Roseanne
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Roseanne was an American sitcom which aired on ABC from 1988 to 1997, starring the stand-up comedian Roseanne Barr. The show's working title, and the title of its pilot episode, was Life and Stuff.
The show portrayed a working-class family living in fictional Lanford, Illinois, and struggling to get by on a limited income. For many years, Roseanne was, in contrast to many of the most popular shows at the time, honest in its depiction of family life, tackling subjects of poverty, alcoholism, sex, masturbation, obesity, and homosexuality in ways unlike other shows. Another theme of the show was Roseanne's dominance in raising the children, with her husband Dan feeling that he doesn't have a voice in what happens in the family, and is not well informed of what happens in his household. The show was hugely successful from its beginning, spending its first six seasons in the top five and inspiring a rash of stand-ups getting their own sitcom deals (a practice that continued for years afterwards). By the mid-'90s, however, the series began to be known more for the public and backstage scandals of Barr. There was constant turnover of writers and producers through the course of the series, including her second husband, Tom Arnold, and the show drifted away from its original storyline. During the seventh season, the show dropped sharply in the ratings, and by the final season (1996-1997), it had fallen out of the top thirty.
One of the most documented moments of the series occurred in the 5th season when Lecy Goranson (Becky) left the series to attend college. Instead of writing Becky out, the character was recast with actress Sarah Chalke sometime in the middle of season 6. Wary of the potential backlash to reshaping a longtime role, producers sought to defuse the criticism. At the end of Chalke's first episode, the Conner family watched a Bewitched episode and several characters complained about the recast of Darrin Stephens. Chalke smiled and said she'd always liked the second Darrin best. Gorenson returned to the role two seasons later only to leave again and to be replaced by Chalke in season 9. The eighth season opening credits (a morph of cast photos over the years) alternated shots of both women for Becky. The 9th season had just Sarah Chalke's face being shown. Both appeared in some episodes during the 8th season (including alternating playing the role of Becky during the episode with Darlene and David's wedding), and the changes became a running gag. In the 8th season premiere, Lecy returns as Becky, and Roseanne and Darlene say things like "Where the hell have you been? It feels like you've been gone for 3 years" as a joke. Lecy acts like she has no idea what they're talking about.
The complete first season was released on DVD on August 30, 2005, and the 2nd season is to be released on December 6, 2005.
On October 7th, 2005, the entire cast was featured on Larry King Live for the first time since the series ended.
Contents |
Characters
Conner Family
- Roseanne Harris-Conner (played by Roseanne Barr Arnold Thomas Pentland)
- Dan Conner (played by John Goodman)
- Becky Conner-Healy (played by Lecy Goranson and Sarah Chalke)
- Darlene Conner-Healy (played by Sara Gilbert)
- David Jacob "D. J." Conner (played by Sal Barone in the pilot, Michael Fishman for the remainder of the series)
- Jerry Garcia Conner (played by Cole Roberts)
Extended Family
- Jackie Harris (played by Laurie Metcalf)
- Kevin "David" Healy (played by Johnny Galecki)
- Mark Healy (played by Glenn Quinn)
- Beverly Harris (played by Estelle Parsons)
- Al Harris (played by John Randolph)
- Crystal Anderson-Conner (played by Natalie West)
- Fred (played by Michael O'Keefe)
- Andy Harris (played by Garrett Hazen and Kent Hazen)
- Nana Mary (played by Shelley Winters)
- Audrey Conner (played by Ann Wedgeworth and Debbie Reynolds)
- Ed Conner (played by Ned Beatty)
Other recurring characters
- Leon Carp (played by Martin Mull)
- Arnie Thomas (played by Tom Arnold)
- Nancy Bartlett (played by Sandra Bernhard)
- Booker Brooks (played by George Clooney)
Final Season (1996-1997)
In the final season of the series, writing control was taken away from Roseanne Barr largely and given to the network. As such, the final season marked a complete departure from the rest of the series with the Conner family winning the lottery and living the high life they could only previously dream of.
However, when it came time for the last episode to air, Barr was given the rights to write it her own way, and as such the last episode ended on an unusual, if fitting note with a 15-minute closing monologue by Roseanne revealing that after she was given a writing room (referencing a story thread from a few seasons beforehand) the entire series was merely a fictional story written by the character of Roseanne Conner and based on her family life and experiences. She also revealed that whatever she hadn't liked about her real life, she'd changed in the story. Roseanne Conner then began a writing career.
| Storyline of the season | Roseanne Conner's "real life" |
|---|---|
| Dan Conner survived his heart attack | Dan Conner died after his heart attack at Darlene's wedding |
| Darlene married David | Darlene married Mark |
| Becky married Mark | Becky married David |
| Roseanne's mother, Bev, was a lesbian | Roseanne's sister, Jackie, was a lesbian |
| The Conner family won the lottery | The Conner family did not win the lottery |
