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Ben Olinsky (played by Jay R. Ferguson) is the 2nd husband of Darlene Conner as she finds herself in a love triangle between him and David Healy. Later, Darlene was in a second triangle with Jeff.
Biography[]
Ben was in charge of a news magazine. Darlene got a job as Editor and shared an office with him. When he found out she was still seeing David, he made things tense at work. Both Ben and Darlene lost their jobs and tried to start a magazine together. After that, Ben wanted to continue it as a podcast, a dream which Darlene immediately crushed. He was given the keys to his own hardware store and hired Dan. Ben and Darlene's relationship became strained when Darlene kept making excuses about her new job. Ben did not want to spend any vacation time with Darlene. He turns down her marriage proposal after finding out that this so called stressful job is actually another man.
Personality[]
Ben is a snarky wisecracker but an overall well-meaning and decent guy. He does care about Darlene but breaks up with her after proposing because he doesn't think Darlene would see him as an important enough priority to make the commitment to get married.
He does not seem to have any friends, and did not approve of Molly Tilden even though she was dying. Later, he complains about the stress involved from being a family man. However, he is a natural leader, and father figure for Mark Healy II.
He gets some of his personality from his mother.
Production[]
After being a recurring character for two seasons, he was promoted to a series regular for Season 3 and remained a regular for the next two seasons. Although he wouldn't been seen on the title sequence until Season 5. His last name was not revealed until the Season 3 episode "Jeopardé, Sobrieté, and Infidelité".
| The Conners | |||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | # | |
| Season 1 | - | - | - | - | X | X | X | X | - | X | X | 6 | |||||||||||
| Season 2 | X | X | - | X | X | - | - | X | X | X | - | X | X | X | X | - | - | X | X | X | 14 | ||
| Season 3 | X | X | X | X | - | X | X | X | X | - | X | - | X | X | X | X | X | - | X | X | 16 | ||
| Season 4 | X | X | - | X | - | X | - | - | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | X | 16 | ||
| Season 5 | X | X | X | - | - | X | X | X | X | - | X | X | X | - | X | - | X | X | X | X | X | X | 17 |
| Season 6 | X | X | X | X | X | X | - | X | X | X | X | X | X | 12 | |||||||||
| Total | 80 | ||||||||||||||||||||||