This is the thread where we talk about Roseanne.

TOO HOT

My favorite episodes are any of the ones having to do with Becky as an angsty teen, and also the one where they are trying to get a loan and Jackie talks about hauling meat.

and that darlene's boyfriend would wear Milk & Cheese and Sandman t-shirts.

The whole point of David is that he was so punchable; perfect partner for Darlene to dominate.

A favourite moment: Dan in jail, and Darlene is the one who turns up to bail him out. "I think we both knew it would come to this one day - but who would have guessed it would be this way round?" Her pleasure in every second, Dan's weary "Just get me out of here." Perfect. Also when she got her first period, and Dan has no idea what to say or do, and ends up punching her in the shoulder and saying "Way to go!"

Yes, I remember this was really significant at the time, as the show was debuting at a time when The Cosby Show was the most popular program in the U.S.

Also PP OTM about the set.

Roseanne: Well I don't want you to give him any grief about this, ya know, cause you could traumatize him and turn him into a serial killer!

Darlene: Well don't worry, how much damage could he do with only one free hand?

Also, in the one "morality" type episode they had, where Darlene is stuck with her slutty neighbor at a concert, and is offered pot by some guy in a leather jacket, I loved the self-awareness of her reply: "oh god, I feel like I'm in a really bad after school special".

The show got really horrible in the end, though. Too bad.

I remember this so clearly, it was one of absolutely one of my favorite moments of tv in my adolescence.

Trivia for "Roseanne"

# "Corn" (the vegetable) is shown or mentioned in every episode. (usually creamed corn)

# "Corn" (the vegetable) is shown or mentioned in every episode. (usually canned corn)

parsons

a couple of years ago, there was an article about her struggle with (multiple personality/disscoative(sp)/something else) and i kept thinking that one of the more fascinating things about both the special, that article, and the last season of roseanne (and really the wasteland that was post roseanne) was that she was one of the last few who got very rich very quickly, and didnt know what to do about it.

she doesnt have that meta/postmodern sheen of artifice, that training of how to live and what to do with fame, and its really weird, to watch roseanne, and see it in a meta way, see how its in a coded way, about figuring out how to deal with issues of public/private

the scene at her father's funeral, or some of the interactions with jackie, or how much she hates arnie, in some of those episodes, or jackie going to therapy, and its not the working class versmillitude of the early episodes, but its this bizarre document on fame...

i also found it really interesting that, everyone eventually got paired off, and for the last (3?) seasons they had no idea how to handle, what to do with dj.

(you can see similar issues from the beginning, of grace under fire, with brett butler, and it disintergrates sooner, but there are episodes, maybe a dozen or so, that are the best, most real things ever on television, a hyper, broken remix of roseanne)

Yeah! It was like she wrote most of it a couple of years ago and hadn't updated it yet.

It sure did get bad at the end, when they won the lottery, like they were selling out the whole point of the show to begin with.

i mean, i really can't get over the first and second seasons. just got the DVDs and i'm really, i've been transported to another place.

um...

one of the 1st comments on this thread was something about how roseanne isn't a good actress/comedian and how it's like dan's show. i couldn't disagree more! they're on equal ground. both so great. all of em. gushing, i know. the dvd menu screen is staring me in the face as i type! gg

They should've just had Sarah Chalke take over her part

roseanne didn't create the show roseanne, she was cast in a sitcom developed by carsey-werner which was then written to conform with the comic persona she had created. she later became an executive producer on the show and had creative input, but was never the main creative driving force of the show

* for the crime of having not been too lazy to write a series bible, write and produce a pilot script, and to learn writers' names, all of which she refused to do and was then surprised that someone else received a credit per WGA rules

well yeah, but the show is also called "Roseanne". at least in 2 1/2 Men they replaced one of the men. "The Connors" feels like its only place in history is some "17 Quickly-Cancelled Sitcom Spinoffs You Probably Forgot About!" listicle on Buzzfeed

should have just replaced roseanne with kirstie alley

interesting detail from a 1989 article on Matt Williams's ousting from the show

Looking back, one writer said that "the feeling among the writers and producers was that we (still) had a show with John Goodman (who plays Barr's husband). But ultimately ABC owned the show and had the final say. And to them it was keep the star at all costs."

Remember when they fired Valerie Harper from Valerie? That had me reeling at the time, but honestly I think it was a better show with Sandy Duncan.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0738973/?ref_=ttep_ep1

Is there an online resource anywhere with ownership stakes in tv shows detailed? I know sometimes a production company owns the show rather than the network, and it seems like I've heard of rare cases where the star owned their own show.

Desilu owned I Love Lucy while it was airing (sold everything to CBS in 1960 though)

sandy duncan was so cute. I liked the show with valerie harper too. but I liked it with her.

"The Connors" feels like its only place in history is some "17 Quickly-Cancelled Sitcom Spinoffs You Probably Forgot About!" listicle on Buzzfeed

Sara Gilbert, the producer of last year's Roseanne revival, saved the (let's say generally) eight-month contract jobs of hundreds of people who would have otherwise been out of work for a year. Whether The Connors is good, sucks, is better than Roseanne or doesn't get another year, that's the very excellent reason that it exists.

