Roseanne

[SFK]

LMAO at Dan knocking out Roseanne's tooth with the freezer door! And yeah, I vaguely remember the tag being about Dan faking an injury to make Rosie feel better.

Nancy, she could either repel you or crack you up. She and that crazy Arnie.

Dan: Who are the Allens and why are they out of spice?

[DRW50]

Did you agree with the criticisms that the show became "too gay"?

[DRW50]

I also think that the show lost a certain something when Roseanne and Tom Arnold had that ugly split. I think Tom brought a certain something to the show, I'm not sure what, but the tone changed so much after that mess.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

Yes, season 7 was the first season without Tom's involvement, and it showed. Also, I think that bitter divorce had a negative effect on Roseanne, and thus her show.

The show became increasingly man-hating after the divorce, an aspect that was always there, but got larger.

[dragonflies]

I thought Roseanne was prettier in the early seasons, in the later seasons :x

[SFK]

I don't think the show got too gay, it did however get very silly and OTT and gay-related material that they did on the show fell under the overall banner of outrageousness. I think Roseanne just wanted to do her best to show that she was accepting of gays, and she felt that we all should be. I don't know if having Bev dress up in bondage gear sent the most wholesome message however. But that ep with Leon and his boyfriend (Fred Willard) and Bev and her girlfriend (Ruta Lee?) was super gay, but also rather unfunny which you just can't be.

I also agree that Roseanne's tone became super shrill. I still found her hilarious but she lost that innocent endearing charm she had in the beginning. I think she got off on playing a bitch, and I don't think that's how we really wanted to see Roseanne be for thirty minutes a week.

[SFK]

The year that she had the major surgery on her face and got all tan was like WHOA. It's amazing though, because with time she's aged back into her 1988 face.

Who else loves the movie She-Devil?

[classicmoment]

I love that movie, it's such an odd movie I think but it's humor and seeming simplicity is it's charm.

Roseanne is to this day one of my favorite comedy. It is simply a classic for me

[SFK]

It is, it used to come on from 5-6, or was it 6-7pm on FOX in syndication and I'd watch it every day while I did my homework. It got crazy stupid towards the end, but it always remained a charming, endearing show with characters I would have liked to have known in real life which is always sort of a sitcom litmus test for me.

Sophie's Choice, Out of Africa, Doubt, you haven't seen Meryl Streep until you've seen her Mary Fisher and Madeline Ashton.

[Y&RWorldTurner]

You know, it's funny, the main characters on this show felt like people I knew in my real life. Except for probably DJ, he was a bit weird.

[koos]

Lecy's Becky reminded me of one of my sisters when she'd get mad. "MUH-THER!"

I agree that it was never the same after Tom Arnold left.

When Roseanne had surgery and her cheeks suddenly became sunken and covered in dark blush, she started looking really snotty and bitter, and the character somehow began to match the look.

The show's down-home, blue collar friendliness was replaced with outrageous pseudo-white trash antics. After a while it started to seem more like Married with Children than Roseanne. Every episode started to have screaming matches and too much sarcasm, which replaced the good-natured facetiousness it once had. Not only that, but they made Jackie into a bug-eyed freak, Darlene into a totally unlikeable person, Mark into a total dunce, David into a complete wuss... basically, every character was exaggerated to ill effect.

It had a pretty good run, really. Most shows start to exaggerate things and milk once non-existent formulas by the fourth or fifth season, and it was no different in that respect...

[dragonflies]

I always liked Dan the best.

[Cheap21]

David was such a tool. At least he had great hair bc the character was such a wuss. Its hard to imagine how he and Darlene worked but I guess she needed a man that she could compeltely dominate and she did with him

[Bright Eyes]

God, Johnny Galecki was SUCH a dreamboat on Roseanne. Mmm, mmm, mmm!

[All My Shadows]

I agree with this 100%.

The early seasons had a certain charm about them. You had Dan working on drywall, you had the family and friends sitting outside in the backyard just hanging out, you had Roseanne and the girls at Wellman chatting in the break room, etc. It got entirely too soapy towards the end with all of the relationship drama and baby drama and what-not. Not that the show was ever without drama, but the drama early on was so unique and different from everything else on TV. The tornado, when Darlene got hurt at her softball game, when Dan fought that jackass on his birthday, etc. By season six/seven-ish, it was all about which daughter was gonna piss Roseanne off the most, then it was all about which daughter or Dan was gonna piss Roseanne off the most, and then the show was all about Roseanne being pissed off and mopey and depressed all the time.

The Healy brothers were fine. I just never understood why either one of them would get involved with shrill Becky or depressing Darlene. I'll never forget the episode where Mark's little butt cheek made an appearance.