History Series / Roseanne

* 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.

* GracefulLoser: In "Wait 'Til Your Father Gets Home," Roseanne and Jackie's father Al dies, and his second wife--who [[YourCheatingHeart was originally his mistress]]--comes to the funeral parlor. When she runs Bev, the older woman wastes no time in releasing a ''nasty'' TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to her...but also offers to sell her the cemetery plot she's had reserved beside Al's for decades, respecting the other woman's status as Al's new wife. "You love him so much, ''you'' spend eternity next to him!"

* GracefuLoser: In "Wait 'Til Your Father Gets Home," Roseanne and Jackie's father Al dies, and his second wife--who [[YourCheatingHeart was originally his mistress]]--comes to the funeral parlor. When she runs Bev, the older woman wastes no time in releasing a ''nasty'' TheReasonYouSuckSpeech to her...but also offers to sell her the cemetery plot she's had reserved beside Al's for decades, respecting the other woman's status as Al's new wife. "You love him so much, ''you'' spend eternity next to him!"

** When DJ refuses to kiss a girl a school play because she's black, Roseanne tells him in no uncertain terms that she won't tolerate him being racist, and furthermore says that anyone who disrespects black people is an embarrassment to "respectable" white trash like them.

* ExtremeDoormat: Charlotte, see above. There was one time when she was locked out of her house and was planning to stand outside in the rain for hours instead of being able to muster up the courage to ask Roseanne if she could stay at their house.

** A particularly bad example happened with Mark. Originally a leather-jacket-clad greaser bad boy who wasn't booksmart, but always seemed sharp and was shown to be even better than Dan at fixing motorcycles. After marrying Becky and returning to the show he became an idiotic dope/manchild who routinely shocked the rest of the characters with his lack of sense. Only when teaching David how to tie a bowtie before the latter's wedding at the end of Season 8 did Mark's original stoic, streetsmart badboy persona get one last moment in the spotlight.\\\

** Mark and David's mother, especially to poor David. It's a mark of just how bad ''everyone's'' parents were that when Roseanne lets Dan know that she's agreed to let David live with them, he initially refuses ... until Roseanne says "Dan, I grew up in a house like that." Dan immediately sighs and leans back on the bed, accepting that he can't let David go back to that kind of house.

* ForgottenThemeTuneLyrics: The show's opening instrumental theme song has them, although they aren't heard until the series finale of the original series.

** One episode featured a parody of the basketball-game scene in the 1979 film TheGreatSantini. The game was between Dan and Fred - who was played by Michael O'Keefe, who played the protagonist Ben in "Santini."

* ImplausibleDeniability: Even when confronted about Fisher's abusive behavior, Jackie defends him, so happy to be in a relationship she is. [[note]] Unfortunately, [[TruthInTelevision abusive relationships tend to be like this.[[/note]] Jackie leaves Fisher, but only after a great deal of prodding from Roseanne.

** In the last scene of "Home for the Holidays," Dan is on the phone with someone, talking about how much he misses them and how hard it is to spend Christmas without them. Jackie, who's in the kitchen, naturally thinks that Dan is talking to his mother, who he just got back from visiting. Then comes the bombshell: "Listen, I just wanted to thank you for [[YourCheatingHeart being so great with my mom."]]

* YetAnotherChristmasCarol : In this case, a Hallowe'en episode in Season 5. When Roseanne doesn't want to celebrate Hallowe'en, she is visited by three ghosts, who show her her past love of Halloween (she played her first prank on Bev on the holiday while ''not a year old yet''), a party she is missing in the present, and, finally, the BadFuture which reveals that if she doesn't change her ways, she'll end up just like her mother!

There was mother Roseanne (Creator/RoseanneBarr); father Dan (Creator/JohnGoodman in [[StarMakingRole the role that made him famous]]); preppy daughter Becky (originally played by Lecy Goranson, and taken over -- repeatedly -- by Creator/SarahChalke, in one of the most famous instances of TheOtherDarrin outside of [[Series/{{Bewitched}} Darrin]] himself); sarcastic daughter Darlene (Creator/SaraGilbert); son D.J. (Michael Fishman); and Roseanne's younger sister Jackie (Creator/LaurieMetcalf).

* MoebiusNeighborhood: The neighborhood's geometry is extremely vague, and the Conners deal with arriving, recurring, and departing neighbors, but never more than one family at a time. On screen, at least. A few neighbours do get mentioned in first-season episodes, especially the garage sale and tornado episodes. Considering Roseanne's attitude towards the human race in general, it's not hard to believe that the other neighbours just broke off contact.

There was mother Roseanne (Creator/RoseanneBarr); father Dan (Creator/JohnGoodman in [[StarMakingRole the role that made him famous]]); preppy daughter Becky (originally played by Lecy Goranson, and taken over -- repeatedly -- by Sarah Chalke, in one of the most famous instances of TheOtherDarrin outside of [[Series/{{Bewitched}} Darrin]] himself); sarcastic daughter Darlene (Sara Gilbert); son D.J. (Michael Fishman); and Roseanne's younger sister Jackie (Laurie Metcalf).

** ** In "A Stash from the Past," Jackie is horrified to discover Dan and Roseanne preparing to get high:
--->''Jackie'':You're rolling a joint after yelling at David for bringing pot in the house?! And you're using the coffee table ''Mom'' gave you?!

-->--'''Roseanne'''

* TroubledTeen: Subverted, with Darlene; many episodes show her becoming withdrawn from her family, dressing in dark clothes and adopting a SnarkKnight personality. It's all but said that she's dealing with a depression, but as a lower-income family, they don't have the resources to help Darlene manage with it. As time goes on we see that she's actually spending time embracing her artistic and intellectual sides, becoming the first member of her family to go to college.

* OneHundredAndEight: Roseanne and the family win a $108 million dollar lottery jackpot.
** In "Sweet Dreams", attendants run Roseanne a bath with a temperature of 108 degrees, just the way she likes it.

** David was called "Kevin" during his first appearance.