Roseanne
| Fandom | |
|---|---|
| Name: | Roseanne |
| Abbreviation(s): | N/A |
| Creator: | Matt Williams |
| Date(s): | October 18, 1988 – May 20, 1997; March 27th, 2018 |
| Medium: | Live-Action Television Series |
| Country of Origin: | United States |
| External Links: | Wikipedia |
| Click here for related articles on Fanlore. | |
Roseanne is an American sitcom that originally aired from 1988 to 1997.
Canon
The series was based on Roseanne Barr's stand-up comedy, in which she chronicled her experiences as a blue-collar housewife. Roseanne starred as the title character who, along with her husband, raised three children and constantly watched after her flighty, neurotic younger sister. The series dealt with the ups and downs of being a blue-collar family struggling to make ends meet, but also touched on serious topics such as teen sex, domestic abuse, drugs, mental illness, and infidelity.
Final Season Controversy
The 9th and final season of the show had the Conner family win a huge lottery, which allowed them to go on expensive trips and overhaul their home. A major arc dealt with infidelity when Dan, who had gone to California to be with his institutionalized mother, dated another woman briefly. It nearly broke up his and Roseanne's marriage until the premature birth of middle daughter Darlene's baby drove them to a reconciliation.
The final episode, however, revealed that the entire season was all a part of Roseanne's book. In reality, Dan had died of a heart attack the previous season. In addition, a lot of major plot points and details from later seasons were retconned; Mark had married Darlene and Becky had married David rather than the other way around, while Jackie was a lesbian. This sudden twist shocked and angered many viewers, while others preferred it to the season as it was.
2018 Revival
In 2018, it was announced that the show would be returning to network television, picking up 20 years after the finale. Unfortunately, excitement was marred by the results of the 2016 election and Roseanne the actress being one of Donald Trump's biggest supporters. Some ardently refused to watch the show, seeing it as support for Donald Trump and his ideals. Others were excited about knowing more about the other characters, mainly Roseanne's grown children and sister Jackie.
The revival also retconned the 9th season's finale as part of Roseanne's book, as John Goodman announced he would return as Dan Conner. Dan's survival and the entirety of season nine being treated as fiction was a great relief to longtime viewers, who had been devastated by his death.
Due to the death of actor Glenn Quinn in 2003, the character of Mark Healy was killed off. It is strongly implied that Darlene and David named their second child after him.
Though the revival enjoyed good ratings and had a second season in the works, the show was abruptly cancelled following a late May 2018 racist Tweet from Roseanne Barr. [1]
The Conners
The series was salvaged in the end as a spinoff centering on the Conner family sans its matriarch. The series premiered on October 16th, 2018. [2] Said matriarch died offscreen of an opioid overdose, according to the actress; this had been one of several fan theories due to the character struggling with an addiction earlier in the revival. [3]
The spinoff was fairly well-received, opening with the aftermath of Roseanne's death and focusing on the family's grief. However, some reviewers and critics questioned the ability of the show to carry on sans its lead. More focus has been given to DJ's wife Geena, who had been serving in Iraq for most of the revival season; David's new girlfriend Blue was introduced in the second episode.
Fandom
Both AO3 and fanfiction.net have very small sections for the series, the biggest trends being crossovers, post-series angst, and "what if" scenarios. Mark/Becky fanfics have recently populated the AO3 tag, detailing the couple's courtship and marriage as well as Becky's grief and inability to move on after his death.
Most of the fandom for the show comes from praise for its portrayal of a realistic blue-collar working-class family struggling to make ends meet. This accounts for a lot of criticism towards later seasons, where the show strayed from those roots and eventually led to the controversial final season and finale.
Another chunk of the fandom revolves around Tumblr blogs detailing the show's fashion and the nostalgia factor of the original nine seasons.
As of the 2018 revival, Darlene Conner-Healy's second child, Mark, is extremely popular due to being a positive representation of a gender-nonconforming child whose family learns to accept him, rather than him being the butt of every joke. Jackie is also hugely popular due to her liberalism. Roseanne Conner has become a widely-hated character due to the actress's politics bleeding into the character, with fans tuning in only to watch Jackie, Dan, and the Conner kids. The revival was heavily praised for writing off the entire ninth season as Roseanne Conner's book, which was jokingly lampshaded in one episode in which Dan joked about her having killed his character.
Fan works
Fanfic
Essays
Blogs
- Hipsters who dress like Jackie
- We love Roseanne
- The Sweaters of Roseanne
- Roseanne confessions
- Roseanne addiction
- Roseanne Recaps
- You know you grew up with Roseanne when...
References