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.