‘The Conners’ star Emma Kenney reacts to on-screen dad Johnny Galecki’s controversial backstory
Has “The Conners” said goodbye to Johnny Galecki’s David for good? It’s quite possible.
David (Galecki) was revealed as an absentee dad to Harris (Emma Kenney) and her brother Mark (Ames McNamara) in the Season 5 finale. It was a dramatic move for a character who had previously been well-liked. Fans on Reddit even posted angrily about the show “destroying” his character.
The actor, 48, previously appeared in four episodes of the sitcom, which is currently in its sixth season.
David was married to Darlene (Sara Gilbert), Roseanne Conner’s daughter. When the new ABC series premiered in 2018, Galecki was busy on CBS’s hit “The Big Bang Theory,” which aired from 2007 to 2019.
“I think that the familial dynamic between David, Darlene, Harris and Mark is obviously not where Harris would want it to be,” Kenney told The Post.
A spinoff of “Roseanne,” sans the original show’s controversial star, “The Conners” premiered in 2018 and follows patriarch Dan (John Goodman), his sister-in-law Jackie (Laurie Metcalfe), his daughters Darlene and Becky (Lecy Goranson), and Darlene’s daughter, Harris. Sean Astin is also part of Season 6, as Tyler, Becky’s love interest.
After David’s backstory was revealed, executive producer Bruce Helford told TV Insider, “Johnny [Galecki] is just too busy. We love him, and he would love to be doing stuff with us, but it just hasn’t worked out scheduling wise…We tried to keep him from being a completely negligent father, and then it became a matter of having other characters [to service].”
David seemingly hasn’t contacted his kids in the past four years.
“I think she probably struggled with it a lot more growing up, and I think it’s something she still keeps close to her heart and feels every day,” Kenney told The Post, about Harris and David’s nonexistent father-daughter relationship.
“But luckily she’s got such a great family support system,” she added. “So I think that everyone else in the family does help fill David’s void.”
The former “Shameless” star noted that each season of “The Conners” provides “a storyline that I’m excited about.”
For example, she said, “Last season was obviously a bit more of an emotional storyline I had when Harris was going through getting pregnant and unfortunately having a miscarriage, which is something that happens so often. And I was proud to be able to show that, and have viewers connect to that who may have gone through something similar or the same thing.”
About her on-screen mom, Kenney gushed that Gilbert, 49, is “so talented” and “focused.”
“She’s one of our producers on the show, so she is really very busy behind the scenes to not just be on camera, but also help put the show on. And it really is impressive. We were doing a scene together last night where it was pretty wordy. And I said to Sarah, ‘I’m always so impressed by how you can do this every day.’ “
“Sarah is a great mentor,” she went on. “She’s somebody that I really look up to.”
“The Conners” airs Wednesdays on ABC at 8 p.m. ET.
