For some reason, I completely missed "Roseanne" during its original network run. Only recently have I discovered the show over eleven years after it went off the air. And it's hilarious! I remember reading and hearing so much about what a demon Roseanne was to work with or be married to. Well I don't know if all that tripe was true, but whatever she did worked and worked brilliantly. I was actually shocked at how hard I laughed at some of the episodes. "Roseanne" is plain fall down funny! Roseanne and Darlene's mean one liners almost always zing with a wicked delight and are alone worth the price of admission. Then there's the great John Goodman. I was a fan of his even 'before' the show debuted (See "Raising Arizona" NOW if you haven't!) and he is just fantastic here as Roseanne's hubby Dan Conner. Shows like this are rare. Just compare it to other "family" sitcoms of roughly the same time like "Full House", "Family Matters" and "Home Improvement". Each of the latter were completely predictable and simply not funny. I must have watched five episodes of "Home Improvement". One was enough. They were all the same. All exactly the same! People think that writing for a show like "Roseanne" was easy, but those other lousy shows illustrate perfectly how hard it is. "Roseanne" stayed fresh somehow and each episode makes you look forward to the next. One of "Roseanne's" great trademarks are its gag endings. Surprise appearances by Bob Hope, Luke & Laura, Fabio, a "Graduate" parody and dozens more keep you tuned in literally through the final credits. "Roseanne" could also toss in some great change of pace dramatic episodes such as the one where Dan's mother is committed to a mental asylum. When Dan broke down and cried, I lost it too. "Roseanne" had the talent to pull off an episode like that without embarrassing itself. Yes, "Roseanne" was a comedy centered around a very dysfunctional family, but you knew that they didn't 'actually' hate each other. And that's exactly what made the whole thing work. Anyway, if you haven't yet seen "Roseanne" then you have something wonderful to look forward to. Any show I've never seen that can make me laugh this hard 11 years after leaving the airwaves truly meets with my definition of Standing the Test of Time. Enjoy!
