JOHN GOODMAN’S

return required sleight of hand, given that Dan was killed off by a heart attack in the original’s final season. The revision is handled with a wink in the season opener, and producer Tom Werner offers no apologies for rewriting TV history (as the original Dallas did when it turned a character’s death into a dream sequence). “I appreciate the microscope which the show is under, but I’d rather see John Goodman in these episodes than not,” he said. Goodman’s reaction: “I thought it was a clever way to do it - to handle it and get it out of the way.” If the nine-episode reboot proves popular, Roseanne Barr and others have expressed enthusiasm for another season. Werner said he hopes the audience embraces what’s key to the show, beyond punchlines and current events. It’s “emotional,” he said. “There are certainly some very painful moments which go along with the comedy.”