Roseanne: The Wedding

Roseanne: The Wedding
ABC
May 7, 1996
Sitcom
DVD
B

In this Kaplan and Broch story (with the same title as the one from five years earlier about Crystal & Ed's wedding), David and Darlene get married, but it's at least as much about their family relationships.  David wishes his parents could be there, but Mark tells him that the Conners are their real parents now (both Mark and David's), because they care for them more than their biological parents ever did.  Darlene has heart-to-heart talks with both Dan and Roseanne, and Goodman's performance is particularly moving, made all the more so by how the episode ends and what Roseanne (Barr and Conner) would do with it later.  The outdoor wedding goes well, despite some snags, but Dan suffers a heart attack during the reception.  Roseanne calls 911, and the fragile "reality" of the series tears further apart.  But we don't know that at this point of course.

Minister Kymberly Newberry was a Dignified Woman on Ellen in '94.  I'm omitting the Hazen Twins and Cole Roberts from the overcrowded tags, but the babies do attend, with Jackie insisting that Andy be ring-bearer.  (One reason this isn't a B+, a little less crazy!Jackie would've helped.)  I'm also omitting Sandra Bernhard, Martin Mull, and Fred Willard as the adults who have the least to do this episode, but it is interesting that of all of Roseanne's friends, it's the gays who attend her daughter's wedding.