BetterForgotten

Even if it got half this audience in other episodes, it would still be a hit by today's standards, sadly.

Lecy's a smoker, I believe, so not surprised by her deeper voice....

I have to say that it's nice that an actress like Laurie Metcalf at her age is getting such renewed interest and respect for her craft across film, TV, and theater. The show instantly has some level of credibility because she's in the cast.

The EW ratings article had some interesting tidbits: According to ABC, this is the highest-rated comedy telecast on any network in nearly four years (since a premiere episode of CBS’ The Big Bang Theory from 2014) Also kinda incredible, given how ratings have declined over the years: Roseanne’s return was actually higher among total viewers than its 1997 finale 21 years ago! The Roseanne premiere audience also grew slightly from its first quarter to its second, which is a good sign This is Tuesday’s highest-rated entertainment telecast in six years among young adults and ABC’s best results in the time slot since 2006

If this were NBC, it would already have a 5 season pick-up.

Different generations have also discovered the show in syndication (since it's always on), so besides the nostalgia factor for people who were alive when it was originally on, I think a lot of different people were probably interested in checking the revival out.

Yeah, the Darlene/Becky dynamic is interesting. Unlike Roseanne/Jackie, the two of them were never close or had as tight of a bond, so they don't have the same dependency/attachment issues their mother and aunt have. It's so easy for a character like Becky to get lost in the shuffle. I'll always remember when Roseanne and Dan were jobless and when Dan lost the bike shop, and all Becky could think about was Mark's employment and her own happiness. She was such a selfish piece of sh!t. Usually when Darlene argued with Dan and Roseanne, she mostly had a point and was often right, that was rarely the case with Becky.

From an acting standpoint, Sara Gilbert and Laurie Metcalf (though it was never a doubt with her) killed it. I was afraid they'd have to completely mellow-out Darlene now that she's a mother of two, but it's nice that she still had some of her trademark humor and her current incarnation seems like a natural progression. Becky is still the same selfish bitch she always was. I wonder why they didn't really touch upon Mark's death, but I guess they'll delve into that in later episodes. He wasn't bad, but it's probably wise they give Michael Fishman as few lines as possible.

I except nothing less from what's become of The View.

Yeah, they told her they were going to run the story without her permission if she didn't grant them an exclusive interview with her daughter. Roseanne was new to Hollywood at that time, and clearly didn't know how to deal with a lot of that attention.

Yeah, and she was blackmailed by the National Enquirer to do an exclusive with them when they tracked down the daughter she gave up for adoption. She and her daughter are now very close.

NY Times Review

I honestly sometimes can't tell if Roseanne is exactly pro-Trump or if she's just trolling people. Even before Trump, she was talking about how the 'Left' took things too far where they enabled the current social climate to be too "politically correct" where everything is taken too seriously - I think that's what pissing her off the most. I don't know if I'd ever call her a right-wing Conservative.

What's weird though is that the show worked around Sara Gilbert's college schedule (she attended Yale on the east coast), but didn't do the same for Lecy. Perhaps Lecy wanted to squarely focus on college though. However, Darlene remained a central focus on the show even as Gilbert was away and could only do half seasons from seasons 6-9. If Darlene is Roseanne's true successor, Becky is certainly Jackie's - someone who had a lot of promise, but was never able to get it together. I think it was mentioned by Bev in the original show how Jackie always had good grades in school, but ultimately never lived up to any of that potential in life.

I can't imagine the ratings ever being that great, regardless of the era of the show, but I agree that "music rights" seemed like a lame excuse for not continuing past 1981. I believe the only time SoapNet commented on ratings for reruns was when they pulled AW from the lineup - saying something like it was registering a 0 rating.

Sara Gilbert will also be on The View on Tuesday - I wonder if they'll mention The Talk, lol. Sara will also be on Colbert on Monday.

I can't help but shake the feeling that Nia may be ashamed she was on a soap, even though it was her first big break. The way she casually rushed though it in her Uncensored episode made me feel that way - she basically spent most of that time talking about how much she hated auditioning for it and then landed the job, and then quickly moved on to talking about her roles (in a lot more depth) in Boyz N the Hood and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. I also notice she doesn't really acknowledge fans on Twitter who mention GL.

It's ironic that Labine creatively saved GH, given that ABC destroyed her soap (RH) when they tried to make it into a GH clone. I say 'creatively' because ratings did falter after a while during Labine's stint, which many blamed on the show becoming too topical and depressing. Guza did boost ratings in '96. When the Labine's left in early 1996, ABC almost lured Nancy Curlee to replace them, but she backed out at the last minute and we got Guza instead. I wonder what could have been with a Riche/Curlee team...

Amazing news, Tony Jordan is writing Kat's return episode. I'm not expecting much, but given how much Jordan and Yorke loved the character, it's a nice touch to have her creators reintroduce her: http://www.digitalspy.com/soaps/eastenders/news/a852659/eastenders-spoilers-tony-jordan-kat-moon-return/

It's still amazing she was able to get as much power as she did. I have no doubt she was very difficult to deal with, but she probably had to put up with a ton of sexism to really push through her vision. It's amazing the show was as popular and highly rated as it was with so much backstage drama. There was a point in the early 90's where Roseanne was the most popular woman in America. It was either her or Madonna on the cover of every magazine/tabloid.

You know, I didn't actually mind Roseanne becoming more bitter/mean-spirited in seasons 5 and 6 - I think Roseanne and Darlene's best one-liners and zingers occurred in those seasons. But I know for some people, that's when they started to hate Roseanne as a character.

I thought season 5 was the best season, a good combination of the home-spun feeling of the earlier seasons, with the more adult tone of the latter seasons. The show had to naturally change after season 4 - the kids, for the most part, were grown (and Becky had run off with Mark), so more focus could be paid to Roseanne's life outside of being a mom. They focused on The Lunch Box, but moved away from Roseanne's old friends, and instead focused more on Roseanne's relationships with her mother, Nancy, and Leon. Also, Darlene was a very different character than Becky, so her being left as the main child of focus lent to a different tonal quality on the show.