though he had actually died from his heart attack near the end of Season 8. Writing that he was unfaithful was to express her feelings of anger, loss, and abandonment that his death caused. Dan's potential absence from all or most of season nine prompted Phil Rosenthal of the
Los Angeles Daily News to describe it as a rare occasion where ending the show would be preferred to doing without. Rosenthal described Goodman's potential absence as leaving a tremendous void, owing to his ability to make those acting with him better. The revelation that Dan actually died and the series' being a work of fiction within the show was not well received. In Season 10, which takes place twenty years after Season 9, Dan is alive, married to Roseanne, and now a grandfather of three. Dan is still a contractor and Roseanne earns money as an Uber driver. They struggle financially while navigating the difficulties of growing older amid exorbitant drug prices and rising medical costs. They are unable to afford Roseanne's knee surgery, leading her to abuse pain-killer drugs. The couple are still involved in their grown children's lives, but their "empty nest" grows crowded when Darlene, now a single mother, moves back home with her two children after losing her publishing job in Chicago, creating new conflicts and stresses. In
The Conners, Dan is now a widower, Roseanne having died from an accidental overdose of pain pills. He deeply mourns her death, but after two years begins dating Louise, a former high-school classmate. Dan also becomes a grandfather a fourth time after Becky gives birth to a daughter. Though Dan was the father of four in
Roseanne, youngest son Jerry has been retconned out of existence, and there are only three Conner children. In Season 3, Dan realizes he is too old to continue working as a contractor and retires. He begins working at the hardware store owned by Darlene's boyfriend, Ben. In an article about television dads,
The Post and Courier editor Mindy Spar discussed how '90s TV dads became goofier than dads from earlier decades, calling Dan more like one of the children than the father.
IGN editor Edgar Arce called Dan Conner a prototypical everyman. An article in the
Sarasota Herald-Tribune praised Dan and Roseanne's relationship, calling it realistic and commenting that while they mock each other, viewers can feel their love while they deal with the kinds of problems real families face.
Daily News editor David Bianculli stated that while they were the most entertaining and realistic couple on television, they were one of the least during their separation. Their relationship was included in
TV Guides list of the best TV couples of all time.
Jackie Harris Marjorie Jacqueline "
Jackie"
Harris Goldufski is played by
Laurie Metcalf. Jackie is Roseanne's younger sister by three years. She is a neurotic but a loving, devoted aunt to her nieces and nephews, and later mother to Andy. Jackie is an intelligent, warm, highly sensitive underachiever with chronic low self-esteem. Roseanne seems to be in charge of Jackie's life, which frequently causes conflict between the two sisters; however, Jackie sometimes enjoys having Roseanne mother her, especially when she feels vulnerable. Like Roseanne, Jackie's relationship with their mother is strained, chafing under Bev's constant criticism and disapproval of her life choices. She is closer to her father, but as his past abusive behavior is revealed in later seasons, Jackie is shown as having coped by using selective denial or justifying his behavior. Jackie's character becomes more animated and colorful as the series progresses. Jackie holds numerous jobs: working in the Wellman Plastics factory for several years until the walkout, then becoming a police officer until being injured on the job, then is a truck driver before finally opening the Lanford Lunch Box with Roseanne and Nancy, and also mother Bev as a fourth partner. In Season 10, Jackie is now a life coach. In
The Conners, Jackie, along with Becky, revives the old Lanford Lunch Box when the previous restaurant occupying the space closes, then struggles to keep it afloat during the COVID pandemic, showing her adaptability and perseverance. Jackie often comes up with off-the-wall ideas, but many actually work. Her romantic relationships tend to be short-term and frequently unstable, including one with Fisher, a
domestic abuser. In a plot development that was later retconned out of existence, in Seasons 6/7 Jackie married Dan's city garage co-worker Fred, who impregnated her during a one-night stand. Jackie is initially uninterested in pursuing a further romantic relationship, but gradually warms to Fred and accepts his marriage proposal. Their son, Andy, is born two months before the wedding. The marriage is short-lived, and, though Fred is a stable husband and loving father, the couple share little in common. Jackie eventually finds Fred boring, predictable, and self-centered and briefly seeks out other male companionship, though it is mostly an innocent relationship. She and Fred see a marriage counselor, but Jackie eventually decides she is happier being single. They divorce and Jackie transitions into single motherhood while maintaining a relatively amicable post-divorce relationship with her ex-husband. In the Season 10 reboot and
The Conners spin-off, there is no mention of her ever being married or having a son. In
The Conners Jackie, still single, briefly lived with Peter, an unemployed academic who freeloaded off her until she threw him out for cheating. In Season 3, Jackie begins dating Neville, Louise Guldofski's veterinary brother, though Jackie was initially reluctant to date anyone. They eventually marry at the end of season 4. In Season 6, while in labor, Jackie is shocked when Bev reveals Jackie's birth name is actually Marjorie; the family began calling her Jackie because Roseanne, unable to pronounce the name Marjorie, instead called her baby sister "my Jackie". But in Season 10, Jackie introduces herself to Andrea, the woman looking to hire Becky as her surrogate, as Jacqueline. Despite Jackie's apparent flightiness in the early episodes, she is actually the backbone of the Conner/Harris family in many ways, as Roseanne admits in the last episode of Season 9, and which also reveals that Jackie, not Bev, had come out as a
lesbian during the final season and that Roseanne knew, but had just always pictured her with a man.
