John Goodman Enlisted Pal Bruce Willis for Epic ‘Roseanne’ Prank

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Long before John Goodman came to fame via 1990s TV hit “Roseanne,” and Bruce Willis skyrocketed to stardom via “Moonlighting,” the two were struggling actors in New York who befriended each other.

That connection, Goodman recalled during a recent interview, resulted in an epic prank on the set of “Roseanne.”

Under the Covers

Goodman recently appeared on the “Happy Sad Confused” podcast, where he recalled the time Willis dropped by the “Roseanne” set to say hi. While on the set, Willis helped Goodman surprise his TV wife Roseanne Barr.

“Bruce came over to hang out in my dressing room one day, and I surprised Roseanne,” Goodman said, via Entertainment Weekly.

“There was a reveal. I was supposed to be in bed, and she comes up and yanks the covers off. So I put Bruce in there. And I think they have it on film. It’s pretty cool,” he added.

Willis actually wound up appearing in the episode.

In an brief scene as the show’s end credits play, Willis is seen entering Roseanne and Dan Conner’s bedroom. He playfully hops into bed with Barr, who laughs in delight as they hug and roll around in bed together.

A Shared Love of Acting

During his “Happy Sad Confused” appearance, Goodman reminsced about how he and Willis came to become friends.

As he recalled, Goodman first met Willis in a bar called Cafe Central on Manhattan’s Upper West Side in the late 1970s. “It was a hangout spot,” he said. “I got dumped by a girl in ’78 and my evenings were free. And I was making some nice bank in the commercial industry. I really started scoring, so I had some dough for once in my life. It was like the first money I had. So naturally I wasted it.”

According to Goodman, Cafe Central was the place to be for an aspiring young actor. “I met all these great actors that hung out there, and we would just talk about acting,” he said. “That’s how I got to know Bruce. We’d talk about Three Stooges. Films we liked, performances we liked, actors — and he was hot on the subject. He was in love with acting, and so was I.”

When Willis was the first to experience success, he lent a helping hand to Goodman. “We just hit it off,” Goodman said. “And when he made it, anytime I needed to be in Los Angeles, he put me up, and we had a great group of guys, a lot of fun.”

A Life-Changing Role

In an earlier interview with People, Goodman remembered being with Willis when he learned he’d been cast in “Moonlighting,” a role that would change his life.

“I remember when he got the ‘Moonlighting’ job, and we were at the bar where he used to work at, and we all hung out at, and he jumped over a railing. I think he broke my shoulder, but he was so happy,” said Goodman.

“That’s all we did was talk about acting when we were at work, when we were out goofing around. I could tell how serious he was. I started working out here [in L.A.] about a year or two later after he did,” he continued, adding, “He took care of me … I love him so much.”