The Conners' live Season 4 premiere featured calls to fans, plus a tribute to Norm Macdonald

Variety

Titled “Trucking Live in Front of a Fully Vaccinated Studio Audience,” Wednesday's premiere had Ames McNamara call up The Conners fans live as they pretended to be distant relatives of the Conner family. "While people from all across the country entered a sweepstakes to have the opportunity of appearing in the episode, no one knew who won until their phone rang," explains Variety's Danielle Turchiano. "In turn, the cast and crew of The Conners didn’t know what they would say when they were live on the air. Luckily for the ABC censors, everyone was on their best behavior." The end of the episode featured John Goodman with a sign that read “Dedicated to the memory of our friend and colleague Norm Macdonald.” Macdonald was a writer on Roseanne before joining SNL. “Here’s to you, Norm," the cast said in unison before the live episode faded to black.