Syndication Files 11.18.09: Roseanne

Posted by Porfirio Diaz on 11.18.2009

Roseanne was close as reality television could get back in the 1990s. The show tackled many taboo subjects and produced one of the most realistic sitcom depictions in television history. Watch Roseanne Barr be loud, obnoxious, and funny all at the same time in the latest edition of the Syndication Files.

We all know that one of the rules of being a stand-up comic is that they must get their own television show/sitcom. It's the law of the universe. Make people laugh and you're bound to get a sitcom.

Jackie Gleason, D.L. Hughley, Andy Dick, Ellen DeGeneres, Bill Cosby, Drew Carey, Tim Allen, Robin Williams, Jerry Seinfeld, Bob Saget, Ray Romano, Bernie Mac, George Lopez, Tracy Morgan…whew. That list keeps going on and on.

Stand-up comics use television or film as their next platform of success. The comedy club tour is fine but eventually comics want to move on towards the pinnacle of comedy stardom. Some become sitcom legends while others don't have much luck. Success depends on the talent of the comic and the talent surrounding the comic. A bit of luck wouldn't hurt either.

Roseanne Barr is no different from the rest of the list. Her "blue-collar working-class housewife" comedy routine earned her a sitcom slot with ABC. So she received a sitcom just like everyone else. It can't be any different than any other happy fun time sitcom out there, right?

Let's see how that turned out for her.


Syndication Files #19

Roseanne


No dancing number found here

As pervious stated, Roseanne Barr was billed as a "working-class housewife" comic who routinely joked about the various chords women go through an everyday basics. She would proudly joke about being disinterested in cleaning the house ("I'm not going to vacuum ‘til Sears makes one you can ride on"), in raising kids ("I figure that if the children are alive when I get home, I've done my job"), and even about woman's body size ("Women should try to increase their size rather than decrease it, because I believe the bigger we are, the more space we'll take up, and the more we'll have to reckoned with"). I'm someone who appreciates people willing to poke fun at themselves for laughs. As a stand-up comic, it‘s a requirement or the audience would eat you alive. No room for thin-skinned people on this stage.

So when producers Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner, the same people that gave birth to The Cosby Show, approached Roseanne for a chance to work a sitcom based on her act, she couldn't let this chance pass by. After NBC rejected the show, ABC snatched it up for their fall lineup. Roseanne premiered on October 18, 1988.


The new neighbor is clearly delusional. Who wouldn't be after seeing Roseanne topless?

So Roseanne is depicted as Roseanne Conner (another rule in sitcoms is that the lead comic has the option to use their real first name), a struggling wife and mother with a blue-collar family that gets by on a limited income in a lower-middle class environment. It was one of the first sitcoms since The Honeymooners to portray such a blue-collar American family working to make ends meet. But they are also not your typical lower-middle blue-collar family. They express love to each other by constantly ripping on each other. No mother, sister, or children is safe within Roseanne's range of obnoxiousness. Roseanne would tell it like it is, not caring very much about the other person's feelings. She's just not a touchy-feely sort of person.

Roseanne acted like she was still performing stand-up. She's loud, obnoxiousness, and self-centered. That pisses a lot of people off. But she is also open-minded, witty, and entertaining to watch. Snap at her and she will come at you with a gauntlet of wittier lines. She's not afraid of confrontation either (on or off-screen), so standing up to her would only make things worse. Just ask her writing and production staff.

She's also very dominant (now that's a disturbing image). She would try to take control of everyone's lives in what she thinks is for the better. She loves to throw her weight around (isn't that the truth) and there's not a damn thing anyone could do about it. Her bossy nature is just one of many characteristics that annoys people to death. Roseanne makes everyone's lives into a living hell at the expense of her own personal interest.

Despite her personality, Roseanne still loves her family. Just because she pokes fun at them doesn't mean she hates them. She has a great relationship with her husband and sister. She makes time for her kids and would gladly do anything for them. She's not a monster.


Michael Phelps' favorite scene

She would gladly do anything for them as long as they don't interrupt her during marijuana puff fest.

Roseanne is married to Dan Conner (John Goodman), who shares Roseanne's mean sense of humor and body type. He should be considered the skinny one of the two and that's scary. When John Goodman is considered the skinny one, maybe it's time to hit the stair master. The two work hard to raise their three children: boy hungry Becky (Lecy Goranson [Seasons 1-5, 8] and Sarah Chalke [Season 6, 7, and 9] alternatively), moody tomboy Darlene (Sara Gilbert), and their bizarre young son DJ (Michael Fishman).

Roseanne's younger sister, Jackie Harris (Lauris Metcalf), is smarter than Roseanne but is conflicted with low self-esteem. Roseanne is especially very bossy with Jackie and usually leads to a shouting match between the two. But Roseanne views her bossiness as justified since she believes Jackie doesn't always make the right decision. The strongest evidence found in the series is Jackie's relationship with Dan's friend Fred, who impregnated her after a one-night stand and also physically attacked her. Roseanne saw the writing on the wall, butted into Jackie's life, and told her he was no good to her. She was right and Jackie went on to raise the baby alone.

Edit: I got it wrong. It was actually an ex-boyfriend by a man named Fisher that physically assaulted Jackie. Fred still did the impregnating and the two got married before figuring out they were wrong for each other. Roseanne had a hand in there too by verbally beating up poor Fred with a lesson about equal rights and fatherhood. She scared him away! Who wouldn't be? I really don't blame him. Thanks to Guest#3870 and Patrick (Guest) for the corrections.

