Roseanne: Into That Good Night

Roseanne: Into That Good Night
ABC
May 20, 1997
Sitcom
DVD
B

This one-hour series conclusion was co-written by Allan Stephan, Barr, and her daughters Jessica and Jennifer Pentland.  Whether this is how the series or the season should've ended is still subject to debate, especially with a Roseanne revival next year.  But it is entertaining and sometimes moving in of itself.  Of course I don't want Dan to be dead, or David and Darlene to be split up, but I get the point that Roseanne, both Barr and Conner, wanted to rewrite the way life goes.  It doesn't justify or explain the madness of Season Nine, but it's not a bad place to "end."

I'm omitting not only Cole Roberts and the Hazen twins, but also Sandra Bernhard, Martin Mull, and Fred Willard, although I think it's interesting that none of Roseanne's straight friends are included in the baby's homecoming.  Note that Goranson is tagged for the flashback to when Roseanne's writing room was set up in the basement.

Roseanne's final season ranges from two D-s to one B+, averaging out to a C+.  There are still good moments, good episodes, but more rarely than in previous seasons.  In some ways, this show resembles M*A*S*H, a sitcom with serious and even dark moments, running perhaps too long and yet still capable of making me cry as it ends.  (And both shows have a ton of continuity errors of course.)  It'll be interesting to see what happens in "Season Ten," but I expect to be done with this blog before that airs.

Roseanne: Heart & Soul

Roseanne: Heart & Soul
ABC
May 14, 1996
Sitcom
DVD
B

This Palladino & Walker story has Dan recovering in the hospital, and the family worried but hoping for the best.  Both Dan and Roseanne talk to God, separately, and they think of how they've been together so long.  (Roseanne says since she was 16, but also 25 years, the latter I think counting from her marriage at 18.)  There's also a good scene between Becky and Darlene.  (It was Chalke at the wedding but I'm glad it's Goranson for the more serious stuff.)  Later, the family reminisces, including oddly enough about Dan beating up Fisher.  Again, not a B+, since things feel a little too scripted, not natural, but definitely what would've been a nice penultimate episode for the series as a whole.

Roseanne: Springtime for David

Roseanne: Springtime for David
ABC
March 12, 1996
Sitcom
DVD
C+

Garland Testa's first of two Roseanne stories and David Forbes's last of four isn't bad for one of the less realistic episodes, and there are some funny moments in the Disney parody.  (This begins one week after the Disney World trip and then covers two weeks.)  However, I don't think it works entirely on its own terms.  I find it hard to believe that Darlene's mockery wouldn't make David give up on Edelweiss Gardens, but we're never shown or even told what her reaction is.  Also, I'd like to be given a sense that David's mindless conformity is making him unhappy.  To compare this to the ABC sitcoms of roughly twenty years earlier, we got to see Rerun, Horshack, Billy Tate, and Chrissy Snow disillusioned with their cults, but David is so passive that Roseanne deprogramming him just feels like another form of control.  Even Audrey's recent reclamation from Rapture by Ellen had more meaning.

Roseanne: Out of the Past

Roseanne: Out of the Past
ABC
February 6, 1996
Sitcom
DVD
C+

When the highlight of the story, by Ogier & Costa, is poor Mark's wife, brother, and sister-in-law tricking him so he won't win Scrabble, that's not a good sign.  The two main plots are Roseanne and Jackie fighting over a childhood doll, and Dan and the guys, including Leon and Scott, discussing race and sexual orientation at a poker game.  This isn't nearly as terrible as the Thanksgiving episode of course, but Goodman looks physically uncomfortable delivering some of his lines.  (And he was fine in the "Fifties" episode because he could get into the stylized character.)  I might've gone with a C, but it's always nice to see Shelley Winters.