Darlene Conner-Olinsky Darlene Conner-Olinsky is played by
Sara Gilbert. She is Dan and Roseanne's second child and younger daughter, born in 1977. Darlene, who has inherited her mother's acerbic sense of humor, is artistic, tomboyish, and socially awkward. In the early seasons, Darlene mostly focuses on sports and, though highly intelligent, underperforms academically. She often mocks her older sister Becky for being a model student, her feminine pursuits, and for chasing boys. As a teenager, Darlene grows increasingly moody and withdrawn, her malaise gradually leading to a brief bout of depression. She is a strong
animal rights activist and becomes a
vegetarian, which closely reflects Gilbert's real-life views. In middle school, Darlene is generally uninterested in boys though she has a few dates. As a high school freshman, she begins dating David Healy (called Kevin Healy in his first appearance, though the name was changed). David (
Johnny Galecki) is the younger brother of Becky's punk boyfriend (later husband) Mark. Darlene is sarcastic and domineering like her mother, often causing the two to clash. Her strong personality dominates the meek David, who usually defers to her. Darlene is a talented aspiring writer and David is a budding
graphic artist, leading them to collaborate on a
graphic novel. Darlene's goal is to become a professional writer and is talented enough to be awarded early admission and a scholarship to an
arts college in
Chicago. After David's application to the same school is declined, he wants Darlene to remain in Lanford. Roseanne says Darlene must first finish high school, but after learning David threatened to break up with her if she goes, she demands Darlene attend, giving Darlene an opportunity to become the writer Roseanne wanted to be. Darlene, who had decided not to attend, reveals her real reason for declining admission is because she fears failing, but finally agrees to go. At college, Darlene begins dating Jimmy while still seeing David, who initially accepts this arrangement in order to be with Darlene. When he later demands she choose between them, Darlene chooses Jimmy, though he later breaks off their relationship due to Darlene's inability to be close. Darlene realizes she still loves David and they reconcile. Darlene and David marry after Darlene becomes pregnant, giving birth to a daughter, Harris Conner-Healy. Harris is born three months premature and David and Darlene must decide whether or not to keep her on
life support or allow nature to determine her fate. Harris proves strong enough to survive on her own. In the final episode of Season 9, it is revealed that Darlene was actually dating Mark, and Becky was with David, though Roseanne had written in her book that Darlene being with David made more sense. However, by the start of Season 10, which takes place twenty years later, this revelation has been retconned out of existence. In Season 10, Darlene is now a single mother of two children, teen daughter Harris and ten-year-old son Mark. Darlene has recently lost her
publishing job, forcing her to move from
Chicago back to Lanford to live with Roseanne and Dan in her childhood home. She initially claimed she moved back to care for her aging parents until Roseanne discovers the real reason. David and Darlene had separated some years before, though David also soon permanently returns to Lanford, wanting to reengage in his children's lives. In
The Conners, Darlene begins a relationship with her new boss, Ben, the editor/publisher of a crime magazine called "Lock 'Em Up". Unlike David, Ben's personality is equally as strong as Darlene's. Although Darlene and David briefly consider reconciling, they agree to divorce. During a joint counseling session with David, Darlene is forced to confront and assess her domineering personality after recognizing it was an underlying factor in David leaving her. When she admits to Ben that she had also been seeing David, Ben, already aware, breaks up with her. They reconcile after Ben loses his magazine to his new corporate partners and Darlene also quits. The two decide to publish their own online crime magazine. In Season 2, they struggle to raise capital for their new venture. When Ben is unsure he has the drive and energy to start over, Darlene offers to take the initiative. In Season 3, Darlene has concerns about their relationship, fearing they may have different goals. By the end of the 4th season, Darlene marries Ben Olinsky (reoccurring character in The Conners.) They move into a house together which is built by her father, Dan. Sara Gilbert was almost rejected for the Darlene role for "not being cute enough."
