Roseanne: Altar Egos

Roseanne: Altar Egos
ABC
May 24, 1994
Sitcom
DVD
B

This Ulin & Gilliland story is a fine season-closer.  Fred is convinced that Jackie has a crush on Dan and so he drunkenly punches Dan.  Dan believes it himself, not without cause.  (There are hints throughout the series, especially the episode where she played mom while Roseanne was away, and Barr and Metcalf have both confessed multiple times to crushes on Goodman.)  Roseanne resolves things as if she's still taking One Life to Live to heart.  It's fun to see the four adults play off each other, in pairs and threes.  The "kids" have less to do, although Darlene does get the outrageous last line, which is actually what I remember most about this episode.  (But then I'd forgotten about Fred shaving in the previous episode.  At least Adam Green would rock the goatee awhile longer.)  This is the first of twenty-two episodes that Mark K. Samuels would direct, but mostly late in the series.  And I'm again omitting Michael Fishman from the overcrowded credits.

Roseanne in Season Six ranges from C+ to B+, but two-thirds are B's and the average is B.  The addition of Sarah Chalke and the reduction of Sarah Gilbert's role hasn't so far significantly harmed the series.  As this episode shows, adding Michael O'Keefe provides a middle-aged set of two couples, sometimes in contrast to the two young couples.  Even little D.J. is growing up.  We are, however, about to enter the last third of the series and the beginning of the decline.  I recall it as gentle at first, but Season Seven will have some red flags.