John McConnell plays Bob again.  David Tyree, who was Mose Powell earlier in the season, is the nameless Poker Player #6 here.  I'm omitting the Hazen twins and Cole Roberts due to the overcrowded tags, but the babies are featured prominently, more than D.J. actually.  And, as is traditional, I'm leaving out James Pickens, Jr.

Roseanne: Becky Howser, M.D.

Roseanne: Becky Howser, M.D.
ABC
January 16, 1996
Sitcom
DVD
B

I almost went with a B+ for this Sid Youngers story that finally again gives Glenn Quinn something more substantial to play than dumb!Mark.  Becky is feeling like her life is meaningless, especially since hearing about Darlene's job offer.  Roseanne encourages her to make some changes, but is unprepared for Becky making plans without consulting Mark.  He tells Roseanne off in two different scenes, and Quinn and Barr play well off each other, in a way that they haven't since his first season or two.  I also like the tie-in of "Becky being selfish" with her early seasons' persona.  Nobody is all right or all wrong here, a subtlety the series hasn't shown in awhile.  However, I didn't feel like the rest of the episode was quite on that level of quality.

Tony Rich, who had a nameless role on "The Fifties Show," is a Party Guest here.  Stan Freberg makes his third and final appearance as the luckless Mr. Parkin.

Roseanne: White Sheep of the Family

Roseanne: White Sheep of the Family
ABC
January 9, 1996
Sitcom
DVD
B

This David Raether story feels more like a regular episode, with the family reacting to Darlene's news that she turned down a $30,000/year copywriter job.  Suddenly, her usual sarcasm feels like someone looking down on them, rather than her just being one of the Conners.  Meanwhile, D.J. buys a musical instrument to win a girl's attention, and it works.

Stan Freberg returns as Mr. Parkin, who apparently lost his job through Roseanne and Jackie's shenanigans in the previous episode and now has to work as a waiter in a fancy restaurant.

Roseanne: Direct to Video

Roseanne: Direct to Video
ABC
December 5, 1995
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Chronology and consistency really go out the window here, with Roseanne making a video to be played for her daughter who's a few weeks from being born, yes, in an episode that aired almost fifteen months after the episode where Roseanne announced her pregnancy!  I suspect it was taped early in the season, especially since Dan still has his early-season-eight beard.

Meanwhile, Dan and David try to make a belated baby book for D.J. (still born in '81); Jackie resents Fred (O'Keefe in his last appearance to air) becoming less boring; Mark cooks dinner for the ungrateful family; and Darlene and Becky find Dan and Roseanne's old love letters.  I want to mention that the chemistry between Gilbert and Goranson is as strong as ever this season, and I really wish they'd had a chance to work together more.

Roseanne: The Fifties Show

Roseanne: The Fifties Show
ABC
November 7, 1995
Sitcom
DVD
B-

Allan Stephan, who also wrote the Gilligan's Island tribute episode, did this odd entry.  Well, not odd compared to the previous episode, but still a little weird.  With an intro by a modern-day Roseanne (I think in a Masterpiece Theater satire, but who knows), we see what's supposed to be an episode from roughly 40 years ago, very roughly, considering Dan refers to Joseph McCarthy as if the Senator were a really new figure on the national scene (so '51 maybe?), and yet "the Deej" wants to sing rock & roll.  Some of the points, like about the sexism and racism of the period, are a little heavy-handed, and plot threads ranging from "Rebecca" hoping she'll be pinned by Mark to Jackie's proto-Women's-Lib conspiracy, cleverly disguised as wackiness, are brought up and then forgotten.  A tighter script would've had a clearer focus and kept all the elements juggled.  Still, the parody aspects are well done, from the look to the sound, and of course Goodman is priceless in his role, especially when he pontificates.

David Tyree, who plays Mose Powell (father of Colin), would be Poker Player #6 the next year, while Tony Rich, who is playing an unknown character here, would in '96 be a Party Guest.  Michael Fishman's then three-year-old brother Matthew plays his brother Stinky and does a fine job, catchphrase and all.

