Roseanne (1988–1997)
Set in the small town of Lanford Illinois, the show follows The Conners, a working class family with a humorous backbone, through the trials of: life, marriage, raising a family, and making ends meet.
Roseanne Conner (Roseanne Barr) is a lovable, hard-working, and at-times-sarcastic wife and mother whose character is the foundation of this classic, long-running sitcom. Dan Conner (John Goodman) is the tough yet lovable husband/father. The oldest daughter Becky is the most rebellious of the children. The second child Darlene is rather tomboyish, and resembles Roseanne with her cynical sense of humour. The youngest child DJ is a father's boy. Then there is Roseanne's younger unmarried sister, Jackie (Laurie Metcalf), similar to Roseanne but rather naive. Issue-oriented storylines and its identifiable blue-collar characters made this the antithesis of the traditional warm-and-fuzzy family sitcoms, and the success of its stand-up star inspired other comics (including Jerry Seinfeld and Tim Allen) to launch their own shows.
With its cocktail of emotions, Roseanne remains endlessly watchable as it is surprising, humorous, and intricate all at the same time. What is more remarkable is the fact that the star of the show has maintained all her accomplishments while going through a horrid public divorce and also submitting to cosmetic surgery that has her looking slightly altered from one season to another. Nonetheless, it still ranks high on the list of favourites, simply because The Conners lose more than they win, but through it all, they "get by". In today's fast paced life, I believe the show still possesses the potential to teach us that life does not always go as expected, unlike a lot of other shows, and that at times, we have to learn to go with the flow.
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