My favourite variation of the opening credits and theme:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj2-ctjIW18

Jackie: CAN YOU BELIEVE MOM DRANK WHILE SHE WAS PREGNANT WITH US, ROSEANNE!?!?!

Roseanne: Oh, relax Jackie, after a few months in mom, we could've used a few shots!

:lol:

I love how Bev annoyed the hell out of her daughters....

I don't think they ever quite knew what to do with Crystal. After the first season, she just appeared in less and less episodes until she was dropped from the contract cast in season 5. I guess they felt Jackie was both Roseanne's best friend and sister, and Jackie was really Roseanne's rock, more so than Dan even, so Crystal was kinda expendable.

I don't think they ever quite knew what to do with Crystal. After the first season, she just appeared in less and less episodes until she was dropped from the contract cast in season 5. I guess they felt Jackie was both Roseanne's best friend and sister, and Jackie was really Roseanne's rock, more so than Dan even, so Crystal was kinda expendable.

I think it was a mistake, as Jackie was too cold and selfish to be a good balance for Roseanne.

Did y'all know that the actor who played Mark passed away? And that he was Irish?

http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/q/GlennQuinn/glenn_quinn.htm

Yeah. I didn't know he was Irish when he was on Roseanne, but after Angel I did. He was so good on that show, it's so sad that he died so young.

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

I remember TBS using it in a commercial when they re-ran the show years ago.

Oh, here it is:

Was there an episode where Roseanne started talking about how her father had beaten her and Jackie? Was it Roseanne who talked about this and Jackie didn't want to admit it or was it the other way around? Didn't they confront Bev and she didn't want to hear a word? I remember a very moving scene where they went back to their old childhood home and Roseanne stood in the door and very, very quickly, painfully, said something like, "Even after what you did to me I still love you."

"And thanks for your sense of humor." Or was that at his funeral?

Yeah, the ep I mentioned earlier where she spanked an unlicensed D.J. for taking the car for a spin... she had a serious guilt trip because her dad used to hit her and Jackie and she vowed that she'd never do that to her own kids. Dan tells her it's okay because D.J. deserved it and Jackie's like, No, it's not okay!, because he has no clue about what it was like for them growing up.

Was there an episode where Roseanne started talking about how her father had beaten her and Jackie? Was it Roseanne who talked about this and Jackie didn't want to admit it or was it the other way around? Didn't they confront Bev and she didn't want to hear a word? I remember a very moving scene where they went back to their old childhood home and Roseanne stood in the door and very, very quickly, painfully, said something like, "Even after what you did to me I still love you."

There were always hints that Roseanne had a deeply troubled relationship with her father from the beginning, Jackie too, but she was more in denial about the abuse they received when they were children from him. It was Jackie who couldn't admit it all to herself.

That episode when she and Jackie visited their childhood home was where we learned about the root of Roseanne's problems with her father.

Then in season 5, Roseanne's father died and all of it came back to the forefront. There's a particularly moving scene with Roseanne at the funeral home where she had to identity her father at the end of the episode. She told him she hated him for beating her and Jackie, hated him for leaving them with an unstable mother all the time, and hated him for being the reason why she and Jackie had issues with men and why she couldn't even trust Dan for the first couple of years of their marriage.

In that same episode, Roseanne and Jackie argue over him, and clearly Jackie was in denial about their abuse. There's a point where Jackie brought up how just because Roseanne hated their father, everyone else had to and that she loved him, and Roseanne replied, "When did you love him the most?? When he came home and beat you, or when he didn't come home at all?!?"

I believe that funeral episode earned both Roseanne and Laurie Metcalfe Emmy's that season. Though, Roseanne opted to not attend the ceremony. Actually, I've always heard that Roseanne was the most controversial Emmy winner, since she was perceived as being so un-Hollywood and so anti-establishment. She wasn't an actress, but a stand-up comedienne who got her own show and got a lot of power because of it. People in the industry resented her for it. At the time, not since Lucille Ball and Mary Tyler Moore had a woman had that much creative power over her television show. Unlike Ball and Moore, Roseanne didn't have the squeaky clean image, didn't own her own production company, and she wasn't "Hollywood."

Edited April 28, 201015 yr by Y&RWorldTurner

"And thanks for your sense of humor." Or was that at his funeral?

That was the funeral episode after she gave him the speech about how she hated him for the way he treated her and Jackie. She told him, "Thanks for the sense of humour." Then she muttered fast, "I love you, goodbye!"

