Sara Gilbert Admits ‘The Conners’ Is ‘Deep in Our Soul’ After 7 Seasons (Exclusive)

Sara Gilbert knows saying goodbye to The Conners won’t be easy.

As the beloved ABC sitcom comes to an end after seven seasons on April 23, the 50-year-old actress — who starred as ​​Darlene Conner on Roseanne and its spinoff — exclusively tells PEOPLE what she will miss most about being part of the show.

“I think we just have such a good time and we laugh a lot,” Gilbert shares during PEOPLE’s visit to the set. “And the group, not just the cast, but the crew as well, the writers. It feels like family, and because we did it for so many years, it’s sort of deep in our soul. And so that is hard to imagine being without.”

Gilbert’s costar John Goodman, who plays patriarch Dan Conner, shares that he will miss “just showing up every day and just being here with everybody.” He calls it “a great place to work.”

“I would piggyback on what John and Sara said,” Jay R. Ferguson, who portrays Darlene’s second husband Ben Olinsky, adds. “It’s just a lot of hilarious laughter and who doesn’t want to come to work at a place where they get to laugh all day? We’re very lucky, and I will treasure this experience.”

As for why The Conners resonated with viewers, Gilbert suggests it is because “it’s showing an American family struggling to get by and there’s not enough representations of that. And when there are, the sets look too fancy or the people look too fancy.”

“I think also the ability of our writers to tackle subjects that people are dealing with that do it with so much humor and love,” she adds. “And so I think people feel like they get to laugh and they also get to feel at home with these characters, hopefully.”

Gilbert’s costars Emma Kenney and Lecy Goranson echo her sentiment. When asked why viewers have connected with the sitcom, Kenney, 25, responds, “The relatability, the family dynamic. There’s a character that I think everybody can relate to, whether it’s one or the other combination.”

“I think we walk a line between drama and comedy that’s very unique,” Lecy Goranson, 50, notes. “And I think because of that, it’s kind of surprising for the audience when things get more serious, more grounded.” 

Goranson — who stars as Becky Connor — explains that the sitcom addresses issues that “are topical, that are hard to talk about sometimes, and we do it with comedy,” adding, “I think the gravitas of it is unique to our sitcom, and it’s what I hear … I’ll hear from friends and people on the street about jokes and what have you, but I’ll hear a lot about scene work, situations that we’re in, that it really gets to the core of people.”

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The Connors series finale airs April 23 at 8 p.m. ET on ABC.