While The Conners season 5 did bring country music star Jimmie Allen on to the Roseanne spinoff, the sitcom failed to make use of the singer’s musical talents during this cameo. The Conners, like its predecessor Roseanne, has a unique taste in celebrity cameos. Since the eponymous family lives a working-class existence in the small town of Lanford, it wouldn’t make sense for them to constantly cross paths with A-list celebrities. As a result of this, most guest stars in The Conners play original characters or appear in unusual circumstances, like when Aaron Rodgers hosted an episode of Jeopardy that Jackie appeared on.
Most of the time, this works for the Roseanne spinoff. While The Conners has major cameos from time to time, these are usually integrated seamlessly into the story of the series. For example, when William H Macy appeared as Dan’s bitter old school rival, the episode didn’t focus entirely on Macy’s presence. Macy’s character played a role in this outing of The Conners, but the episode was still mostly concerned with the family. However, on occasion, The Conners can be so busy grounding its guest star roles that the Roseanne spinoff fails to take advantage of their presence.
The Conners Season 5 Could Have Used Jimmie Allen’s Musical Talents
Country music star Jimmie Allen appeared in The Conners season 5, episode 7, “Take This Job and Shove It Twice.” The popular singer played local reporter Jimmie Pike, who pushed Darlene for comment on pollution caused by her employer, Wellman Plastics. This plot impacted Darlene’s storyline until The Conners season 5 finale. However, despite hiring Allen to play Pike, The Conners never let the singer flex his musical skills onscreen. What made this particularly jarring was the fact that Eagles guitarist Joe Walsh jammed with John Goodman’s Dan a season earlier, even though his character had no in-universe reason to do so.
Walsh played Aldo’s father in a few episodes of The Conners season 4 and the rock legend was a welcome addition to the cast of the Roseanne spinoff. However, Aldo was constantly fighting with Harris, Dan, his son, the rest of the Conners, or all of the above characters whenever he appeared onscreen. As such, it made no sense when he and Dan shared a good-natured jam session during the closing scenes of one episode in The Conners season 4. In contrast, The Conners season 5 could have justified Pike showing off his musical skills with a lot more ease.
Jimmie Allen’s Pike and Dan Was A Missed Opportunity
If Pike tried to ingratiate himself into Darlene’s family by, say, jamming with her dad Dan, this could have made Darlene’s inability to lie about pollution even harder. Pike barely even needed to push Darlene on her company line before she cracked and told the truth about Wellman Plastics. Thus, this storyline could have been considerably more tense if Darlene only shared the company’s misdeeds with Pike after he bonded with her father over music. However, The Conners season 5 didn’t take this approach and, as a result, the Roseanne spinoff wasted the presence of a country music superstar in this outing.