Becky Conner Rebecca "
Becky"
Conner (later
Healy) is played by
Lecy Goranson (
Sarah Chalke in seasons 6–9). Born in 1975, Becky is the eldest of Roseanne and Dan's children. Becky is introduced to the series as a pre-teen, whose primary interests are centered around makeup, fashion, and boys. While she can be self-centered and occasionally acts spoiled, she actually is the least problematic of the Conner children, maintaining high grades and rarely causing issues for her parents beyond an occasional argument. However, as Becky matures, she grows moody and rebellious, resulting in her and a friend getting drunk on Roseanne and Dan's alcohol while alone in the Conner house. She has several clean-cut boyfriends, but soon prefers dating edgier, punkish guys that Roseanne and Dan disapprove of. They especially dislike her latest boyfriend (and future husband), Mark Healy, particularly after the young couple become sexually active. Becky's ultimate rebellion comes when she is seventeen and drops out of high school to
elope with Mark and move to
Minneapolis. In the year before her elopement, Becky's life was stressful. In addition to schoolwork and working as a cashier to save for a car, she was responsible for maintaining the household and tending her younger siblings while her parents worked long hours. Her breaking point came when she learnt her parents had used her
college fund to pay household bills and, finally, when the family's bike shop failed, forcing her boyfriend Mark, who worked there, to move to Minneapolis for a new job. Unwilling to be without Mark, Becky elopes with him. Unfortunately the move did not result in any long-term financial stability and the couple returned to Lanford. Mark began working at the city garage with Dan, and Becky found a job at a restaurant called Bunz. The two lived in the Conner house before moving into a shabby mobile home at a trailer park. While Mark is content in their marriage, Becky eventually feels constrained by their growing disparities. She wants to attend college, which Mark opposes, fearing it will lead to Becky leaving him. In the final episode of Season 9, it was revealed that Becky was pregnant. In Season 10, however, Becky is childless, though she says she and Mark had tried to have children. In Season 10, set twenty years later, Becky, now widowed, works as a server at a Mexican restaurant in Lanford. Mark's death has left her financially unstable. Becky also appears to be somewhat emotionally stunted and immature, with Darlene commenting she often behaves and dresses like a much younger person. Becky turns to
egg donation and
surrogacy, hoping to earn $50,000 from an affluent couple, though she told them she is ten years younger than her actual age. Her parents strongly oppose Becky's decision, saying she is giving up her child and their grandchild, though she strongly feels she must accept the offer. When the doctor later determines Becky has little chance of conceiving, the couple seek another candidate.
