Before terrifying audiences in Scream 2or making Meryl Streep consider retiring from acting, Laurie Metcalf first became a household name in the 1990s hit TV series, Roseanne. Playing everyone’s favorite aunt, Jackie Harris, on the award-winning sitcom for 10 seasons, Metcalf appeared in countless scenes, including one that continues to entertain fans more than three decades later.
In an interview on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, Metcalf reflected on the viral “Dad’s Dead” scene from the “Wait Till Your Father Gets Home” episode in Roseanne‘s fifth season. She told podcast host Josh Horowitz that she could never have predicted its enduring popularity.
“It didn’t strike me right off the bat when I read it as ‘Oh, this is going to go viral.’ Pre-viral. It did not strike me as that at all. I thought, ‘Oh, it’s a phone call. Okay, let’s see how to do it.’ I knew it had a build to it. Starts off a certain way. It’s got a great build to it and then it has a great button at the end. Dad’s dead; he sends his love. Click. Don’t ever make me do that again,” said Metcalf.
She continued, “I knew that the bones of it were great. All I had to do was not mess it up.” Of course, Metcalf did much more than that. Her performance in the “Dad’s Dead” scene — and throughout the episode — helped her win an Emmy for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy in 1993.
After nine seasons of Roseanne, Metcalf went on to appear in many other TV, film, and Broadway projects. She reprised her role as Aunt Jackie for the Roseanne reboot in 2018 and its spinoff, The Conners, that same year. With a career still going strong, Laurie Metcalf’s once-in-a-lifetime portrayal of Aunt Jackie continues to resonate with fans across generations.
Metcalf recalled, “Usually what people say is one of two things: I have an Aunt Jackie in my family, or I am Aunt Jackie in my family. It’s one or the other. That is the seal of approval that this is some sort of universal character that exists everywhere.”