Roseanne: Halloween - The Final Chapter

And this is one of the saner moments.

Roseanne: Halloween - The Final Chapter
ABC
October 31, 1995
Sitcom
DVD
C-

Barr directed and co-wrote, with Lois Bromfield, this odd entry that might well be the Shark Jump, or at least the Putting on the Waterskis moment.  (It'll be easier to tell as the season progresses, or regresses.)  The title I believe has something to do with the fact that this was originally supposed to be the final season of the series, but it doesn't explain why Roseanne, after well over a year of pregnancy, gives birth to a baby boy (Cole Roberts in his first appearance), whom she names after the spirit of Jerry Garcia (Fred Asparagus, who'd played Del Moore on Who's the Boss?), after seeing the recently departed musician in a labor-induced hallucination.  Even before the hospital sequence, we get Ed McMahon and Sarah Chalke, as themselves (I think) mixed in with trick-or-treaters.  And a mini-clip-show of past Halloweens (which is why Gilbert and Goranson are tagged). 

Basically, the whole thing is a mess, not exactly redeemed by the tag where Roseanne fields staged-sounding questions from the audience.  (OK, I did laugh when a man who claims to be one of the writers asks what the hell the episode was.)  You know I've never been a big fan of the Halloween episodes, but they at least had some bearing on reality.  And contrast this episode with some touching and funny moments in the episode with the flashback to D.J.'s birth and you'll see what this series was starting to lose.  It's not all over, but the future doesn't look too bright from this point on out.

Jason Davis's middle Roseanne character is nameless, but he was possibly the lawyer kid.  Bobbie Bates makes her first of two nameless appearances on the show.  (And she was a dancer in Mame over twenty years earlier.)  Trippy Dancer Tera Hendrickson would be Barb on Ellen.

Roseanne: The Last Date

Roseanne: The Last Date
ABC
October 24, 1995
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This story by Eric Gilliland and Daniel Palladino (his first of three stories for a series his wife, Amy Sherman, had been writing for for awhile, and after his own memorable stint on Who's the Boss?) has an A story that I have mixed feelings about, a B story that I wanted more about, and a C story that is WTF.  With the baby due in a week, Roseanne wants to get out on the town one last time, which turns into her and Dan crashing a bar mitzvah.  Even though Roseanne Barr was raised Jewish, there are a lot of stereotypes here, yet the point seems to be "Jews are just like us," in that they're rude and loud and warm and food-loving.  Meanwhile, Becky and Darlene bond over a bottle of Schnapps they find, and I wished this subplot didn't just fade out, especially with Becky having doubts about her marriage.  And Jackie is so Flanderized as crazy that she not only ends up playing Monopoly by herself, but she gloats when she beats two of her selves!

Selma Archerd, who, among other things, appeared on The Brady Bunch, has an uncredited role here and played Lucille the year before.  Roseanne writers Cathy Ladman, Bob Nickman (who had played three other characters), Carrie Snow, and Ed Yeager play Guests.

Roseanne: Let Them Eat Junk

Roseanne: Let Them Eat Junk
ABC
September 26, 1995
Sitcom
DVD
B-

In this Berry & Yeager teleplay, based on a story by Carrie Snow (her first of three for the series), Jackie is such an overprotective mother that she insults Roseanne's kids.  I was going to go with a C+, but I like the twist at the end that Jackie may be right (if over the top about expressing it), when we learn that Bev comforted Roseanne with food.  Meanwhile, Dan tries to change D.J.'s image of him but blunders until they discuss classic cartoons.  I'm omitting Martin Mull but adding the Hazen twins (despite their omission on IMDB) because Andy does some cute scenes.

Roseanne: Shower the People You Love with Stuff

I love Sara Gilbert even more for rockin' a Felix the Cat T-shirt!