Lecy Goranson played the role of Becky from Season 1 to Season 5. Goranson left the show to attend
Vassar College. Becky's absence is written as her dropping out of high school to elope with Mark and moving to Minneapolis. Producers, however, wanted the character to return but, with Goranson unavailable, they recast the role with Canadian actress
Sarah Chalke. Chalke appeared as Becky starting mid-Season 6 and all of Season 7. Goranson returned as Becky for Season 8. When Goranson's school schedule occasionally conflicted with her filming schedule, Chalke filled in. Goranson, not wanting to put the show through more scheduling conflicts, declined to sign on for Season 9 so Chalke returned full time. In the series revival, Goranson once again played Becky. In Season 10, Goranson, as Becky, and Chalke, as a character named Andrea, meet and comment on how much they resemble one another. The Andrea character hires Becky to be her surrogate; this arrangement fails due to Becky's age (she is 43) making it unlikely she can conceive. In Season 1 of
The Conners, which deals with life after Roseanne's death from an accidental
opiate overdose, Becky, who never expected to get pregnant, announces she is expecting. The child's father, Becky's restaurant coworker Emilio, is an undocumented immigrant from
Mexico and unable to help out financially, as he is a small-wage earner. With her family's support, Becky proceeds with the pregnancy. Becky likes but does not love Emilio, though she later warms to him and accepts his being part of her and her child's lives; Dan hires him as a drywall worker at his construction business, and Jackie tutors him in English. Emilio is subsequently
deported in the
cliffhanger ending to Season 1. In the Season 2 premiere of
The Conners, Becky gives birth to a premature girl whom she names Beverly Rose, after her grandmother and mother, respectively. Becky becomes overwhelmed at the prospect of financially providing for her baby, and returns to work too early, risking her health. Darlene and Dan convince her to move into the house with them, fixing up the basement into a comfortable living space. Much to her family's later disapproval, Becky marries Emilio while visiting him in Mexico, though it is only so he can legally return to the U.S. in two years. She is furious when he illegally returns to Lanford to be with his daughter and risks being permanently deported.
The Conners also reveals that Becky is an
alcoholic; she began abusing alcohol to cope with Mark's death. She stops drinking after becoming pregnant, but suffers a relapse following Beverly Rose's birth, overwhelmed by financial challenges and failed dreams. Her family insists she to go into rehab. During a counseling session, Becky admits that one reason she drinks is her anger at herself for allowing Mark to derail her life goals.
D.J. Conner David Jacob "
D.J."
Conner is played by
Michael Fishman (Sal Barone in the pilot episode). Born in 1981, David, better known by his initials D.J., is the youngest of Roseanne and Dan's children and their only son until the birth of Jerry Conner, in 1995. It is noted that D.J. does well in school, though he seems less intellectually astute than Darlene and Becky. He is naïve and more boisterous than his older sisters, who frequently taunt him. In the first episode of Season 3, it is stated that while Becky and Darlene were planned pregnancies, D.J. was a "surprise". As he grows older, D.J.'s storylines deal with more mature topics such as
masturbation,
sexuality,
racism,
child abuse, and
religion. A growing rebelliousness leads him to become increasingly disrespectful, skipping school, and engaging in other minor mischiefs. When D.J., not yet a teenager, steals and wrecks the family car in Season 6, Roseanne's uncontrolled anger results in her severely hitting him. Later episodes depict D.J. developing a brotherly bond with Becky's husband Mark, who often dispenses incorrect or inappropriate advice. D.J. later shows an artistic side and develops an interest in filmmaking. He wants to videotape Darlene giving birth but continually faints while attempting to watch a childbirth video to prepare. He was among the few characters whose storylines were unaltered in the final episode of Season 9, which has since been ret-conned out of existence. In Season 10, D.J. recently retired from the military and returned home after serving in Syria. He struggles to adapt to civilian life for which he sought counseling. He is the primary parent to his pre-adolescent daughter, Mary, while his wife, Geena Williams Conner, is still serving in the military abroad. D.J. lands a job with a vending machine company, improving his financial situation, but after receiving a promotion, he works long hours, often away from Lanford. He agrees to allow Mary to stay at the Conner house during the week so she will not be home alone.
