Bobo’s return coincides with the arrival of William H. Macy, who is set to play Smitty Cusamano, a former classmate of Dan, Louise and Jackie who left Lanford to find his fortune. In the episode, Smitty is one of several classmates who returns to the Illinois suburb following the passing of a beloved teacher.
The guest spot reunites Macy with Shameless costars Emma Kenney (who played Frank’s daughter Debbie) and Katey Sagal (who recurred in Seasons 9 and 10 of the Showtime drama as Frank’s girlfriend, Dr. Ingrid Jones).
Scroll down to see additional photos from The Conners‘ winter premiere, then hit the comments with your reactions to Bobo’s comeback. Is this the Roseanne character you had in mind to return?
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LOL to all the people who confidently predicted George Clooney.
Well, given the build-up, one could conclude it was an educated guess. This is a real disappointment. Who cares about that character?
Well, that certainly was a payoff not worth waiting for. I figured Booker would be a reach, but still they could have come up with an actor whose biggest claim to fame is that he was the first guy to play the Marvel version of Thor in a Hulk TV movie in the 80s and DL Hughley’s nutty next-door neighbor in the 90s.6
Eric Allan Kramer is not super famous but his biggest claim to fame by far is starring as Bob Duncan on Good Luck Charlie. That was a tv show that ran for 4 seasons and had a Christmas movie on the Disney channel.
What a major disappointment – big time!
Agreed. Major disappointment
What a let down. Much like this show in general. It’s like they watched only the first season of Roseanne and have tried to emulate it ever since. Any true fan of the original knows seasons 3-6 are prime Roseanne.
To add to the intertwining of cast of shows the actors have appeared on…they need to add David Spade to be a relative of Macy’s character.
(Reuniting Segal and Spade)
Those 2 would really work as brothers or even father/son.
We gave up on this show after one season.
That would have been an awesome storyline. If George Clooney came back, he could have been a part of a love triangle with Jackie. But then again, he could have been a twin or even a stranger in town that falls for Jackie.
I was hoping for Leon.
Me too, Rick. William H Macy is a good addition. Will give Bobo a chance, though.
So Bobo is really the dad from Good Luck Charlie. Never realized that.
I recognized him right away in the pics. He’s bulked up since his Disney days (and he was no slouch back then), but he’s still very recognizable to me. Lol.
Say what now? Oh yes, someone true Roseanne fans will appreciate. Not. 🫠
Bring Roseanne back! Or her “twin!” It’s been long enough with the punishment. And for a double whammy I’d have Kathy Griffin with her. While I’d love ABC to produce my horror set to action series in my books, I think a network showing compassion to someone who made a mistake would be far more recognizable and receiving than the, “how dare they’s,” online trolls would have a field day with.
It would certainly give the talking-heads their sinister grins as they chat about ABC on EVERY OTHER NETWORK!
If you like my twisted thinking here; what you’ll find my trilogy a wonderful page-turning treat!
I hate hitting “send” before proofreading.
I was just thinking the same thing! I hope he has a good editor for his “wonderful page-turning treat.”
Maybe they’ll make a season finale where all the seasons of The Connors were just Roseanne’s dream of what would happen if she died…
We know that works!
The show isn’t the same without Roseanne so this would work. Don’t watch the Conner’s
I think it would be real interesting if say, Roseanne herself showed up at the door selling something or something like that and of course NOT be her but a look a like and see how Dan and the family react to that
Do we know what tragic event in the U.S. the “bully” will mock?
I’m sorry – You cannot tell me that nobody who works on The Conner’s (writers, actors, crew, etc.) didn’t realize that Dan’s MIL’s comments about coming from Wisconsin, combined with the “thump thumps” and the band remark were something that they never associated with the horrific events that happened in Wisconsin.
They did that to get ratings….I am so sick of TV shows that do that at the expense of victims.
I don’t remember Bobo. I thought the surprise return guest would be George Clooney.
Since there’s no back story beyond the two scenes, it doesn’t make sense to bring him back. I’d love to see an episode with the Bowmans. There’s more of a story there.
The actress who played Kathy Bowman appeared a couple of seasons ago as the mother of one of the kids’ classmates. Or maybe grandmother. But she was a new character
I hope they bring back that guy who sat at the Lunch Box counter in one of the episodes in the fifth season.
You mean that crazy british guy who yelled at Roseanne and got all intense? Yeah, I’d like to see that. I’d also like to see Tim Curry’s jerk thief character return, as well as Becky’s boss when she was a cashier. The one who called her a bad word.
Well that was a disappointing reveal! I don’t really care that he’ll be appearing, I care that they’ve teased this for a couple of months now and made it sound as though a major recurring character (my thoughts were Leon) would be returning. This is just silly and didn’t warrant the hoopla
That said, this season has been my favorite of The Connors, it’s made me laugh out loud many times this year, so I’m sure it’ll be a good episode
Let’s be honest about this. The Conners producers weren’t going to have 2 large name guest stars in the same episode. William H. Macy has the spotlight in this episode. Of course they were going to use a lesser known character from Roseanne in this case. This doesn’t mean that they won’t bring other Roseanne alum back.
I think we’re all disappointed. Everyone thought it would be George Clooney, if not, then Martin Mull as Leon
Lame.
Sounds good but too bad they killed off Rosanne. It would have been great if she was still alive somewhere and able to return one day.
I agree Bring back Rosanne It was her show & time to get over a stupid comment move on & bring her back I don’t watch the Connors cause she is not in it I hope she gets her own show
After all the build up to this, my reaction was…big deal.
Seriously I don’t know who this actor is or remember the character. This has been much ado about nothing of this is the big reveal. I was really hoping we would get a cameo from George Clooney.
The only character that should return from Roseanne’s past is Roseanne.
Ooooh, plot twist, the show becomes a spinoff of The Walking Dead with Roseanne’s dead and rotting body attacking the family, who is desperately trying to get a head shot on her.
Cuz that’s the only way a dead character could come back from the dead after several years… or turning the show into a Days of Our Lives clone.
Not sure, but I think Rosanne signed over all her rights to her show that she built-up for years to ABC. That along with all rerun rights. That was her punishment from ABC for making a “joke” that was not politically correct. ABC apparently had to have “everything” from her to continue on with the Connors. I might be wrong about this. It just seems I remember reading something like this when ABC kicked her off her own show. I haven’t watched the Connors since the first episode, because without Rosanne, the show is nothing to me.
Yes Rosanne had to sigh all of her rights away to the show and I agree with you the show is nothing without her and no matter what they do it will never be the same without her, Rosanne didn’t deserve to be treated that way
This show stinks without Rosanne.
That’s what we call a lot of hype and very little payoff.