Roseanne was a revelation when it hit the air in 1988.
Starring stand-up comedian and self-proclaimed "domestic goddess" Roseanne Barr, the refreshingly
working class sitcom dominated the TV ratings in the '80s and '90s, and made huge stars
out of many in its cast.
And it successfully returned to TV in 2018, debuting to huge ratings with its first new
episode in years.
Here's a look behind the scenes of this smash sitcom.
Not just a vehicle
In the late '80s and early '90s, it was common to build a show around a stand-up comedian.
Roseanne certainly feels like it was based on the act of Roseanne Barr, but she was actually
cast in a role that TV producers Marcy Carsey and Tom Werner had already conceived.
Carsey told the Archive of American Television,
"What wasn't on at the time was anything about a working mother.
We knew we needed a loud and interesting and unique and in-your-face kind of presence to
take it to the more outrageous end of the spectrum."
"It's like a cathartic way of making the world right."
Werner suggested Barr, a comedian they'd both seen and thoroughly enjoyed on The Tonight
Show.
The star vs. the creator
When Roseanne went into production, it wasn't called Roseanne.
It was called Life and Stuff, and Matt Williams, the guy who wrote it, intended for it to be
an "ensemble piece" as opposed to a starring vehicle for Barr.
When Barr got her way, it launched a bitter power struggle between her and Williams, the
show's head writer and co-executive producer.
In the middle of Roseanne's first season, Barr threatened to quit the show after only
13 of the 22 ordered episodes had been completed … unless Williams got the boot.
"Hey, I'm not a restaurant, okay?
You eat what I cook or you don't eat at all."
Williams got canned, but people who worked on the show told the Los Angeles Times that
producers almost let Barr walk, because she would allegedly launch into angry tirades
on the set, lock herself in her dressing room, or leave the studio at a moment's notice.
The star vs. the writers
Roseanne was celebrated for the quality of its writing, but reports from behind-the-scenes
reveal that it wasn't the best work environment.
After the show's staff would finish a script and the cast would do its initial read-through,
Barr would reportedly re-write the script herself.
That injected a lot of fear and resentment into the writers' room, which Barr later attributed
to writers having, quote, "a lot of emotional problems."
After observing that her writers would only laugh at the jokes they wrote at the read-throughs,
Barr reportedly assigned numbers to each member of the staff and would only refer to them
by their designated number.
Roseanne writer Amy Sherman-Palladino, who would go on to create acclaimed shows such
as Gilmore Girls and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, said her nickname was "2," and revealed to
Entertainment Weekly that …
"The writers did not think it was funny."
Roseanne writer and future Buffy the Vampire Slayer creator Joss Whedon called the set
"a brutal environment" and added …
"Anytime you tell someone, 'I'm not going to learn your name, here's your number,' you're
diminishing their worth."
Cartoon incarnation
Not only did the big TV networks give a lot of stand-up comedians their own sitcoms in
the '90s, they also gave them their own Saturday morning cartoon shows.
Roseanne Barr's was called Little Rosey.
On this Roseanne-meets-Muppet Babies curiosity from 1990, 8-year-old Rosey battled everyday
little kid problems, like strict parents and tough school assignments.
Barr didn't voice the kid version of herself — actress Kathleen Laskey did a slightly
higher-pitched take on Barr's signature sound.
"I want you to do something!
Call the police, or the National Guard!"
Barr claimed the show was the only one like it on the air at the time with a female protagonist
and that it had good ratings.
Even still, ABC canceled it after just 13 episodes.
Sitcom pioneer
Roseanne was among a small group of ground-breaking shows in the '90s that helped normalize LGBTQ
characters on television.
Roseanne's boss, Leon, was openly gay, and he wed his partner, Scott, on an episode of
the show.
Sandra Bernhard's Nancy was one of the first out lesbian sitcom characters on American
TV.
Another character, played by Mariel Hemingway, kissed Roseanne in a gay bar during a 1994
episode that ABC initially refused to air.
Failed spin-off
Roseanne's long, stellar run ended on some odd notes.
In the final season of the show, the narrative took a complete 180-degree turn as the Conners
won the lottery and experienced rich people adventures and problems.
The series finale flipped the script again, revealing that many events of the series hadn't
actually happened to Roseanne at all, but were things she'd written for a book.
The biggest gut-punch?
Dan passed away following a heart attack at Darlene's wedding.
That's a mic drop of an ending, but not everyone was ready to let go of the show that had made
the network so much money over the previous nine years.
So in 1997, shortly before the series finale aired, production company Carsey-Werner engaged
in talks with ABC about a spin-off or continuation of Roseanne.
ABC reportedly backed away after Carsey-Warner's asking price was too high, and the project
fell apart.
Long time coming
Roseanne made its much-heralded return to TV in March 2018, but if Roseanne Barr had
acted on some comments she made to a reporter a decade ago, her show could have kicked off
the current TV revival fad.
In 2009, Barr told Entertainment Weekly what she thought each of the show's major characters
would be up to in a decade's time.
She said DJ would have lost his life in Iraq, and the family would have lost their house.
When asked for info on Jackie, Becky, Darlene, and the rest, Barr said,
"Your question is intellectual property that may be developed later, so I don't want to
get into that."
That time has come, and there are a lot of unanswered questions.
How is Dan alive?
What's up with the two Beckys?
You'll have to watch and find out.
[Laughing]
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