Summary

• Harris steps up in season 6 of The Conners, taking over The Lunchbox from Jackie, showing growth.
• Fans questioned Jackie's success running The Lunchbox due to her erratic past in different jobs.
• The revamped Lunchbox storyline in The Conners reflects the realistic struggles of a working-class family.

The Conners is filled with a host of fantastic characters who have deep interpersonal relationships and fascinating backstories. Harris is a character with minimal purpose or place in the family. The eldest child of Darlene and David, Harris' (played by Emma Kenney) screen time was mostly dedicated to ill-fated romances and a poorly written career as a tattoo artist.

In season 6, Harris was finally given a more important role in the Roseanne spinoff. In season 2 of The Conners, Jackie takes over The Lunchbox. After struggling to turn the business around and losing enthusiasm, Harris takes on the restaurant from Jackie in season 6. Fans were always skeptical that a flighty, inexperienced woman like Jackie could manage a business like The Lunchbox.

In the following, we look at how The Conners made their Lunchbox storyline more realistic and why Harris taking over the family restaurant was the perfect choice. We also discuss why fans felt it didn't make sense for Jackie to have success with The Lunchbox and how The Conners' restaurant is different from Roseanne's.

How The Conners Fixed Jackie's Questionable Lunchbox Storyline

Jackie Harris spent decades working different jobs in different industries in Roseanne, struggling to find a role which she loved. In The Conners season 2, episode 5, “Nightmare on Lunch Box Street,” Jackie discovers that her mother, Bev, still owns the deed to The Lunchbox, the diner prominently featured in Roseanne. Bev gave the deed to Darlene, who then passed it on to Jackie. Laurie Metcalf's character on The Conners finally found something she was passionate about.

Things changed in season 6 when Jackie changed her mind and decided her heart was no longer in the eatery. After years of contentment in the business, Jackie suddenly changed her mind and lost interest in her struggling business. Fans felt this was out of character for the usually overbearing enthusiast.

When guest star Nick Offerman’s TV chef arrived to turn The Lunchbox around, Jackie admitted that she found her relationship with Neville more fulfilling than her work and had an interest in improving the establishment.

In the season 6 premiere, Jackie gives up ownership of The Lunchbox and gives the keys over to her niece, Harris. This decision also stems from her mother's dementia diagnosis and their pair mending their relationship. Jackie no longer sought approval from her mother, instead finding all the love she needed in her husband Neville. Jackie's investment in the restaurant was partly due to seeking approval from her often cruel mother.

This season 6 plot in The Conners gives Harris a place in the story and resolves a plot many fans of the show found unrealistic.

Why Jackie Running A Successful Lunchbox Didn't Make Sense On The Conners

Throughout Roseanne and The Conners, Jackie Harris worked multiple jobs before finally taking over The Lunchbox. None of them were working with food though. Fans questioned how someone who worked as a life coach, a theater clerk, a cop, a trucker, and a factory worker could successfully run a restaurant.

While it is believable that she would try to take over the Lunchbox without any prior experience, fans struggled to believe she could turn it into a great success. The Conners is all about a working-class, blue-collar family living on the poverty line. Roseanne and its spinoff have always been grounded in reality, so audiences were almost relieved when it was revealed The Lunchbox was failing.

Considering Jackie's erratic character and the family's constant financial struggles, the Lunchbox's financial success seemed unlikely. Throughout the show, they mention Jackie's mental health struggles, her addiction to pills and her toxic relationships with men.

Although the family diner looked good on the surface, it was clear The Lunchbox had been struggling behind the scenes. In season 6, Nick Offerman's TV chef (a Gordon Ramsay type) asks Jackie if she wants to revive her failing establishment on the show "Restaurant 911."

Although people wondered how The Lunchbox stayed afloat during the COVID-19 pandemic. This is explained as Jackie delivered meals to help fund the diner through the global pandemic.

“We’re a show that’s sometimes brutally honest with our audience and they expect that,” says executive producer Dave Caplan. “We felt like we had to reflect what this family was going through with COVID just the same as the people [watching] at home."

"We know that the Conners’ struggles are our audience’s struggles.”

Is The Conners' Lunchbox Different From Roseanne's Lunchbox?

In the original Rosanne show in the 1990s, the Lanford Lunch Box was co-owned by Roseanne, Jackie, their mother Bev, family friend Nancy Bartlett (Sandra Bernhard) and Roseanne’s former Rodbell’s boss, Leon Carp (Martin Mull).

Laurie Metcalf, who plays Jackie, says The Lunchbox “symbolizes a happier time for the family before the restaurant went under.” Roseanne still owned The Lunchbox when the original run of Roseanne ended in 1997, and it's not clear when it shut its doors.

In The Conners, Jackie's mother, Bev, gives her ownership of The Lunchbox to Roseanne's daughter Darlene, who passes it over to Jackie and Becky. Becky wants to use the eatery as a way to support her baby and help her cope with her sobriety.

In the revival, Darlene asks Becky, "Why do you think you'll succeed in a location that's put three restaurants and a psychic out of business?" Prior to them taking The Lunchbox on, it was a failing Chinese restaurant.

The building also needed to be reconstructed, with Jackie almost spending her life savings on getting the restaurant up and running. A local columnist decides to write a heartfelt article about the family and the establishment. This helped people lend their morale and funds to get this new version of The Lunchbox off the ground.

While the original Lunchbox from Roseanne mainly sold sandwiches and lunch meals, the new interaction of the establishment is known for its steak and stews.