As one of the most popular comedies on the small screen right now, ABC's The Conners has the pressure of trying to maintain the impressive numbers it earned with its "first" season after shedding the Roseanne branding. A presumably easy way to do that would be to bring back elements that made Season 1 memorable, so The Conners producers are doing just that by trying to re-recruit Sons of Anarchy vet Katey Sagal for an expanded role in Season 2.
Weekly viewers will remember Katey Sagal first entering the Conners-verse in Episode 8 of the first season, titled "O Sister, Where Art Thou?" In the episode, she portrayed Louise, a former Lanford resident who moved back to town and picked up a job as a bartender at Casa Bonita, where Becky works. She also happened to be a former romantic interest of John Goodman's Dan, and though Louise tried to get those embers burning again, Dan ended up turning her down, still mired in the memories of his late wife Roseanne.
It doesn't take much TV sitcom math to figure out that Katey Sagal's return to The Conners won't be to expand upon her interesting in the restaurant industry – although that would be an interesting detour for this show to take with its sophomore effort. Rather, viewers can likely expect to see Louise and Dan becoming closer friends, and possibly even more, depending on how many episodes the writers have planned for Sagal if she's able to return.
The Conners Season 2: What We Know So Far
For now, ABC's advances on Katey Sagal for The Conners' second season aren't being commented on by the network. However, TVLine reports that she'd be returning for a "significant" arc in Season 2, so it's 99.9% likely that Sagal would be reprising Louise for at least two episodes, but hopefully more. The Conners' schedule got greatly expanded for the 2019-2020 season, with 18 episodes as compared to the eleven ordered in Season 1. (Which was itself raised from the ten episodes that were initially ordered.)
Considering Katey Sagal initially gained worldwide popularity as the co-lead on Fox's Married with Children just over 30 years ago, the actress could tackle sitcom-acting in her sleep. Combine that talent with all the praise The Conners' cast and crew heaped on Sagal when she appeared last season, and there's not a lot of mystery behind why the ABC comedy is reportedly looking to sign her up for even more.
At the moment, Katey Sagal's schedule appears to be open enough to allow for a return to The Conners this fall. She currently has a recurring role on ABC's soapy drama Grand Hotel, which is executive produced by Eva Longoria Bastón. (To live in a world where those two actresses are co-leading a major show together...) Beyond that, Sagal doesn't have any widely reported projects in the pipeline.
She did make a surprise appearance in the Season 1 premiere of FX's Mayans M.C., Kurt Sutter and Elgin James' SoCal-set spinoff of the hit drama Sons of Anarchy. Katey Sagal's role of Gemma Teller became arguably as iconic as her stints as Peggy Bundy in Married with Children and as Leela in Futurama, and fans would love to see her return for a Sons prequel series. For now, though, those plans aren't in development, leaving Sagal free to try and woo John Goodman anew.
Are you guys pumped to see Katey Sagal possibly returning to her sitcom roots for more episodes of The Conners this fall? (Or spring, depending on when they would slot those episodes.) Stay connected to CinemaBlend for more Conners talk, and tune into the Season 2 premiere when it hits ABC's fall schedule on Tuesday, September 24, at 8:00 p.m. ET.