Roseanne: Shower the People You Love with Stuff
ABC
September 19, 1995
Sitcom
DVD
B

In this Lawrence Broch Season Eight Opener, Roseanne is still pregnant with her third daughter, but it's her older two girls who are acting like babies, although now 21 and 19.  Goranson returns and proves that she's Becky #1 in quality as well as chronology.  She and Gilbert pick up where they left off (Darlene even making fun of Becky's butt) and others react to their bickering.  Neither girl wants to throw a baby shower for their greedy mother, and meanwhile poor David throws a shower for the unappreciative men.  Note that Goodman has a full beard which no one remarks on, but there are lots of jokes about Becky being gone a long time.  (Sadly, the DVD doesn't include the Patty Duke Show parody, which you can find on Youtube, William Schallert cameo and all.)

John McConnell returns as Bob.  I'm omitting Adilah Barnes, Sandra Bernhard, and Natalie West from the overcrowded tags, but Anne-Marie and Nancy would return while Crystal would not.

Roseanne: All About Rosey

Roseanne: All About Rosey
ABC
March 1, 1995
Sitcom
DVD
C+

Ulin & Sandaas wrote the frame for this hour-long clip show, which I might've given a B- if they could've kept the same frame throughout.  Things start out well in 1965, when Roseanne (played screechingly by Fishman) and Jackie (Metcalf's approximately eleven-year-old daughter Zoe Perry, quite good as approximately nine-year-old Jackie, her second time in the role after being in the '92 Halloween episode) visit a female fortune-teller, played by Goodman.  For $1, he can show them Roseanne's life from '88 to '94.  And then we get opening credits that splice together the various credit sequences, a bit like the morphing credits in Season Eight or Nine.  Certainly, the episode is propelled by nostalgia, although as always when a clip show runs late in a series, especially a series in decline like this one, there's going to be regret that things aren't as good as they used to be.  (Even the Darlene-teasing-D.J.-about-masturbation-at-the-dinner-table sequence from Season Six already looks classic compared to Season Seven.)

In the next frame, set in 2025, a Bev-looking Jackie takes D.J. to a Psychiatrist played by Eric Christmas (many, many credits, including both Harold and Maude and Attack of the Killer Tomatoes).  Goodman plays middle-aged D.J., who's traumatized by the Becky switch.  And then in the final frame, covering about half the episode, Roseanne is visited by other TV Moms:

• Barbara Billingsley as June Cleaver;
• Pat Crowley as perhaps the most obscure TV mom, Joan Nash from Please Don't Eat the Daisies;
• June Lockhart as Lassie's Ruth Martin (not looking much different than she did on It's Garry Shandling's Show eight years earlier);
• Alley Mills as Norma Arnold from The Wonder Years;
• and Isabel Sanford (who hasn't been heard on one of my shows since Wait Till Your Father Gets Home) as Louise Jefferson.

You can see from that odd assortment that, with the exception of Billingsley and Lockhart, these aren't the classic TV Moms that would've been thought of even in the '90s.  Yes, Sanford is a TV icon, but we remember her marriage to George much more than her motherhood of Lionel.  (And even Lockhart is associated more with the dog than her son.)  It gives the episode a feeling of being thrown together, and the contrasts of old-fashioned TV with Roseanne feel a little forced.  I'd much rather have had them stick with the first frame throughout.

Bob Telford appears as Bill in archival footage.

Roseanne: Good Girls, Bad Girls

Roseanne: Good Girls, Bad Girls
ABC
November 24, 1992
Sitcom
DVD
B

This episode written by Amy Sherman is one of the better ones with the Tildens (again, Wings Hauser, Mara Hobel, and Danielle Harris as Ty, 17-year-old Charlotte, and apparently 16-year-old Molly [the younger sister but she drives]).  Charlotte is a "good girl," shy and domestic.  Molly seems to be a good girl, too, but her surface sweetness hides the side of her that thinks nothing of smoking joints in a van with strange guys after a rock concert.  Darlene looks like a "bad girl," but she doesn't want to be in "a bad After School special."  Darlene's parents don't trust her, but Ty trusts Molly.  Note that Darlene says it was over a year ago that she went to Chicago with David, but wasn't that episode around February of '92?

