Roseanne: Let's Call It Quits

Roseanne: Let's Call It Quits
ABC
May 2, 1989
Sitcom
DVD
B

McFadzean & Anderson wrote this season-closer and game-changer where a sadistic new supervisor drives Roseanne to quit, with her coworker friends joining her.  (Anne Faulkner and Charlaine Woodard return as Sylvia and Vonda, and, yes, we would see them again.)  Most of the episode is set at the factory, but Dan is wonderfully supportive in the scene at home.  Note that it's never explained whether Booker quit or was fired, but he does hang out with the gang at the Lobo.

Roseanne in Season One is fresh and funny, unlike anything else on TV from that time.  There are missteps, especially with the factory and Booker, but when the show focuses on the family, particularly Roseanne and Dan's wonderfully real relationship, it's golden.  I would like for the kids to have had more to do, but they, especially little Michael as DJ, had to grow into their roles.  Metcalf also hasn't yet shown us what she's capable of.  Still, for a first season to range from C+ to B+ and average out to a low B is impressive, and I had had relatively low expectations compared to later seasons.  I'm eager to see how Season Two looks....

Roseanne: Dear Mom and Dad

Roseanne: Dear Mom and Dad
ABC
April 18, 1989
Sitcom
DVD
B+

Roseanne's parents, Beverly (Estelle Parsons, in the first of fifty-nine appearances in the role) and Al (John Randolph in his first of only two, and, yes, he was also Emily Hartley's father), pay a surprise visit and drive everyone crazy, in another very funny and insightful episode, this one penned by Danny Jacobson.  The later presentation of the parents would have darker tones, but it's understandable that we don't get into it in the first season.  Also, Beverly's line about worrying that 32-year-old Jackie will turn out to be like Aunt Dale the gym teacher would end up being ironic on several counts.  The episode contains a surprise (and unnecessary) cameo by Bruce Willis at the end.

Roseanne: Death and Stuff

Roseanne: Death and Stuff
ABC
April 11, 1989
Sitcom
DVD
B+

This is another episode Bill Pentland wrote and it's very funny.  The title is of course a spin on "Life and Stuff," and there is a sense that, although the situation of a salesman dying in the Conners' kitchen is played for farce, the reactions are rooted in recognizable human behavior.  The nameless salesman is well acted, alive and dead, by 74-year-old Jeff Corey, sixteen years after he was the title character in the "Old Man Rivers" episode of The Bob Newhart Show, that is, Carol's elderly doctor boyfriend.  (He was also Hassan on What's Happening!!, but what's truly remarkable is his onscreen career ran from 1938 to 2000!)  Meanwhile the Conners are trying to sell their old washer & dryer, and Darlene needs to make baklava for school, getting unexpected help from the Greek-American cop.

Lee Garlington, who plays Carole Karoszek, would have a memorable cameo as Ms. Foster from the IRS on Who's the Boss? a couple years later.

Roseanne: Toto, We're Not in Kansas Anymore

Roseanne: Toto, We're Not in Kansas Anymore
ABC
March 28, 1989
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Grace McKeaney wrote this episode where a tornado hits Lanford.  The special effects are nice, but the rhythm of the episode feels a little off, like when Roseanne is worried about Jackie, who shows up before the commercial break.  Announcer Hal Rayle would later be a Narrator on Who's the Boss?

Who's the Boss?: Living Dolls

Guess which one's a vain tease and which
one's the naive, trusting girl from Idaho.

Who's the Boss?: Living Dolls
ABC
March 28, 1989
Sitcom
DVD
C+

Yet another back-door pilot about modeling, although this one did become a regular series called, yes, Living Dolls.  (It ran for twelve episodes.)  This isn't bad but it certainly wouldn't have made me watch LD.  The characters are cliches, although there are some nice moments between the two leads, and Sam isn't shoehorned into the plot quite as badly as Angela on the "Charmed Lives" episode.

Michael Learned appears as Trish Baldwin, a much nicer college friend of Angela's than the Trish we met in Season One.  (The ten-year age difference between Light and Learned is lampshaded a bit when it turns out that each claims to be ten years younger than the other.)  This Trish runs a teen-modeling agency, and one of her models is street-smart Charlie Briscoe, played by Leah Remini.  Charlie turns out to be an old Brooklyn friend of Sam's, who's at the agency doing a story for the school paper.  OK, not terribly plausible, but still better than all we're expected to believe in "Charmed Lives."

Bobby Brett, who plays Ike Calaboni had previously appeared as Gene.  It looks like going to series meant heavy recasting, but I like Vivica A. Fox (later of the daytime soap Generations), who was replaced by Halle Berry.  Ross Brown wrote this and the other episode about Charlie, while director Sgueglia had recently started working for Roseanne.

Roseanne: The Slice of Life

Roseanne: The Slice of Life

ABC

March 7, 1989

Sitcom
DVD
B

Anderson & McFadzean co-wrote this episode where Roseanne and Darlene have been bickering for two weeks, so they both feel guilty when Darlene's appendix bursts during a baseball game that Darlene discouraged Roseanne from attending.  This is probably the most dramatic episode of the series so far.  And It's a nice touch making the doctor a black mom.

John Walter Davis, who was the Seven of Spades in the 1985 Alice in Wonderland TV-Movie, plays Darlene's coach Ted Graham.

Roseanne: Becky's Choice

Johnny Swanko AKA The Tongue Bandit

Roseanne: Becky's Choice
ABC
February 28, 1989
Sitcom
DVD
B+

This, by Gelman & Jacobson, is the funniest episode so far and it also foreshadows Becky's eventual interest in bad boy Mark.  Roseanne sees Chip's mom (Andrea Walters again) at the grocery store, so she invites the Langs over for dinner, not just Chip (Jared Rushton for the third and last time) and Bonnie but his dad Edgar, a dentist.  Becky and Chip have been dating six months already, don't ask me how.  She still likes him, but she also likes an older boy (high school sophomore, while she's a 13-year-old eighth-grader) who's known for his kissing skills.  (And it's not on the cheek, like Chip's kiss.)  Roseanne catches them kissing and yells at Becky to get back in the house (where they're still entertaining her official boyfriend and his family).  Becky later tells her parents that they're not as "hip and with it" as they think.  They think it over but still forbid her to see the other boy.  And meanwhile, the stuff with Chip's parents is hilarious, especially the "aloha" sequence.  Jackie appears briefly, on her way to a date with Booker (unseen this episode).

Roseanne: Mall Story

As when Sam got her prom dress on Who's the
Boss?, most of the choices are late '80s ghastly.

Roseanne: Mall Story
ABC
February 21, 1989
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Laurie Gelman wrote this story mostly set at the Lanford Mall.  Not much happens, other than Dan reluctantly buying shoes and Becky wanting to buy a dress for a dance.  (Oh, and Crystal is happy for a change, since she loves to shop.)  I like that we see here the sacrifices the Conners have to make, when they'd like to get their children what they want but can't always afford it.  The economic aspect of lower-middle-class life is one of the special things about this series, especially in the world of '80s and '90s sitcoms.  I might've gone with a B, but the Jackie thread of her wanting to leave Lanford and have a better life is brought up and then wrapped up too easily.  (For now.)

Bickering Wife Beverly Dixon was Woman #1 on Mork & Mindy and Evelyn on Three's Company.  John Sgueglia directs Roseanne for the first of seven times.