Roseanne: Less Is More

Roseanne: Less Is More
ABC
February 11, 1992
Sitcom
DVD
B

The series again deals with subjects not then seen on sitcoms.  This time, Roseanne considers and then goes through with breast reduction surgery, because of her continuing back troubles.  (Remember, seven years earlier, ABC was skittish about the "Samantha's first bra" episode, and you would never have heard the word "breast," let alone "nipple" then, even if it was about Mona's bras.)  We see how the family (minus DJ) react, including Dan wanting to be supportive because he knows this is related to her health, but also having to get used to the idea of the woman he's loved for twenty years changing her body.  Roseanne's friends, including a maybe five-months-pregnant at this point (although there's still frost on the ground) Crystal, show their support with jokes and balloons and musings on men's breast fixation.  It feels like this is something too big to be wrapped up in one half-hour episode, but it's well handled under the circumstances.

In the wall-breaking tag, Arnold talks to Goodman about the scene in the kitchen (where Roseanne coaxes a nervous Dan into kissing and touching her).  Arnold says he was locked in his trailer and missed it, so Goodman says he played it as Arnold advised, ending with a platonic handshake.  Arnold, in an even more laugh-out-loud than at the time line says, "I love being a producer!"

D'Anne Avner makes her second appearance on the show, presumably again as a Woman in the Coffee Shop, while Rick Spector's second appearance is as another Customer, and Customer Susan Krebs was Nurse Gleason on M*A*S*H.  Walter Jacobson is back as Walter.  Neil Patrick Harris, then 18, guest-stars as his Dr. Doogie Howser character in Roseanne's nightmare, to the delight of the studio audience.  Amy Sherman wrote the story that Foster & Lapiduss based their teleplay on.  This is the first episode Mancuso has directed this season, maybe because it's a more "female" episode than usual.