Even though The Conners’ sixth season was delayed from its usual Fall TV slot, and was added to the 2024 TV schedule as a midseason arrival, the wait was worth it for audiences waiting to see the family get a few wins in their personal and professional lives. The season premiere, which featured guest star Nick Offerman, relit Jackie’s spark for the Lunch Box, and gave Darlene a reminder about her journalistic dreams. And now fans can look forward to seeing more from Lecy Goranson’s Becky and Sean Astin’s Tyler!
Introduced as a Season 5 love interest, Astin’s Tyler was confirmed to be returning in the first Season 6 trailer, and when CinemaBlend spoke with The Conners cast ahead of the season, I was enthused to ask Goranson about her character’s romantic future. And while she obviously couldn’t go into major details about his return in the Valentine’s Day episode, the actress seemed adorably pleased with Becky and Tyler’s current status. Here’s how she put it:
Well, I feel like finally Becky has a good guy. I mean, that's not true. She's had some good guys, but it hasn't really gelled. But this guy has a good job; that helps. But yeah, I think now that she has this boyfriend, the next step is how is he going to fit into this family and that, with the Conners, is always no small task. There's a lot of things that could happen. It's basically throwing him into the lion's den. But he's tough and he's just a wonderful, wonderful person. A wonderful character, loving, [and he] loves Becky. So I feel pretty lucky. I mean if Jackie can shack up with someone, come on.
Speaking to her first point, I think we can all appreciate Tyler for being a good guy without necessarily crapping all over the dudes in Becky’s past. She and Emilio had a good thing going that just wasn’t meant to last, despite their daughter Beverly Rose. Becky getting lucky in Season 4 with Darien Sills-Evans' Mikey was another fun jaunt, as was her fling with Matt Walsh’s prof Glen, but no one has seemed to click all the boxes quite like Astin’s Tyler.
I mean, she's already talking about him "loving" her. So either he's an undeniable catch, or he's an obsessive weirdo. Which could still technically qualify as a catch.
Beyond the personal chemistry, it’s all about earning regular income and being able to co-exist with the rest of the Conners without going cuckoo bananas for one reason or another. He’s set up to meet Beverly Rose and attempt some bonding with the rest of the clan in the V-Day episode, titled “Valentine's Day Treats and Credit Card Cheats,” so if he can survive that, he can survive anything. Which is totally a lie, since there are plenty of ways things could go way worse in the future. But for now, it would be the biggest W possible.
But while we’re obviously keeping all the optimism alive, Lecy Goranson joked that fans probably won’t be witnessing Becky and Tyler sharing the aisle with other family members à la the Dan/Louise and Jackie/Neville wedding. In her words:
I don't know if there's going to be any like mass weddings with Puddle the Clown or anything.
Showrunner Bruce Helford and executive producer Dave Caplan, who recently teased upcoming storylines involving Louise and Bev, told me at the end of Season 5 that they were indeed hoping to get Sean Astin back in the future, albeit without knowing at the time how much the SAG-AFTRA strike was going to disrupt the industry. Here’s how they put it back in May 2023:
Becky’s gonna have a boyfriend. We really, really love the chemistry between her and Sean Astin. We didn’t really have a chance to capitalize on that this season, but we’re looking forward to bringing him back next season and giving her an arc regarding maybe finding a relationship that works long term.
So if there’s anyone out there who has their own potential love interest that they hope to get closer with in the coming months, just have The Conners’ creative team script it out, and it might just work like a charm.
To see just how long-term that relationship might be, tune into new episodes of The Conners every Wednesday night on ABC at 8:00 p.m. ET, which are streaming the next day with a Hulu subscription.
