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Laurie Metcalf continues to receive praise for delivering one of sitcom history’s most humorous moments, but she insists another comedic genius deserves recognition as well.
Currently promoting her latest project, Netflix’s “Big Mistakes,” the three-time Emmy Award winner appeared on “The Drew Barrymore Show” this week. During her visit, she reflected on her memorable scene from “Roseanne” — that uproarious phone call where Jackie Harris struggles to inform her hearing-impaired aunt about her father’s passing.
Metcalf revealed that this iconic moment was crafted with the help of a future “Saturday Night Live” luminary.
“Do you know who wrote that?” Metcalf shared. “Norm Macdonald was one of the staff writers during that season, and he penned that little scene.”
The scene, featured in the Season 5 episode titled “Wait Till Your Father Gets Home,” which aired in 1993, remains one of the most frequently replayed clips from the beloved sitcom.
In it, Metcalf’s Jackie starts gently: “I have some bad news. Dad is not with us anymore.”
When that doesn’t land, she tries again, louder: “I said, Dad has passed away.”
The call quickly unravels as Jackie grows increasingly frantic: “He’s passed away. He’s dead! No, dead! DEAD!”
After another failed attempt, she gives up entirely: “No, he’s fine. He sends his love.”
Hanging up, she tells Roseanne: “I am not doing that again. You can’t make me.”
The performance became a defining moment for Metcalf’s portrayal of Jackie and helped earn her an Emmy win that year for Best Supporting Actress in a Comedy — one of three she would take home for the role.
While the episode is officially credited to “Gilmore Girls” creator Amy Sherman-Palladino, Macdonald was working in the writers’ room at the time, meaning he likely contributed the now-famous exchange during the script-breaking process.
He only spent one season on Roseanne before moving on to “SNL,” where he became the deadpan face of “Weekend Update” and one of the show’s most distinctive voices.
Barrymore, who has her own history with Macdonald through their shared connections to Adam Sandler, reacted to the reveal by calling him “the great Norm Macdonald.”
Metcalf and Macdonald would cross paths again years later on “The Norm Show,” which ran from 1999 to 2001 and featured the pair as social workers — a quieter reunion compared to the explosive energy of that earlier sitcom moment.
Metcalf eventually returned to her role as Jackie for the “Roseanne” revival and its spinoff “The Conners,” keeping the character alive for a new generation of viewers.
Macdonald died in September 2021 after a private battle with leukemia, prompting an outpouring of tributes from across the comedy world.
Adam Sandler, Steve Martin and David Letterman were among those who honored his legacy.
“In every important way, in the world of stand-up, Norm was the best,” Letterman said.
“An opinion shared by me and all peers. Always up to something, never certain, until his matter-of-fact delivery leveled you.”
Decades later, one of television’s most quoted scenes still lands — and, as Metcalf now points out, it carries Macdonald’s unmistakable comic fingerprint.