Roseanne is not just built for laughs. The show sometimes displays situations so real that powerful emotional scenes can really tug at the heart. At the same time, Roseanne still could not resist in inspiring a couple of laughs in those very same scenes.

Just what else did you except from her? Grieving? Not from this whale of a woman.


Even in frowny moments, Roseanne and friends still brings the laughter

Roseanne did everything opposite of what other shows did. Other shows may have talked about peace, love, and togetherness all stitched together in light-hearted humor. Roseanne didn't go down that sitcom route. The show expressed dark and unconventional humor based on real-life situations. Roseanne had no problems in dealing with issues such as homosexuality, obesity, domestic violence, drugs (the first clip made that very clear), and sex. In fact, she welcomed it. She wanted to show the world that she was not afraid of tackling these hard hitting issues that have plagued others at one time or another.

Give credit to the writing and producing staff for helping Roseanne connect with the everyday modern family in dealing with real-life situations without being so over the top. I consider Roseanne to be one of the most realistic sitcoms in television history. Not everything good needs to happen to a sitcom family. Why should it? Reality contains failure and sitcoms shouldn't try to mask failure away from them as much as possible. Failure is part of life. In Roseanne, they made sure that wrong choices led to consequences and made sure how to deal with those consequences as a family. It's not to say the show didn't enjoy some good moments together. All families have some good moments together. After all, Roseanne is a view of the rise and fall of a working class American family. At the same time, not everything can be sunshine and rainbows. Roseanne just feels the need to express it in a humorous and crude way.


Great scene

Roseanne was a major hit. The show won various awards, including a People's Choice Award (1989), a Peabody Award (1992), and a Golden Globe Award for Best Television Series (1992). The award list also includes several gold statues for Roseanne Barr and John Goodman in the outstanding actor/actress category. Everyone was running high and there was nobody higher (or wider) than Roseanne at that point. Clearly everything was running perfectly and there was nothing the show could do wrong.

Nothing wrong at all.

None.

Zip.

Not even when the family won the lottery.

Wait, what?


…..

Yup, it's true. In Season 9, the Conner family won the Illinois State lottery and things just skyrocketed to ridiculous. So much for those blue-collar roots. What happened to the original concept of a working family in a lower-middle class environment? I don't think figuring out what to do with $108 million dollars while trying not to change from their old roots is the concept that many hoped would end. The show lost its direction in what turned out to be the final season of the series. Roseanne's last episode aired on May 21, 1997.

The series finale is considered by many fans to be the worst. ending. ever! Turns out everything in the entire series was just a novel. A lie. A fake. It was just a fake! Roseanne revealed that the series was a novel she had written. In "reality", it is revealed that Dan is dead, Jackie is a lesbian, and her daughters have switched husbands.

You know, I believe many wouldn't have had a problem with the Season 9 concept and ending had the series not grossly celebrated the portrayal of the blue-collar American family. If it were to happen on any other show, maybe the backlash wouldn't have been so deafening. But for a show that was one of the more realistic shows out there, somehow one can't feel anything but become betrayed at the concept. This is fail. This is "hey I'm a coach of a generation and a football genius so let's go for it on 4th and 2 when we're only up by six fail.

Nevertheless, the show is still considered one of the better shows out there and holds up fairly well by today's standards. Some of their stories and one-liners can make you satisfy your thirst for laughter.

So if you're tired of watching people with horrible singing talents, people with horrible dancing talents, people fighting to survive on a horrible deserted island, or having to watch the so-called "voting" process of reality television, then give Roseanne a try.

Just make sure to stop right before Season 9. Proceed at your risk.


Commercial Break


The return of the Ninja Cat

Cat…too…adorable…cannot…look…away.

If the terrorists ever wanted to win, all they have to do is put up lots of cat videos on the internet. We would all be too easily distracted by the lovable cats to notice anything else going on around us. This is our only weakness.

Well this and celebrity sex tapes.


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Syndication Files Upcoming Show Listing

10/28/09 - Are You Afraid of the Dark?

11/4/09 – Super Mario Bros

11/11/09 - The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air

11/18/09 - Roseanne

11/25/09 – The Wonder Years

12/2/09 – In the Heat of the Night

12/9/09 – New York Undercover

12/16/09 – Cancellation Compilation #1

Here's just a small taste of next week's big column: Kevin Arnold is a jerk but then I'm sure you already knew that.


Ending Credits

So I watched my roommate play Modern Warfare 2 with surround sound last Friday. Two levels later, I get queasy and ended up looking down at the face of a toilet and seeing my dinner for the second time that night. Bad case of food virus or not, Modern Warfare 2 marks the first time a game has ever gotten me sick. Does that still make it the best game ever?

The Sunday night game between Colts vs. Patriots was without a doubt the game of the year. It's even better when Bill "I get my coaching skills from playing Madden" Belichick's cockiness cost his team the game. There's a lot of people trying to use numbers and statistics to prove that Belichick made the right choice. To that, here is my counter point:

Oh, people can come up with statistics to prove anything. 14% of people know that. - Homer Simpson

I rest my case.

The 2012 trailer helped the movie score $65 million on opening weekend. This is why trailers exist, for better or for worse. Let's just hope the movie doesn't end up on the History Channel within the next 10-30 years. Of course we won't be there to watch it. We'd all be dead from some archaeoastronomical speculation about the interpretations of the Mayan Long Count calendar.

Imagine that: Roland Emmerich, director and historian.

And with that, I'm out of time. Out like Miguel Cotto.