Emmy spotlight: John Goodman is the heart and soul of ‘The Conners’

John Goodman was last nominated for an Emmy way back in 2010 when he earned a Limited Series/TV Movie Supporting Actor bid for “You Don’t Know Jack.”; he lost that race to David Strathairn (“Temple Grandin”). The TV vet could be about to make a return to the Emmys for the first time in a lucky 13 years thanks to his ongoing role in the “Roseanne” sequel series “The Conners.”

“The Conners” follows the titular working-class family struggling through day-to-day life in Illinois after the sudden death of the original show’s title character Roseanne (Roseanne Barr). Goodman plays Dan Conner, who was the husband to Roseanne and the father to their four children: Darlene (Sara Gilbert), Becky (Lecy Goranson), DJ (Michael Fishman), and Jerry Garcia (who was retconned in “The Conners”).

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As Dan, Goodman exudes the warm, everyman charm he has long had a high currency in throughout his career. He is warm, amiable, and the steady mast that guides the show throughout its turbulent reboot amidst Barr’s controversy. He reminds viewers that there can be a future in the show and he is more than capable of headlining that future as the family’s patriarch.

Two leading TV critics tuned in the first episode of season five and singled out Goodman for special praise:

James Poniewozik of The New York Times noted that “much of the premiere’s dramatic weight fell on John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf, who fortunately are two of the best actors in prime time.”

Daniel Fienberg of The Hollywood Reporter observed that “John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf are both well-established TV comedy treasures” and that “the show’s heart still lies in Dan’s (Goodman) bluster and exasperation,” while he also wrote that Goodman is “capable of elevating the smallest grunt or eye-roll.”

If Goodman were to earn a well-deserved Emmy bid for “The Conners,” it would be his eighth nomination for playing Dan Conner (he never won) and his 12th nomination in total. Previously, he earned eight consecutive Emmy bids from 1989 to 1996 plus a ninth nomination in 1995. From 1989 to 1995, he contended in Best Comedy Actor for his role in “Roseanne,” while in 1995 he was also nominated for Limited Series/TV Movie Actor for “Kingfish: A Story of Huey P. Long.”  Finally in 1996 Goodman was nominated for Limited Series/TV Movie Supporting Actor for “A Streetcar Named Desire” to cap off a remarkable — but winless — run of Emmy nominations.

Goodman waited 11 years until his next Emmy bid in 2007, when he won for Drama Guest Actor for “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip.” That is his only Emmy win. He then earned that aforementioned “You Don’t Know Jack” nomination before embarking on his longest-ever run without an Emmy nomination — 13 years and counting.

Currently, Goodman is outside of our predicted six nominees of Jason Segel (“Shrinking”), Martin Short and Steve Martin (both “Only Murders in the Building”), Bill Hader (“Barry”), Jeremy Allen White (“The Bear”), and, in first place, Jason Sudeikis (“Ted Lasso”). Donald Glover (“Atlanta”) and Nicholas Hoult (“The Great”) are also both ahead of Goodman in our odds chart.

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