There are many great episodes of The Conners, but the Roseanne spinoff’s best outings perfectly combine relatable family comedy and working-class drama. The Conners has a large cast of characters, but this didn’t make the show’s job easier when the series debuted in 2018. After Roseanne Barr was fired, The Conners was tasked with continuing the story of Roseanne without the show’s title character. This seemed impossible since Barr's heroine was central to the sitcom’s original run and its revival.
However, the fact the show lasted until The Conners season 7 proves it pulled off this unenviable job. The Conners continued without Roseanne and held on to the show’s unique working-class roots. The spin-off's pilot signaled that Roseanne’s exit would not soften the show when The Conners revealed she had died of an opioid overdose. Subsequent episodes continued to tackle hot-button issues like income inequality, miscarriage, deportation, unemployment, and poverty. Despite this, The Conners always found room for some laughs amid the drama.
20 “Miracles”
Season 1, Episode 5
"Muracles" was the episode that introduced Ben (Jay Rowland Ferguson Jr.) to the cast. In this installment, Darlene (Sara Gilbert) gets a new job working for a local crime magazine, where she meets Ben. He is often sarcastic and sullen, and the two butt heads immediately. However, as anyone who has watched Roseanne knows, this is a sign that romance is to come. As Ben becomes a major player in the series in the coming seasons, it is nice to revisit where it all started.
I Cannot Believe How The Conners Season 6 Ended One Roseanne Character's Story
Since The Conners season 6 seemed like it was setting up a major Roseanne character's death, I was totally shocked by where the show went instead.
The episode wasn't just great because it introduced Ben, though. There was also the episode where Becky (Lecy Goranson) announced her late-life pregnancy and her desire to have the baby and raise it as a single mother. The biological father is an illegal immigrant from a one-night stand, and she knows that could cause problems down the line, so she is stuck in this challenging position, something that plays out in the first season of The Conners.
19 “Bridge Over Troubled Conners”
Season 2, Episode 20
The season 2 finale had a lot of issues pop up that helped elevate it into one of the best The Conners episodes in the show's run. This episode really plays into the themes of the original Roseanne series, where a lower-to-middle-class family struggles to get by despite working hard and doing things the right way. Dan is still working hard in a physical labor job at retirement age because he still hasn't paid off his mortgage and is now facing foreclosure.
It really sheds light on a complicated subject that most people don't understand.
Dan has to suck up his pride and try to find a way to keep his house and not have to downsize into an apartment, but he is way too proud to ever ask for help. This is also the episode that follows up the sad moment when ICE deported Emilio back to Mexico, leaving Becky's daughter without a father. Becky chose to marry him so he could be around his daughter as she grew up. It really sheds light on a complicated subject that most people don't understand and only see on the news.
18 “Money, Booze And Lies”
Season 3, Episode 14
This episode shows the struggles that come up when family work together and how it can threaten to tear a family apart. In the second season finale, Dan had asked Ben to move in so he could have a way to keep his home, which was in danger of foreclosure. Ben got Dan a job at the hardware store he owned, getting him out of the hard manual labor to help him. However, this caused problems since Dan felt he was knowledgeable enough for higher pay.
Dan, always proud, demands a share in the hardware store business, which Ben rightfully rejects. This causes a rift that causes Ben to fire Dan, and Dan chooses to evict Ben from the house. This led to changes in Darlene and Ben's relationship since she would always choose her family first, even if they were not always in the right. This episode also has a big moment when Becky drinks wine with an old high school rival, even though she is supposed to stay clean in her recovery.
17 “Protest, Drug Test And One Leaves The Nest"
Season 3, Episode 6
The Conners have always taken a big stand when it comes to topical social issues in the real world. In the season 3 episode, "Protest, Drug Test and One Leaves the Nest," the issue at hand is gender identity. The plant implements a new supervised drug testing policy, so Robin (Alexandra Billings) decides to quit, which no one can understand. When Darlene and Becky pushed the issue because they feared she had a drug dependency problem like their mother, they learned there was more to it than that.
Realizing Robin's desire for privacy, Becky takes a stand.
Robin is transgender and takes hormone-related drugs that would end up being revealed in the drug tests. Realizing Robin's desire for privacy, Becky takes a stand. She ends up being appointed as the drug supervisor since she advocates for drug testing but also wants to help keep people's personal lives private at work. It is another one of The Conners' most important episodes, dealing with transgender issues in an open-minded manner.
16 “Two More Years And A Stolen Rose”
Season 5, Episode 11
William H. Macy has been a major movie star for years and even headlined his own TV show, Shameless, which also dealt with issues of lower-class families trying to make ends meet. However, unlike The Conners and Roseanne before it, Shameless had the family making some of the worst decisions possible, a switch from the Conners' attempts to always do right by each other. In "Two More Years and a Stolen Rose," Macy made a guest appearance as Smitty, Dan's high school rival.
