Estelle Parsons' Weird Semi-Exit from The Conners

Laurie Metcalf and Estelle Parsons 
in The Conners

Episode 3 of Season 6 of The Conners (aired Feb. 21) featured a weird semi-exit from the series for 96-year-old Estelle Parsons. Her character Bev (mother of the late Roseanne and her sister Jackie) was on an experimental drug trial that improved her cognitive functions, lessened her dementia and brightened her mood. In this new state of being, Bev proposes she and Jackie (the brilliant Laurie Metcalf) spend a day together in Chicago for some long overdue mother-daughter bonding. 

At Union Station in the Windy City, Bev reveals she plans to go on a "great adventure" while she still has her wits about her and to board a train headed eastwards. She has no specific destination in mind and only one small bag of her belongings. She hugs Jackie and apologizes for her belittling behavior. (She wanted to have one perfect day with her daughter before losing her mind.) Jackie protests but lets her go. If only real life could be this simple--letting your nearly century-old mother on a train with no clear plan or means of support. You say goodbye and go on about your life.

The practical reason behind this strange leave-taking are clear. The writers needed an excuse to end Bev's storyline so they can concentrate on Dan, Darlene, and Becky. Earlier there had been announcements that the show was ending after this sixth season, but more recent reports indicate ratings are good enough to renew the series for a seventh. So Bev may be back.

In the meantime, will Bev return or will she join Conner sibling DJ and his daughter Mary in Lanford Limbo?

I've been able to watch almost all of The Conners. But I missed most of Season Five (I had stored the episodes on the cable DVR but lost them when I had to turn the cable box in when we switched to streaming on Hulu Plus Live TV.) 

Estelle Parsons and Stephen Spinella in
The Velocity of Autumn.
Credit: Joan Marcus

I've seen Parsons on stage for many years including the pre-Broadway Philadelphia try-outs of Mert and Phil and Ladies at the Alamo, on Broadway in The Pirates of Penzance, Miss Margarida's Way, Shimada, The Shadow Box, Morning's at Seven, Good People, Nice Work If You Can Get It, and The Velocity of Autumn; Off-Broadway in a one-character play at LaMaMa (I forget the title but she was an ordinary housewife just doing chores for 90 minutes and it somehow worked), The Day Emily Married, The Last of the Thorntons (my favorite Horton Foote play), Grace and Glorie, and A Bright Room Called Day. I saw her staged-reading production of Salome with Al Pacino, Dianne Wiest and Marisa Tomei. 

In film, she won an Oscar for Bonnie and Clyde and was nominated for Rachel, Rachel. On TV, she was memorable in The UFO Incident. The breadth of her career is astonishing. She began reporting on The Today Show, appeared with Ethel Merman in Happy Hunting and then went on to varied roles including a recurring guest spot on All in the Family and as Bess Truman in Backstairs at the White House. She

Estelle Parsons, James Earl Jones and
friends in The UFO Incident

always brought such a depth of reality to each role. Bev went through many changes on Roseanne and then The Conners. She come out as alcoholic and then lesbian in the bizarre final season of Roseanne which seems to have been just forgotten on The Conners. I hope The Conners continues for at least another season and Parsons returns. It's the only broadcast sitcom I follow with any degree of regularity.