History Series / Roseanne

* NoBisexuals: In spite of the show being considered gay and lesbian friendly (for its time), Nancy was a curious case as Arnie cheating on her "turned her gay" only for her to start flip-flopping between liking women and then going back to liking men. The closest we ever get to Nancy addressing this was her telling Roseanne not to label her, and at no point is the word "bisexual" ever even suggested as a possibility (it was more implied Nancy was choosing to be strictly straight or straightly lesbian, and never both at the same time).

A popular sitcom that ran from 1988 to 1997 and in 2018 on Creator/{{ABC}}, focusing on the trials of the working-class Conner family of Lanford, Illinois. It was beloved for its realistic portrayal of the average American family.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/roseanne_cast.jpg]]

* AnythingThatMoves: Nancy. After coming out as a lesbian, she would occasionally casually say, "Ugh, I'm so fed up with women. I'm gonna go back to men this week."

* OedipusComplex: Dan has very serious, unresolved issues with his father throughout the show's run. It doesn't help when Conner Sr. marries one of Roseanne's friends and has a kid with her.
** It can be [[FridgeLogic argued]] that this is David's FreudianExcuse for putting up with Darlene's verbal and emotional abuse. His mother was extremely verbally abusive toward him and his father is [[TheGhost absent]] or possibly a doormat himself, so this is how David responds to Darlene. Plus, there was that dream about Roseanne...

Probably the TropeCodifier for the DysfunctionalFamily on American TV, sharing the title with ''Series/MarriedWithChildren''. The Conners were generally stable but were still prone to dealing with domestic arguments, problematic neighbors, daughters who seemed to [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys like bad boys]] and taking in a kid whose home life was far worse than theirs. The Healey brothers, Mark (Glenn Quinn) and David (Johnny Galecki) were added to the show as long-time boyfriends to Becky and Darlene, eventually marrying them. The show was also noted for a welcome subversion to the UglyGuyHotWife rule.

Famously--or perhaps infamously--the final season of the show's original run dramatically changed things by seeing the Conners escape their slave-wage working class existence when they won the lottery. Unfortunately, shaking up the status quo let out all the air in the balloon, so to speak; viewers preferred things the way they were because the family's continuing struggle to make ends meet was part of the very heart of the show that made it a success. It also didn't help that John Goodman -- perhaps sensing the debacle to come -- decided to greatly reduce his participation in the series, and his character was suddenly and awkwardly CommutingOnABus. Add in a stunning drop in script quality, and ratings quickly tanked and brought about the show's cancellation and a hasty attempt to wrap up the series. This controversy resulted in an even more bizarre [[GainaxEnding conclusion]] when writers tried to HandWave the entire last season, only to throw in a bunch of surprise turns of events no one had really asked for, as it was almost like someone took a sledgehammer to a lot of plots that had been central to the series throughout its run.

In 2017 it was announced that most of the cast (including Goodman, reutrning to full-time duty) was reuniting for a revival, consisting of an eight-episode season that later increased to nine, and then ten. It premiered on ABC on March 27, 2018. Not only was the ninth season completely (and mercifully) ignored by the series revival, so was everything from the two seasons before it -- essentially, continuity picked up from about early season six.

The ratings for the revivial's premiere were so high[[note]]it got more viewers than the original series finale over two decades earlier -- which is remarkable considering the exodus of viewers from network television in the interim[[/note]] that it was renewed for a second (or eleventh -- the show is being promoted as a continuation of the original series rather than a revival) season two days later. However, the revival was cancelled on May 29th, 2018, after Barr herself made racist tweets comparing Valerie Jarrett, a black [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama Obama Administration]] official, to an ape, on top of pushing conspiracy theories and dog-whistle remarks well before that.

Eventually though, ABC announced their intention to build an {{aftershow}} spinoff ''without'' Roseanne, titled ''Series/TheConners''. It was greenlit on June 21, 2018, and premiered on October 16 of that year. Roseanne's absence was accounted for by having her [[CharacterDeath killed off-screen]] -- which actually was a logical development in terms of show continuity, as the Roseanne character was struggling with knee pain, an upcoming surgery, and opiate addiction.

* BackFromTheDead: Dan's death is retconned to him being alive.

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Jackie's son, Andy, is never seen or mentioned. Ominously, when Harris refers to Jackie as just "Jackie" she insists on being called ''Aunt'' Jackie, because it's the only title she has. But "Mom" is a title too, isn't it? (Prior to the show's cancellation, Roseanne said that Andy would be addressed at a later time; whether or not ''The Conners'' will address Andy is unknown.)

* MaidenAunt: After dealing with Fisher and Fred, Jackie's divorced.

* RetCon: Of the {{Rewrite}} variety. The ninth season (in which the Conners win the lottery) was unsurprisingly retconned, but so was Roseanne's "explanation" in the series finale: Dan is still alive, Jackie is not a lesbian, Becky still married Mark and Darlene still married David. It's implied in the first episode that she wrote a story about Dan dying, though. One thing that was apparently not retconned from the original finale, however, was Roseanne's mother Bev actually being straight rather then a lesbian: in one episode, she introduces Roseanne and Jackie to her boyfriend Lou (played by [[Creator/ChristopherLloyd Christopher Lloyd]]).

