The Conners showrunners said when the series began that they were choosing not to acknowledge certain events from later seasons of Roseanne. When Roseanne was revived in 2017 for a belated tenth season, the show made no mention of Fred or Andy, and since then neither character has been acknowledged. It is easy enough to see why Jackie might not mention Fred since she accurately noted that the Conners already view her as absurdly unlucky in love, but the choice to retcon her son is harder to justify. Throughout The Conners, it has been that Aunt Jackie sees herself as a mentor and a guardian to the family, which makes the choice to write out her canonical child a strange one.

Most of the events that were retconned by The Conners were absurd antics from later, lesser seasons of Roseanne that never fit the show’s tone. Storylines like the Conners winning the lottery or Dan dying of a heart attack were the sort of tonally haphazardous plot twists that any good revival would ignore, but the existence of Jackie’s son Andy doesn’t fit in this category. As a result, it is tough to see just why the season 10 revival didn’t feature the character and why he hasn’t been mentioned yet. One thing that is certain is that hearing Jackie say she always wanted to be a parent on The Conners doesn’t quite sound right for viewers who recall Roseanne.