Beverly Loraine "Bev" Harris is a fictional character in the Roseanne sitcom, the mother of Roseanne Conner and Jackie Harris. The part of Beverly is played by veteran actress Estelle Parsons.
Biography[]
Beverly was born to Nana Mary and Marvin Schrift. She is the mother of Roseanne Conner (née Harris) and Jackie Goldufski (née Harris). She has several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Beverly spent her childhood without a father figure in her life as Nana Mary continued to change houses and boyfriends every month. When Nana Mary finally got married, she had more children, which Beverly is jealous of. Beverly met Al Harris (who would later become her husband) outside of a bar in which Al flirted with her, kissed her, asked her out, and offered to drive her home, he, however drove her out to the middle of a field and gave her some of his liquor. They talked about their lives, then started making out with her. A minute later, he was "on" her, she didn't even know they were doing "it" until two minutes later and that was how Roseanne was conceived.
She married Al Harris after she was pregnant out of wedlock. As a result, Al took out frustrations on Roseanne and Jackie. The girls were often verbally and physically abusive towards them and then for 20 years, had an ongoing affair with a mistress, due to the fact that he married Beverly only out of necessity. After finding out the affair had been going on for 22 years, Beverly kicked Al out of the house and became rich. Worried about being alone, she proceeded to spoil her family, who desperately needed the money anyways.
When Roseanne and Jackie wanted to start their own business with their friend Nancy, they needed a large portion of money needed to open it, so Beverly lent the money to the girls so they could open The Lanford Lunchbox. After a while, Beverly sold her share to Leon Carp in order to torture them. Beverly herself was and is during the course of the series, a recovering alcoholic. In one episode, she made no effort to change.
Bev with her granddaughters
During most of the series, Beverly is loving but overly critical of everyone in the family, especially Jackie. She is very anxious and consistently pessimistic causing her to be very hard to please and extremely hard for anyone to like. She has no problem pointing out the faults in people's lives, often throwing their mistakes in their faces. The only person that has ever matched her, was her mother Nana Mary, whose relationship with her is very similar to the one she shares with her own daughters.
When Roseanne was a young girl, whenever she was sad, Beverly would give her lots of sweets with ice cream with chocolate chips. She might be the reason that Roseanne is overweight even at a very young age. She used to force her children to go to etiquette school and they were horrible at it. In "Home Is Where the Afghan Is," it is hinted that when her kids were growing up, she was more of an etiquette teacher than a mother.
In the episode "Wait Till Your Father Gets Home," Al passes away. At the funeral, Beverly meets Al's mistress Joan Crinshaw.
In season 10, she has since been put into a retirement home where she begins a rather intimate relationship with a name named Lou. However, after infecting several men there with Gonorrhea, she was kicked out and forced to live at Roseanne's house, much to Roseanne's dismay. After some time living with Roseanne, she attempts to reside at Jackie's apartment before realizing how unwelcomed she is and instead opts to live at Becky's. After having a heart-to-heart with Jackie, she decides to live at Jackie's permanently where they intend on getting along with each other no matter what.
The Conners[]
In The Conners, it is revealed that she did not sell the restaurant and that she hired Leon to be the manager and controlled The Lunch Box through him. Eventually, Roseanne wanted to close down The Lunch Box and Beverly leased the building to The Chinese Restaurant. They didn't stay long since she stopped maintaining the property. Jackie had wanted The Lunch Box to return ever since. Becky decided to join as well. To ensure the family remained unhappy, she asked Darlene to take over. Beverly decided to get revenge on Darlene by spoiling one of Darlene's children while shunning the other. Now that Jackie and Becky has The Lunch Box again and that people have mostly calmed down, Beverly has more or less given up on her schemes.
When Beverly was plotting against anybody else around it seemed to help keep her skills sharp. With nothing else for her to do, her mind started to faulter. After a long time of lashing out on her family when attempting to care for her, it is revealed that she spent her life with a secret. Beverly sent her daughters away not as punishment but for protection against their irate father, who attempted to assault them at least once during a very young age. Beverly broke her arm in the fight and was not allowed to be seen in a cast too many times or it would damage Al's reputation in sales. She since became an overprotective, bossy and egotistical mother hoping that they would never need to suffer from the same mental and physical torture. Becky talked Jackie out of putting Beverly in an overcrowded mental hospital. Even Jackie was impressed with Beverly's treatment and decided to hire a very expensive yet highly qualified health care worker.
Relationships[]
Mary Schrift - Mother (deceased)
Marvin Schrift - Father (deceased)
Al Harris - Husband (deceased)
Roseanne Conner - Daughter (deceased)
Dan Conner - Son-in-law (Roseanne's husband)
Jackie Goldufski - Daughter
Neville Goldufski - Son-in-law (Jackie's husband)
Becky Healy - Granddaughter
Beverly Rose Conner - Great-granddaughter (Becky and Emilio's daughter)
Mark Healy - Grandson-in-law (Becky's husband/deceased)
Darlene Olinsky - Granddaughter
Ben Olinsky - Grandson-in-law (Darlene's husband)
David Healy - Ex-grandson-in-law (Darlene's ex-husband)
Harris Conner Healy - Great-Granddaughter (Darlene and David's daughter)
Mark Healy II - Great-Grandson (Darlene and David's son)
D.J. Conner - Grandson
Geena Conner - Granddaughter-in-law (D.J.'s wife)
Mary Conner - Great-granddaughter (D.J. and Geena's daughter)
Andy Harris - Great-grandson (Jackie and Fred's son)
Fred - Ex-son-in-law (Jackie's ex-husband)
Trivia[]
- Beverly appears in 71 episodes of both series together and the only recurring character to appear in every season of Roseanne, and was only absent in one season of The Conners.
- In I Pray the Lord My Stove to Keep, Dan mentions that Beverly used to be a Lutheran before losing her faith after she was divorced from Al in It's No Place Like Home for the Holidays.
- Though she raised her children in Lanford, she lived with Al in Moline in their later years. Afterwards, she lived in a retirement community in Lanford.
List of Appearances[]
| Roseanne (TV series) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | # | |
| Season 1 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | X | - | N/A | 1 | ||
| Season 2 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | X | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | N/A | 1 | |
| Season 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | X | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | N/A | 1 |
| Season 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | X | - | - | - | - | X | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | N/A | 2 |
| Season 5 | - | - | - | X | - | X | X | X | - | - | - | X | - | - | - | X | - | - | - | - | X | - | X | - | - | N/A | 8 |
| Season 6 | - | X | X | - | X | - | - | - | - | X | - | X | - | - | - | - | - | - | X | - | X | - | X | X | X | N/A | 10 |
| Season 7 | - | - | - | - | X | X | - | - | X | X | - | - | - | X | X | - | - | X | - | - | X | - | - | - | X | X | 10 |
| Season 8 | X | X | - | - | - | X | - | X | - | X | - | - | - | X | - | - | X | X | - | - | X | X | X | X | - | N/A | 12 |
| Season 9 | X | X | X | - | X | - | - | X | X | X | X | X | - | - | - | - | - | - | X | X | X | - | X | X | N/A | 14 | |
| Season 10 | - | - | - | - | X | X | - | - | - | N/A | 2 | ||||||||||||||||
| Total | 61 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 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 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 1 | |||||||||||
| Season 2 | X | - | - | - | X | - | - | X | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | X | - | - | - | 4 | ||
| Season 3 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | X | - | 1 | ||
| Season 4 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 0 | ||
| Season 5 | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | X | - | - | - | - | X | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2 |
| Season 6 | - | X | X | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 2 | |||||||||
| Total | 10 | ||||||||||||||||||||||