Roseanne: The Dark Ages

Roseanne: The Dark Ages
ABC
September 29, 1992
Sitcom
DVD
B+

This is the first of eleven Roseanne scripts by Eric Gilliland, who did three for Who's the Boss?, while it's the first of five for Mike Gandolfi.  The Conners' electricity is cut off and Roseanne observes, "Well, middle class was fun."  The parents try to entertain Darlene and DJ with puppet shadows, but Darlene would rather work on her comic with flashlights, upstairs in her room with David.  Dan objects, till Roseanne says that Mark had a sexy, dangerous quality and this is David, so Dan gives his OK.  David does want to neck and more with Darlene, but she's not ready for sex.  When David spends the night, Roseanne is understandably suspicious.  Darlene insists she's nothing like Becky.  In the end, Dan, who's been avoiding Becky's phone calls, calls her up and gives heating advice.

Laurie Metcalf has two great scenes, one in which she tries to make breakfast in the Conner kitchen, oblivious to the lack of power; and the tag where she polishes her new Emmy, till Roseanne and Tom Arnold as well as John Goodman chase after her.  This is the 100th episode, and thus the 100th show of mine for Goodman, Goranson, and Gilbert.

Roseanne: Terms of Estrangement, Part 2

Roseanne: Terms of Estrangement, Part 2
ABC
September 22, 1992
Sitcom
DVD
A-

Rob Ulin's first of ten Roseanne stories is this heartbreaking yet hilarious episode where the family deals with the fallout of Becky & Mark's elopement.  Everyone reacts characteristically:

• Nancy is self-absorbed about whether her sympathy is well-expressed.
• DJ is still an uncomplicated (if weird) kid and he's happy to see Becky again but doesn't give her elopement much thought;
• Darlene is uproariously dry about it all, with her "Look, it's Joanie and Chachi" and "Did I ever tell you you're my hero?" lines putting me on the floor (Becky grins and calls Darlene the wind beneath her wings for her reply to the latter);
• David, whom we finally see with Mark, tells his big brother that he's fine "except thanks to you I'm now related to my girlfriend";
• Mark tries to talk with Dan and avoid talking with Roseanne;
• Becky believes in her love with Mark and thinks that it was right to do what she wanted since her parents would've stopped her if they'd known, and yet she does want their approval;
• Jackie tries to be an accepting aunt and secretly gives Becky "Great-Grandmother Harris's wedding ring" (as does Roseanne later);
• Dan acts coldly towards Becky, as he did when she took his motorcycle without asking;
• and Roseanne tries to hold the family together, while dealing with her own feelings of shock and disappointment, and while warning Mark that she is going to be a scary mother-in-law.

Note that Becky will be turning 18 in two months, although I recall her birthday as being in March in the first season or two.

Roseanne: Terms of Estrangement, Part 1

Roseanne: Terms of Estrangement, Part 1
ABC
September 15, 1992
Sitcom
DVD
B+

As when The Brady Bunch didn't update the opening credits for a season, there's a shock to the system seeing the kids suddenly two years older, with updated hairdos, as we shift from "poker-playing" credits to "pizza-eating" credits.  (And Natalie West no longer appears there, although Crystal is in this episode, with both babies.)  Even more of a shock, to the point that the studio audience very audibly reacts, is Becky telling off Dan for ruining the family's life with his failed business, and then calling her parents to tell them she's eloped with Mark to Minneapolis.  As Roseanne says, re the economy, "It's the '90s!  Who knew?"  The realest of realistic sitcoms is definitely keepin' it real as Season Five kicks off.  And meanwhile Nancy tries liposuction after Arnie serves the separation papers.  (From outer space?  OK, not everything here is realistic.)