Crystal Anderson-Conner Crystal Anderson-Conner is played by
Natalie West. Crystal is a close friend of Roseanne, having gone to high school with her and Jackie and later working together with them at Wellman Plastics. A mild-mannered, good-hearted woman, Crystal's kindness is often taken advantage of, even by Roseanne at times. Though Crystal is not oblivious to others using her, she seldom asserts herself, fearing she might lose others' favor or be perceived as unladylike. Crystal's most poignant hallmark is her troubles in dating. At the beginning of the series, she has been married three times. Both her marriages to Rusty and Travis, were fairly short and ended in divorce. (However, in season 1, episode 5, she says she was widowed at 18.) Her third husband Sonny, the father of her son Lonnie, was killed in a construction accident. After, Crystal endures years of bad relationships before gradually kindling a romance with Dan's father Ed, much to Roseanne's surprise and Dan's consternation. When Crystal and Ed become engaged in Season 3, she tells Roseanne she is pregnant. Dan is initially unhappy with either development, further straining his already-difficult relationship with his father. Crystal gives birth to Ed Junior, better known as Little Ed; the following year, she gives birth to her daughter, Angela. Crystal made a few appearances in several revival-era episodes in 2018 and 2019. It is unmentioned if she is still married to Ed Conner. However, in
The Conners, when Ed, Sr. dies, he was living alone in rather shabby circumstances. Little is known about Crystal's background, other than her mother forcing her to leave home at 16 and that she married at 17, shortly after graduating from high school, only to be widowed at 18. Although Crystal still mourns Sonny's death, she acknowledges that she always knew he was cheating on her. Crystal speaks with a
Southern accent despite being a Lanford native; her explanation is that her father was from
Arkansas.
Harris Conner-Healy Harris Conner-Healy is played by
Emma Kenney. She was born
premature and was not expected to survive. Darlene names her Harris Conner-Healy as a tribute to all of the strong women in her family ("Harris" is Roseanne's
maiden name) in the hopes that she'd have the same strength to survive. The elder of Darlene's two children, Harris is now a teenager who inherited her mother and grandmother's sarcastic humor. Having grown up in
Chicago, Harris is unhappy about moving to Lanford and is resentful and hostile towards her family members. As Harris continuously acts indifferent to the needs of others in the household, Roseanne does what Darlene has not: she confronts Harris about her disrespectful behavior. Though Darlene is initially upset, she accepts Roseanne's actions as justified when she discovers that Harris has been selling stolen goods on
Etsy to raise money to move back to Chicago. While Darlene is sympathetic to Harris's unhappiness, she exerts more control over her daughter's life, grounding her and demanding passwords to all of her
social media accounts. There is some discrepancy in the series continuity with regard to the character's age. Darlene announced she was pregnant in a 1996 episode during season 8 of
Roseanne, and Harris was born in a 1997 episode during season 9. This would make Harris 21, not a teenager, at the start of season 10 in 2018. Note that virtually everything that happened in seasons 7-9 of
Roseanne—other than Harris' birth—has been
retconned out of existence in the show's universe, and there is no reason to assume that the date of Harris' birth is not affected by this retcon.
Mark Conner-Healy Mark Conner-Healy is played by Ames McNamara. The younger of Darlene's two children, Mark is a 10-year-old boy with a strong interest in fashion. His interest in things traditionally feminine, such as wearing makeup and skirts, is somewhat worrisome to his grandparents, with Roseanne worried that Mark will be bullied by his narrow-minded peers and Dan feeling that he needs to persuade the youngster to take on more masculine traits. Noticing a classmate make a snide comment to Mark on his first day at school in Lanford, Roseanne threatens his classmates by telling them she is a witch, while Dan gives Mark a pocket knife, which ultimately results in him being called to the principal's office and sent home from school for the day, much to Darlene's chagrin. Despite Roseanne and Dan's concerns, they express support and love for him. Mark is named after his deceased uncle, Mark Healy.
Mary Conner Mary Conner is played by Jayden Rey. Mary is D.J. and Geena's daughter. Mary is named after her deceased great-great-grandmother, Nana Mary. In Season 3, D.J. begins a new job requiring him to work long hours and often in neighboring towns. Although Geena and D.J.'s friends are checking on her throughout the day, Mary tells Darlene she is lonely. Darlene and Becky decide to have her live at the Conner house during the week without first asking D.J. He is initially angry, but relents when Mary says she wants to stay.
Geena Williams-Conner Geena Williams-Conner is played by
Maya Lynne Robinson (
Rae'Ven Larrymore Kelly in season 7 and
Xosha Roquemore in season 10). The African-American wife of D.J. and mother of Mary; she is, like D.J., a military veteran. The character was introduced in a 1994
Roseanne episode wherein D.J. must kiss her for a school play, but is reluctant to do so because she is black (race). D.J. overcomes his prejudices and kisses her for the play; she is not seen on the original show again. In an interview with MEAWW, Robinson explained that the show did not have her character return as a regular, and that she was joining another sitcom as a main character in
The Unicorn. ==Other major characters==