I always believed Roseanne was one of the truly great American sitcoms and deserves a place in the hall of fame. It was a landmark series that was not only funny and perfectly cast, but consistently pushing the envelope in the representation of American families, carrying the torch passed on from All in the Family. From what I remember about the final season, Roseanne was given the heads-up that it would be the end and she decided to run with it as a blue-collar fantasy as the ultimate series sendoff and a middle finger to the studio that decided to pull the plug. Watching the reruns is very bittersweet for me because it reminds me how brilliant the show was and it was the last series I watched that truly made me excited every week to see what was in store. I think the only "lull" in the entire run was the beauty shop period (though it included one of the most poignant episodes involving Mother's Day). But you always knew Halloween was going to be fun and outrageous.
My favorite episode is still the PMS episode. Always makes me laugh whenever I see it. Oh, and I recognized Natalie West (Crystal from Roseanne) in the film Nate and Margaret recently and really loved her performance. Check it out.
Since the series, I loved seeing Laurie Metcalf and Estelle Parsons on stage as well as running into Sandra Bernhard and her girlfriend in London (though I totally made a fool out of myself) and they were so sweet and kind.
"What can you expect from a bunch of seitan worshippers?" - Reginald Tresilian
Updated On: 10/27/12 at 10:30 PM