* SoapOperaRapidAgingSyndrome: Inverted by Harris. Despite the character being born over twenty years ago during the show's original run, she is only 14 or 15 at the beginning of Season 10.

Famously--or perhaps infamously--the final season of the show's original run dramatically changed things by seeing the Conners escape their slave-wage working class existence when they won the lottery. Unfortunately, shaking up the status quo let out all the air in the balloon, so to speak; viewers preferred things the way they were because the family's struggle to make ends meet was part of the formula that made the show a success. Ratings tanked and brought about the show's cancellation and a hasty attempt to wrap up the series. This controversy resulted in an even more bizarre [[GainaxEnding conclusion]] when writers tried to HandWave the entire last season, only to throw in a bunch of surprise turns of events no one had really asked for, as it was almost like someone took a sledgehammer to a lot of plots that had been central to the series throughout its run.

In 2017 it was announced that most of the cast was reuniting for a revival, consisting of an eight-episode season that later increased to nine, and then ten. It premiered on ABC on March 27, 2018. The premiere's ratings were so high[[note]]it got more viewers than the original series finale over two decades earlier -- which is remarkable considering the exodus of viewers from network television in the interim[[/note]] that it was renewed for a second (or eleventh -- the show is being promoted as a continuation of the original series rather than a revival) season two days later. However, the revival was cancelled on May 29th, 2018, after Barr herself made racist tweets comparing Valerie Jarrett, a black [[UsefulNotes/BarackObama Obama Administration]] official, to an ape, on top of pushing conspiracy theories and dog-whistle remarks well before that.

Eventually though, ABC announced their intention to build an {{aftershow}} spinoff ''without'' Roseanne, titled ''Series/TheConners''. It was greenlit on June 21, 2018, and premiered on October 16 of that year. Roseanne's absence was accounted for by having her [[CharacterDeath killed off-screen]].

--> '''Becky:''' Yeah right. All I have to do is count to ten.
--> '''Darlene:''' Don't wear mittens. It'll slow you down.
--> '''Roseanne:''' ''[belly laugh from off camera]''
--> '''Becky:''' MOTHER!!!
--> '''Roseanne:''' ''[still off camera]'' Well, it was funny, Becky!

* OverprotectiveDad: One memorable episode has Dan going to beat up Becky's boss after he insults her. Too bad Mark gets there first.

* ADateWithRosiePalms: There was an entire episode dealing with the fact that DJ was going through puberty and had locked himself inside their bathroom to masturbate for hours on end, [[CrossesTheLineTwice which leads Darlene to surmise that he's either really really good at it or really, really bad at it]]. In another later episode, after his girlfriend leaves, he looks down at his dad's photo of Julie Newmar in his hand, then [[AsideGlance gives the cameras a naughty look]] and rushes to his room.

* NobodyPoops: Completely averted. Roseanne probably had one of the most visible bathrooms on television. Characters were shown in the tub, dyeing their hair, getting high, brushing teeth, and even taking a pregnancy test. An entire episode focused around D.J.'s new-found [[ADateWithRosiePalms love of the bathroom]].

Has a [[Characters/RoseanneAndTheConners character sheet]] (shared with its aftershow) and a [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/crowner.php/BestEpisode/Roseanne Best Episode Crowner]].

* FakeGuestStar: ''Roseanne'' in its nine years never ''added'' actors to the main billing whose characters were newly introduced. The only character who was dropped from actor billing was Crystal after she stopped appearing, but numerous other characters were introduced who became indispensable to the show's plot, particularly Bev, David, Jerry, Leon, Mark, Nancy, and Scott. However, none of their actors ever got more than a guest credit, as the main billing became strictly limited to the fictional immediate family (minus Jerry, who was born later) and Jackie.

** When Roseanne and Jackie visits Darlene while she was dating Jimmy, Roseanne takes every opportunity to insult him. In the end, he has enough of it and demands some respect. This moment assure Darlene and Jimmy weren't going to last because of Darlene also disrespecting her own boyfriend.

** Another episode indicates that D.J. is beginning to develop this, as he has a girlfriend who treats him like absolute garbage and bosses him around non-stop. This may be one of the few cases of an audience getting to see a Freudian Excuse ''developing''--D.J.'s surrounded by women who dominate the men in their lives, and he hasn't yet learned that there's a difference between spousal teasing and genuine abuse.

* CousinOliver: Mark, David, Jerry Connor, and Andy Harris (Jackie's son)

* ThanksgivingEpisode : Every year after Season 2. Every Thanksgiving was an example of DinnerAndAShow.

* AscendedExtra: Mark was supposed to be a one-shot date for Becky. He ended up lasting the rest of the series and marrying into the family.

* PlayingGertrude: The math on Bev and Nana Mary's ages is a little hazy, but Shelly Winters is only seven years older than Estelle Parsons.

** Later lampshaeded in "Home Ec" when Darlene and her classmates point out a woman who's on the cover of all the gossip magazines.

* HenpeckedHusband: Dan at times, David ''all'' the time.