Kathy's reaction says it all. It's just a Halloween prank and makeup, but still...
- In "Dan's Birthday Bash", after being stopped by Roseanne from fighting off a mook named Bobo the day before, Dan unleashes his pent up anger on a piece of drywall by bashing it into pieces with his hammer. Unbeknownst to him, Darlene came back with a pencil sharpened for him and she sees this and it is frightening to watch. Once Dan calms down and sees that Darlene was watching him destroy drywall in anger, he immediately feels bad and takes off to the bar.
- In the season one episode "Slice Of Life" Darlene suffers a ruptured appendix during a simple game of baseball and she has to be rushed to the emergency room for surgery. Roseanne feels bad because this happened not long after their mother-daughter fight.
- In "Toto, We're Not In Kansas Anymore", the Conner family huddle up together inside their house as a raging tornado storms outside. Roseanne immediately shields DJ with her arms as the living room glass window breaks from the storm! Roseanne also spends the first few hours worrying about her sister Jackie being out shopping for meatloaf ingredients when the storm happens. Then the electricity goes out and the Conners are left in the dark of their home.
- In "Death and Stuff" a salesman enters the Conner home for a glass of water and he drops dead on the kitchen table, much to Roseanne and Dan's worry.
- Given all the fights and arguments to be had between Dan and Roseanne, some of them are bound to have hints of this. Most infamous however is their biggest blow-up in "Fights And Stuff"; anyone who's dealt with such scenes in childhood are likely to find these moments very unsettling.
- Dan's mother trying to kill him by locking him inside his garage with the motorcycle engine running.
- Roseanne, who is harsh but not physically abusive towards her children, spanking DJ after he wrecks their car, finally having been driven to the end of her rope. Roseanne is so horrified she can't even speak, recalling it was just like what her father would do. Thankfully she makes things right with DJ.
- Dan's drunken stupor in one episode where he tries to confront his dad over his mother's worsening mental health. He ends up scaring both Crystal and her son Lonnie as they try to keep him calm while he stumbles around breaking stuff, forcing Roseanne to intervene and drag him back home.
- Roseanne's run-in with an unfriendly customer on the first night of business at the diner. The man becomes increasingly unhinged and aggressive as Roseanne goes to fetch him coffee, clearly alarmed at his behavior. The customer then grabs her and just stares her in the face, only to storm out moments later. The incident unnerves Roseanne so much that she seeks out a self-defense class while Dan becomes overprotective.
- Perhaps more unsettling is the fact that we don't know what the customer's deal was or what became of him after the fact.
- Dan whenever he is sent flying over the edge is sure to be this. When he finds out David had been living with Darlene in Chicago without his knowledge, he is absolutely furious. Ordering him in no uncertain terms to leave his house, Dan punches a hole in the wall as he storms out of the room right before Roseanne. A few episodes later, David sneaks in to see Darlene who has come home for the week, and when he catches them Dan immediately starts scuffling with him. David wisely bails just as Roseanne interrupts, only to find herself on the receiving end of Dan's fury when he realizes Roseanne was aware of all of it and said nothing to him. Though he doesn't get physical, his fury was enough to send Roseanne out of the house for the rest of the night until things blew over.
- The two-part episodes "Crime and Punishment" and "War and Peace": Just the simple fact that Jackie's boyfriend Fisher was beating her regularly and that Jackie was unable to bring herself to walk out on the relationship even after one especially bad beating that had her retreating to Roseanne's with a badly bruised back. Her anguished cries of "Close to door!" when Darlene accidentally discovered this really drives the horror home before anybody starts asking questions. Her breakdown with Roseanne pushes her on what happened is no less unsettling, and surely something that unfortunately many people can relate to who have been in abusive relationships. It just makes it that much more satisfying when Dan returns the favor to Fisher after he finds out what he's been doing, and later when Jackie finally finds the nerve to call it quits.
- A fun game of cheap poker between Dan and his buddies turns dark as Fisher raises his voice and throws a tantrum after losing a game of cheap poker.
Fisher: Hey, GO TO HELL!! (throws a poker chip, awkward silence between Dan and the boys).- Darlene playfully testing her water gun in her room then popping into the bathroom to spray DJ. Only to discover her bathroom's occupied by Jackie and that her back is covered in bruises.
- We don't see what Jackie's bruises look like but judging by Darlene's horrified reaction and Jackie's defensive shouting, it's pretty bad.
- If Darlene hadn't accidentally walked in on Jackie changing in the bathroom, who knows how much longer Jackie's abuse from Fisher would've gone on.
- Roseanne's justified reaction when Jackie keeps denying her abuse: she's covered in bruises, she won't tell anyone about it and Roseanne fears that Jackie could've been raped or mugged and she wouldn't even know about it.
- Dan's heart attack at the end of the eighth season after Darlene's wedding. By the time Roseanne understands what's happening, he's collapsing onto the ground in pain and barely able to breathe. Luckily, he gets better and as of the revival series is confirmed to have fully recovered from the ordeal, whereas in the original series finale he was revealed to have died.
- One Halloween episode, "Trick Me Up, Trick Me Down," (pictured) opens with Roseanne and Dan pranking Kathy: Roseanne acts like she had killed Dan and is still holding the "bloody" knife. Even though it's obviously a prank, it is still a little unsettling as Kathy appears genuinely afraid for her life.
