“Roseanne” returns to ABC on Tuesday looking much as you probably remember it. There’s that couch. There’s that quilt. And there are Roseanne (Roseanne Barr) and Dan Conner (John Goodman), lovingly busting each others’ chops.

Granted, they’re older and achier, and Dan now sleeps with a mask for sleep apnea. But he’s alive, so he’s got that going for him. The original sitcom’s 1997 finale killed him off, an ending the revival laughs off as the two wake up in bed. “I thought you were dead!” Roseanne says. “You looked happy. I thought maybe you moved on.”

Oh, Roseanne! In TV today, no one moves on and nothing truly dies. We’ve resurrected “Will & Grace,” “Twin Peaks” and “American Idol,” with “Murphy Brown” on the way. If all you need from the new “Roseanne” is Ms. Barr’s materfamilias sarcasm, the crack team of comedy actors surrounding her and an update of the show’s working-class gallows humor, it has you covered.

But the new “Roseanne” also has the potential to do something a little deeper and more ambitious than your average nostalgia-fest.