Roseanne

Seasons 1 - 7: 9/10

Seasons 8 - 9: 4/10

The attempted reboot: 1/10

The first handful of seasons of this show are truly classic television. This was probably the first show I ever watched that could be construed as a "Dramedy" show. Sure, there are laughs around every corner, but the Conner family is very obviously lower-class and we get a lot of realistic insight into their struggles. People who've been poor will relate to some of the storylines in this show A LOT.

John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf are the true stars here, as is the case with a lot of sitcoms. Roseanne is the main character, yes; she's the rock, the glue, but she isn't the funniest or most interesting of the bunch. Without her, though, it wouldn't be the same (the reboot makes this painfully obvious, but any seasoned viewer of television can tell you with from the start).

I wish there were shows like this around today. There are still a lot of poor folks out there struggling to get by, and today's television shows aren't providing the same kind of relatable escapism that Roseanne did.

Roseanne is the most dramatic comedy, without the bugging educating stuff. All the actors are great. Dialogues are real. Sure, the first seasons are better than the newer ones, but you still should see every episode with this fab family who likes to win first prize as "white trash". One of the only shows with the woman-wife at the center, Roseanne portrays one of the best and true mothers in tv- ever. Ever-changing, always in control Roseanne the woman has a great deal to be proud of this 9 seasons running wonderful tv sitcom.

I realized why this show was such a success. Roseanne was so darn cute, and John was a great portrayal of a good husband and father. It's a realistic portrayal of the lower middle class, I knew a few families like this growing up, but the Connors were the Cleavers compared to most of the others I knew.

Roseanne was one of the funniest, most original programs on television for a long time. I recommend avoiding the last few years of the show; they're so maudlin and idiotic that they seem more like a (boring/stupid/insulting--take your pick!)parody of themselves than anything else. The actors sleepwalk through their lines as if they're fully aware of how stupid and poorly-written they are, and the last episode is ironically one of the WORST half-hours on TV! (Sort of mirrors the downfall of the Simpsons, really--why can't these wonderful shows just quit while they're ahead?) For a long time, Roseanne was a sweet and realistic portrayal of many American families--fraught with strife and struggle but loving all the same.

A terrifically intense dramedy which features possibly the most realistic familial unit in TV sitcoms, not to mention a marriage between Roseanne and Dan Connor (Roseanne Barr and John Goodman) which is pin-point exact, warm and right--and feels lived in. All non-believers have to do is watch a few episodes: the timing is deceptively shaggy yet perfect, the characters believable, their predicaments immediate. Fully realized by Roseanne herself, who never let her real-life chronicles get in the way of the show. The writing is continually sharp, with dialogue that frequently evokes whole lives, such as in the episode where Roseanne sits in a coffee house after hours talking to a tired waitress who confides about her late husband, "I miss him. It's so quiet. Sometimes I'll turn a football game on, turn it up real loud...and I hate sports. But what'ya gonna do?" Tender moments like this, seemingly throwaway bits, elude some viewers looking for a fast laughter fix; "Roseanne" was always something more, and it aches in laughter and in life's woes.