Roseanne: Home Ec

DiCaprio on the left

Roseanne: Home Ec
ABC
February 5, 1991
Sitcom
DVD
C+

This episode written by someone who didn't do any other of my shows isn't great, but it has a few notable things about it:

• Darlene seems annoyed by her mother's "feminism" and later says she plans to marry a rich guy, not exactly characteristic for Darlene;
• The guys in Darlene's Home Ec class refuse to go grocery-shopping, but I fail to see how that's more "girly" than cooking;
• Sixteen-year-old Leonardo DiCaprio has a small, lineless, uncredited role as one of Darlene's male classmates, predating his role on Growing Pains;
• There's a reference to Roseanne Barr being on the covers of magazines, although she's not mentioned by name, just that she put a curse on her ex-husband and Roseanne Conner thinks the celebrity is a great singer;
• The subplot is that D.J. is being bullied at school, which he and Conners handle in a very different way than Peter and the Bradys two decades earlier;
• And D.J. is described as a "twisted genius," which does fit his Season Three character.

Checkout Clerk David Greenlee was Young Leonard Smith on the It's Garry Shandling's Show episode about Leonard's Vietnam experiences.  Yunoka Doyle and Cynthia Marie King, who are Meryl and Suzy respectively, would soon be Carrie and Linda on the same episode of Who's the Boss?  And Vic Polizos, who's Jack Morgan, would become Sam's father-in-law, Joe Thomopolous, on WtB the next season.