Roseanne constantly surprised me, especially in the scenes you all talk about above, with how great she actually was, acting wise. Those episodes really got to me and Roseanne's work in them is one of the main reasons.

Yes, Roseanne really grew as an actress over time, she really deserved that Emmy for season 5.

The show was groundbreaking for several reasons. It really flipped the script on the traditional American sitcom family, it was the first show where you actually got the sense it was the women running the household, not the man, and you just didn't see people who looked like Roseanne, John Goodman, and Laurie Metcalfe fronting a show before, or really after it, and not all the problems were resolved within 30 minutes.

Not to mention, as I mentioned before, Roseanne was the first woman since Lucille Ball and Mary Tyler Moore to have that much creative power over her sitcom. Unlike Ball and Moore, she wasn't from "Hollywood", never had the most marketable public image, and didn't own her own production company. I also believe she was the first women to make over a million dollars per episode for a sitcom.

Edited April 28, 201015 yr by Y&RWorldTurner

You can see the scenes with Roseanne by her father's coffin 7:20 into this clip:

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Edited April 28, 201015 yr by Y&RWorldTurner

I guess Roseanne's acting was effective because I never felt that she was acting, it always seemed to come from her heart and I just absolutely love her sadistic/sarcastic/ no holds bar sense of humor but boy John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf and (I forgot the young actress who plays Darlene's name) were gems on that show, they really were great choices for their roles. Alll terrific actors

Edited April 28, 201015 yr by classicmoment

I actually liked her "acting" best in the beginning before she got too "learned" if you know what I mean. She was still great towards the end, just a different kind of great. But I remember watching an interview where John and Laurie, the trained theatre actors, were praising her, saying how they looked at her truth and effortlessness with such awe. She was a rare exception, too many folks these days (all the young pretty one who end up on our soaps) think they're "naturals" and don't need training. But for instance, when she would "break" character by any other sitcom actor's standards and laugh at something funny Dan was doing it was SO sweet and endearing because it was just so real. She wasn't "playing" a character, she was really relating to this big, funny, lug of a guy. Just talking about it makes me wanna rainy day marathon that first season.

Another memorable sweet moment was when Darlene did her poem "To Whom It May Concern"

Edited April 28, 201015 yr by SFK

Did y'all know that the actor who played Mark passed away? And that he was Irish?

http://www.findadeath.com/Deceased/q/GlennQuinn/glenn_quinn.htm

Yeah, apparently he had quite a few issues on the set of Angel. He was a great actor. so sad.

We were talking about Roseanne in the UO on Primetime TV thread, so I thought it was time to bump up this thread

on this most fabulous show.

I love how there were two marathons on the other day--one on WE, the other on TV Land!

Here's Lecy talking about her infamous haircut:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRZJ2YrnWJI

Edited January 13, 201312 yr by MissLlanviewPA

Seasons 3 and 4 are probably my favorite. Season 5 had some great episodes though. Season 1 was nice, I liked it. Season 2 is more about it moving in the right direction.

Sarah's Becky definitely had chemistry with David and Mark. I kinda hated how they wrote Sarah's Becky. I much prefer Lecy's version. I never thought I'd see Becky living in a trailer or working at a Hooter's knock-off. But, it was in a way realistic because the "perfect child" doesn't always turn out the way you "plan" them to be.

I loved Darlene. Sara Gilbert played that role so great. Sara had chemistry with everyone. I think they might have dragged out the 'dead to the world' Darlene a little too long but, again, it was realistic. It was great seeing Darlene evolve so much as the series went on: tomboy, rebellion, goth phase, independence (loved her going toe-to-toe with Roseanne trying to one-up each other), to mother. It was great. I remember really disliking Darlene for just a little while. I remember just there being this brief period of really ugly sarcasm, much like the tone of the show itself when Roseanne let her mood dictate the seasons. Seasons 6, 7, 8 and 9 are SO guilty of this. Roseanne at times came off as so hard, bitter, entitled. I still loved the hell out of her but I didn't exactly love how things were going. As hilarious as Jackie was, making her a total basket case DID make sense after all she had been through but I missed the earlier Jackie. Same for Dan. I much prefered how it was "known" Rosie was running the show but they still co-parented. It became Roseanne always hiding things from Dan, etc.

I loved this show for tackling so many relatable things. They felt realistic. I loved the jabs they took at their own show, the fondness she had for classic sitcoms. The show holds up very well now.