John Goodman Is Downwardly Mobile

Roseanne fans now have another reason to look forward to the upcoming fall season. It was previously announced that NBC had ordered a pilot for a new multi-camera sitcom called Downwardly Mobile, which will mark the return of the original "domestic goddess" (not to mention current presidential candidate) Roseanne Barr to series television for the first time since her classic self-titled sitcom finished it's 9th and final season in 1997.

Well, if that wasn't tempting enough for Roseanne fans, Entertainment Weekly now reports that NBC has signed up her former sitcom husband John Goodman as a regular on the new series as well. Roseanne and Dan Conner are back together?! Well, sort of. Roseanne will be playing the head of a mobile home park, who also watches over and acts as a kind of mother figure to it's residents. Goodman is now set to play a character who both works at the park and is a friend to it's boss.

As a big fan of Roseanne (the show), this news has made me a lock to at least check out the first few episodes of Downwardly Mobile in the fall. Few married couples in the history of television had more chemistry than the Conners. Half the fun of the show was watching Barr and Goodman play off of and make each other laugh throughout each episode. Hopefully this marks a career turnaround for Roseanne, as her last few TV ventures (a syndicated daytime talk show, and reality series' The Real Roseanne Show and Roseanne's Nuts) have all fallen flat both with viewers and critics. She's certainly fallen far from the pedestal she occupied when her sitcom was near the top of the ratings for the majority of its run.

Why Goodman would take this role is a little more unclear. He still has a great career of both supporting parts in film (recent Oscar nominee The Artist for example) and well received guest spots on TV (such as the Vice Dean on Community) going and the only real reason I can think that he would agree to be a regular on a fledgling new comedy is out of friendship and/or loyalty to Roseanne herself. John certainly doesn't need the work.

Will you tune in for the premiere of Downwardly Mobile? Does John Goodman's casting increase the chances of that happening? Tell us about it in the comments.