Carl Franklin returns as Officer Gil Robbins.  This is the first of three Roseanne scripts by the team of Sy Dukane and Denise Moss.

Roseanne: Aliens

Roseanne: Aliens
ABC
May 12, 1992
Sitcom
DVD
B+

Joel Madison wrote the story with Ron Nelson (who has very few credits, none on my other shows), but the teleplay with Jeff Abugov, and it contains the following:

• Becky finding out that due to her family's financial struggles, there's no money for her to attend more than community college, despite her great grades;
• Leon turning out to be human, trying to find his waitresses (whose last day is now here) new jobs and bringing in sparkling cider;
• Roseanne making a political candidate regret his door-to-door campaigning, twice, by talking about the economy;
• Arnie leaving Nancy a note that he's being kidnapped by aliens, and then in the tag this proving to be true;
• Nancy seeing Jackie having had a "relationship" with Arnie as a bonding thing for them, when Jackie would just as soon that everyone forget about it; 
• DJ (again called David Jacob) winning the school spelling bee, with his family rooting him on, and his parents knowing it's in the bag when his last word is "foreclosure";
• and a celebratory ice cream fight.

Steve Kramer was the English voice of Wilde Wolf on Maple Town and is Roger's Father here.  Teacher Anna Gee Byrd had played a Nurse on Who's the Boss?  Clint Allmon and Jeff Heston would return as Aliens #1 and #2.  Thanks to appearances elsewhere, this is the 100th show of mine for Roseanne Barr (well, Roseanne Arnold at that point).

Roseanne in its fourth season ranges from B- to A-, averaging out to an impressive B.  There are none of the big missteps like in previous seasons (e.g. Roseanne's dream of murdering her family), and even the Bowmans don't wreck the show.  Season Four is wise and wisecracking, with moments of drama and reality, from emotional to financial, as well as silliness, as this episode amply demonstrates.  That the tonal shifts are smooth rather than awkward is to the credit of director Weyman, the writers, and of course the chemistry-rich cast.  We believe in the Conners and company and we can't wait to see where life takes them next.

Roseanne: Don't Make Me Over

Roseanne: Don't Make Me Over
ABC
May 5, 1992
Sitcom
DVD
B

Sara Gilbert wrote the story that Foster, Lapiduss, and Youngers turned into a teleplay, which is especially interesting considering that the Conner daughters don't come off well in it.  Becky and Darlene want to attend a rock concert hours away and stay overnight, with friends and without adults, so they decide to butter their mother up for Mother's Day.  When Roseanne finds out, she's heartbroken, and it's up to Dan to save the day, which he does through a combination of tough love and deviousness.  There are lighter moments, too, yes, including the hairdos.  (The beauty salon that the Conner ladies go to is not the one Roseanne used to work at.)

Roseanne: Secrets

Roseanne: Secrets
ABC
April 28, 1992
Sitcom
DVD
B-

This is the only Roseanne story by Lawrence H. Levy, who wrote one Who's the Boss? episode, oddly enough with the word "Secret" in the title ("Marie's Secret").  The big secret here is that Dan covers for Mark when the latter gets drunk and punches a jukebox at the Lobo Lounge.  I assume the intention was to show Dan and Mark further bonding, but I don't like Dan keeping it from Roseanne, and then Jackie blabs to her.  Perhaps there will be fallout later.  Meanwhile, Chuckie has lost his job at Wellman.  (And, yes, I'm again omitting poor James Pickens, Jr., because of overcrowded tags.)  Note that this is the episode that first mentions Arnie encountering aliens, and it would be funny if Levy just threw that in there and then the regular staff writers decided to run with it.

Jim Staskel played Thug #2 on the "Force Boxman" episode of It's Garry Shandling's Show and is Kelvin here.  Don Maxwell makes his third and last appearance as Willy, while Dan Butler is Art for the third and last, and Michael Dempsey is Ray for the second and last.