David Maurice Healy

David Maurice Healy is played by Johnny Galecki. David is Mark's younger brother. He first appeared in "The Bowling Show" (episode 4.14). Whereas Mark acted like a rebellious delinquent at first, David is friendlier to the Conners. He's shy, polite, thoughtful, sensitive, soft-spoken, artistic, and intelligent. He has a relationship with Darlene and collaborates with her by illustrating graphic novels that she writes, being the submissive one in the relationship. His manner is endearing to the Conners, who think of him as part of the family and jokingly refer to him as being more welcome than Darlene. He moves in with the Conners after Roseanne, herself a victim of child abuse, sees how abusive David's mother is to him. David and Darlene break up three times throughout the course of the show, each for a longer period of time than the last; they always end up back together. Eventually, David impregnates Darlene and they decide to marry. In the series finale, Roseanne reveals that David had actually been dating Becky in "real life", and that Roseanne simply wrote his relationship as being with Darlene because she felt it made more sense. That series finale is retconned for season 10, where it is revealed that David and Darlene have separated and David has been away traveling and doing volunteer work, leaving Darlene to care alone for their two children, Harris and Mark. He later visits Darlene, telling her he is moving back into town to settle down with another woman and asks her for a divorce. After they end up sleeping together, they both consider getting back together until Roseanne informs Darlene that it wouldn't be good for their kids, who resent David for not being there for them. They both agree to move forward with the divorce and on Dan's urging, David agrees to get his act together and proceed with the move before he can see the kids again.

When David was first introduced to the series, it was said his name was Kevin, not David, but while applying for college, he uses the name David Maurice Healy. Roseanne makes a comment in Season 6, saying "David's not even his real name. Darlene made it up!" However, Barr had reportedly wanted to name the character David from the beginning but the idea was rejected as Galecki was starring on another show, Billy as a character named David.^[