How sick would it be if like suddenly Margo Martindale was Roseanne and they barely mentioned it.

this is sublime

they should have said Roseanne was off "investigating pizzagate" and over the course of the season you come to realize it's a euphemism for "chocked to death on a piece of sausage"

Sara Gilbert, the producer of last year's Roseanne revival, saved the (let's say generally) eight-month contract jobs of hundreds of people who would have otherwise been out of work for a year. Whether The Connors is good, sucks, is better than Roseanne or doesn't get another year, that's the very excellent reason that it exists.

― My Gig: The Thin Beast (sic), Thursday, 18 October 2018 22:16 (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

True, but they could have, instead, wrote a brand new sitcom with the same actors playing similar parts, but with all-new character names and a different location. Kinda like "Dusty's Trail" out of "Gilligan's Island"

That is a much worse idea than the The Connors tbh.

also, the "saving the jobs" part involves making a show that ABC are willing to pay for, not spending six months writing something on spec that they absolutely wouldn't get paid for at the end, while the hundreds of crew and production staff still remain out of work

I guess. There is that.

I never saw "Gilligans Island", don't know if we got it here, but I do remember "Dusty's Trail", could sing the theme if you like...

yeah they don't have the time or inclination to start from scratch. there might not have been scripts written but they were probably close to pre-production & planning when Roseanne was fired.

never ever heard of Dusty's Trail until now

were there multiple Gilligan's Island spinoffs? I don't remember that title but I remember watching a spinoff (and enjoying it - Gilligan's Island rules)

the gilligan's island episode of roseanne is really bad

dusty's train does not appear to be a spinoff btw. and doesn't have other actors outside of bob denver

The Connors is more like AfterMASH.

Or Major Crimes

AfterMAGA

You have no fucking idea what Roseanne is going to say at the end of this video. Not a clue. Whatever you’re thinking, it’s weirder than that.

pic.twitter.com/lfzXMnrj7s

— Nick Laparra (@NickLaparra) June 27, 2023

sounds right

He has a lot of personality traits that are usually coded as feminine.

and tits

Probably just a joke. Big wind up, unexpected absurd payoff, no elaboration. Basically a clickhole template.

From 2016:
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2016/10/trump-feminine-speaking-style-214391/

Thought this was going to be about her antisemitism.

Was tempting to post that clip, but I thought better.

If she hadn't been kicked off her namesake show, there would be so much potential for her screen character to become a Q wife and battle her TV family.

"Trust the plan, Dan."

I stopped for a few minutes on one of the terrible relaunch episodes (after Roseanne's departure). They were all in the kitchen talking about Wellman Plastics reopening, and Jackie remembered her old boss Booker, and how much he looked like George Clooney. They even managed to make that not funny. Then they had a brief clip of her and Clooney from the old show. Which got me thinking about the divergent career paths taken by Laurie Metcalf and George Clooney. Metcalf has always done good work, and she got a lot of attention for Lady Bird. He's George Clooney--fame, fortune, awards, some political influence even, everything.

In the end it doesn't matter. Clooney's a good actor, and I've liked him in many films. But I'm pretty sure he's never done anything as sublime as Metcalf's work on the first few seasons of Roseanne.

I don’t mind the revival series, but one of the definitely not-good things about it is how Metcalf’s performance follows her Don Knotts-style mugging of the later seasons of Roseanne instead of her (as you say) excellent work in the earlier seasons.

I bailed after the Roseanne controversy and never went back. Not even sure if it's still up and running or just in syndication.

It just finished its 6th season (though I still have only seen up to the 4th) and the seventh has been announced as the last.

i never noticed before how in the dancing scene in "Uncle Buck" -- which is already fantastic if only for the Beau Brummels track on the turntable -- Laurie Metcalf is in fact dressed like the historical Beau Brummel. she's great in the film of course

I was trying to find a good clip--been so long, I don't remember many specifics. There was the episode where Dan beat up the guy who abused her, and the way she thanked him when she found out, but couldn't find that. She's great in this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNzMXHUrCy0

I suppose the politics of that is dated, I don't know--Metcalf is so great, it makes the point moot for me.

Good scene, and well played by Metcalf—I love her barely contained shock when she finally does the math—but it reminds me: one of the weirdest things about revival is that it totally wipes Fred and the baby out of existence. I can see ditching some of the really dumb stuff from late in the run, but that was a pretty significant plot from roughly the series’ midpoint.

Fred was really good...That makes no sense at all! They never even allude to him or the baby? Of course, they had the two Beckys and made it work with a meta-joke.

crypto otm. I love Metcalf as an actress but they turned her character into a complete OTT cartoon character in the last few seasons of The Conners.

Why did Fred leave? He was a great character!

They divorced. So even if it was a matter of Michael O'Keefe not being available for the revival, didn't matter--his character was already long gone.

IIRC, part of why O'Keefe left was that ABC offered him his own sitcom, a show--Life's Work, with Lisa Ann Walter & a young Alexa Vega--which ultimately was cancelled after a half season.

Never knew till now that we was married to Bonnie Raitt for a time.

When was I married to her

Let me add that we was married to her just before Michael O'Keefe was.