Smitty and Dan had a rough relationship when they were in school. Both of them competed for Roseanne's affections. Dan won Roseanne's heart, but Smity went on to have a more successful life financially. Smitty ends up loaning Dan the money he needs for his new higher mortgage payments, but at the same time, he humiliated Dan in revenge for "stealing" Roseanne from him. It was a tough episode because Dan knew he had to accept the humiliation to make it through hard times.
15 "Slappy Holidays"
Season 2, Episode 7
Thanksgiving episodes can be a hit or a miss for long-running sitcoms, but The Conners season 2's "Slappy Holiday" proved the Roseanne spinoff could handle the holiday and spin it into a story that's both emotional and hilarious. Episode 7 of The Conners season 2 saw Dan finally bringing the entire extended family together for Thanksgiving though, in typical fashion, things don't pan out as he planned. Getting the entire family around the table is tough, especially with snags like Jackie and Becky refusing to attend if Darlene is there.
There were plenty of dramatic moments in "Slappy Holiday" and it's these, combined with the holiday hilarity, that ensures it's considered one of the best episodes of The Conners. There's relatable plot notes throughout the entire season 2 installment, with almost every viewer finding some aspect of Dan's struggles to have a happy Thanksgiving resonating with their own experiences.
14 "The Grad Finale"
Season 5, Episode 22
Much of Mark's character arc in The Conners season 5 revolved around his attempts to find a place at university and his high school graduation, and this came to a head in episode 22, "The Grad Finale". The final episode of The Conners season 5 remains a high point of the show overall, especially due to how masterfully it wound up various narrative arcs from the prior 21 installments.
While Mark was, of course, central to "The Grad Finale", he wasn't the only character focused on, and there were plenty of pivotal moments for the entire roster at the end of The Conners season 5. Of particular note in "The Grad Finale" was the episode finally reconciling with the absence of Johnny Galecki's Roseanne character, David. "The Grade Finale" used this to solidify Ben's position as a father figure for Mark, which was one of the most emotional moments of character development in the entirety of The Conners.
13 "Cheating, Revelations, And A Box Of Doll Heads"
Season 3, Episode 18
The Conners has never been afraid to shy away from dramatic or emotionally intense plot threads, and few episodes display this strenght of the show quite like season 3, episode 18, "Cheating, Revelations, And A Box Of Doll Heads". Both of the two central narratives of the episode were incredibly emotive, and in many ways defied the show being identified as a sitcom. The first dealt with Darlene's attempts to find Mark a tutor, which drove Darlene to the point of emotional exhaustion.
It was one of several moments that The Conners explored what it means to be a good parent, though few episodes of the show that delve into this theme did so quite as deftly. The secondary arc in "Cheating, Revelations, And A Box Of Doll Heads" sees Becky finally confronting the source of her alcohol problems - and it was this incredibly heavy subject matter that cemented the episode as one of the best The Conners installments so far.
12 "Brothers, Babies And Breakdowns"
Season 2, Episode 13
There were many incredibly strong episodes in The Conners season 2, though few can compare to "Brothers, Babies, And Breakdowns" when it comes to skillfully mixing hilarious moments with emotionally poignant ones. The 13th episode of season 2 of The Conners sees Dan having to emotionally process not only the death of his father, but also the wounds said father's death opened up regarding the loss of Roseanne (who, in the show, was killed off between Roseanne and The Conners).
John Goodman's performance as Dan in this episode of The Conners is some of the finest acting of his career so far.
John Goodman's performance as Dan in this episode of The Conners is some of the finest acting of his career so far. Goodman portrays Dan as a man desperate to avoid his own emotions with an unbelievable level of authenticity, and it's one of the plot threads that cemented the reputation of The Conners as one of the most relatable shows currently on air. "Brothers, Babies, And Breakdowns" was also notable due to the re-introduction of Ed Junior, Dan's half-brother, who was last seen as a baby in season 3 of Roseanne.
11 "A Fast Car, A Sudden Loss, And A Slow Decline"
Season 3, Episode 16
Like many of the best episodes of The Conners, season 3's "A Fast Car, A Sudden Loss, And A Slow Decline" stands out due to its mix of humor and exploration of some incredibly emotional subjects. Much like season 2's "Cheating, Revelations, And A Box Of Doll Heads", season 3's "A Fast Car, A Sudden Loss, And A Slow Decline" places Becky's struggles with alcohol in the spotlight, leading to some of the strongest scenes from Levy Goranson in The Conners so far.
However, the truly heartbreaking narrative arc in "A Fast Car, A Sudden Loss, And A Slow Decline" comes from the revelation that Molly Tilden, who was Darlene's nemesis and a neighbor of the family in Roseanne, had ed away from brain cancer. The entire family struggles to come to with the news, especially Darlene. It's an episode with as many heartwarming scenes as there are heartbreaking ones, and easily represents The Conners at its emotive best.
