LOS ANGELES — When Sara Gilbert started her working day here one rainy December morning, her dressing room at “The Talk” was dimly lit by a few scented candles. “I feel like I’m safe if it’s dark,” she said with a gentle laugh.

A short while earlier she’d kissed her three children goodbye and come to the Studio City offices of this CBS daytime show she developed, executive produces and co-hosts. Soon she and her fellow panelists, including Sharon Osbourne, Eve and Sheryl Underwood, would be trading thoughts and quips on issues of the day and interviewing celebrity guests like Dolly Parton and Keanu Reeves.

Then Gilbert would drive to the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank and spend the evening playing Darlene, the middle sibling turned reluctant matriarch of “The Conners” — that’s the ABC sitcom previously known as “Roseanne,” until its former title star nearly brought it crashing down around her.

This show, where Gilbert is now an executive producer, is also where she grew up before viewers’ eyes, portraying the caustically sarcastic Darlene over the original run of “Roseanne” from 1988 to 1997.