An Iconic Piece of ‘The Conners’ History is Up For Grabs

When The Conners ended its seven-season run on ABC, fans said goodbye to the cast, the characters, and, yes, even the couch. The Conner clan’s iconic couch has been part of the story ever since the original series, Roseanne, made its debut in 1988.

Thirty-seven years later, the original brown plaid sofa and colorful afghan are up for bid via Juliens Auctions. The famous pieces will be part of a lot featured at the Broadcast to Binge auction, which takes place May 7–8 at Julien’s Studios in Los Angeles, CA. The event will be streamed for online bidders, starting at 10 a.m. PT. The famous sofa/afghan combo is expected to fetch upwards of $40,000.

The sofa that will be up for auction is the original piece that was featured in all 222 episodes of Roseanne, per the listing. It was originally purchased from a Sears store by the show’s production designer.

As for where it’s been all these years, the couch made a pitstop at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History and was later under the watch of Museum of TV curator James Comisar. 

Comisar told TMZ that the sofa was long stored in a warehouse in L.A., and that he was contacted about it when the Roseanne revival came up in 2018. Because he had strict rules about the care of the piece due to worry that it could get damaged, the network created a replica for the reboot instead.

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Executive producer Bruce Rasmussen revealed to The New York Post that while his team hoped to use the original couch for the revival, which would later spinoff into The Conners, the cost was too high. 

“Somebody bought [the couch],” he said. “And the guy wanted like $2,000 for the couch. We said, ‘We can make it for like $75.’ So, we remade the exact couch … we didn’t buy the couch from the guy.”

The 2018 reboot opened with a shot of the plaid couch, and The Conners spinoff ended with a long last look at it as patriarch Dan Conner (John Goodman) bid viewers a goodnight.

Showrunner Bruce Helford said the shots of the lone couch were “always intentional.”

 “That couch is so iconic, and to me, it represents the couch the audience sits on to watch the show. It’s like, 'Our couch is your couch,’” he explained to TVLine.

Related: John Goodman Had Special Request for Ending to ‘The Conners’