"Quick, they're gone. Change the locks!" - Roseanne Connor (Roseanne Barr) after her children have left for school
Roseanne: The Complete First Season DVD Review
By A.J. Carson
When Roseanne premiered October 18, 1988 on ABC, it was unlike anything viewers had seen before. Shows like The Honeymooners, All in the Family, and even Married with Children had dealt with the struggles of the working class before, but those series were told from the male perspective. Roseanne, with its strong female lead, was different.
Roseanne Barr and John Goodman star as Roseanne and Dan Connor. Married for fifteen years, the pair constantly struggles to make ends meet in Lanford, Illinois. Roseanne works in a plastics factory with her younger sister Jackie Harris (Laurie Metcalf) and her best friend Crystal Anderson (Natalie West). Dan is a contractor, but not a very successful one. Even with their dual incomes, they can barely support their three kids: boy-crazy Becky (Lecy Goranson), tomboy Darlene (Sara Gilbert), and runt-of-the-litter D.J. (Michael Fishman). The family may lack material possessions, but they have plenty of love.even if Roseanne makes fun of her kids and proclaims, when faced with a minor rebellion, that "this is why some animals eat their young."
Family sitcoms rarely center on the mother, unless she's a widow or a witch. With her sassy charm and down-to-earth wisdom, Roseanne proved what many of us knew all along: mother knows best. Even though Roseanne's overall concept is revolutionary, the plots of the first season's episodes are filled with every family sitcom cliché imaginable. Roseanne comes up with a pile of stuff to donate to a charity garage sale, but Dan can't bear to part with most of it ("Canoga Time"). Dan and Roseanne teach Darlene a lesson about smoking ("Bridge Over Troubled Sonny"). Darlene alters her report card so that a "D" magically becomes a "B" ("Canoga Time"). Becky doesn't want to dissect a frog in biology ("The Monday Thru Friday Show"). All of these plotlines would be right at home in your average episode of Leave it to Beaver.
These bland stories were abandoned in future seasons as the show hit its stride and shifted to a more realistic character-based humor. Still, the show's actors make season one fun to watch. Barr's performance becomes more relaxed as the season progresses, but she and Goodman have incredible chemistry from the very first episode. Watching them snuggle, argue, tease, and horse around gives the feeling of peeping through a window to sneak a look at an actual married couple. The kids are awfully cute, although they, too, take a few episodes to find their legs. And Metcalf is nothing short of brilliant.
During its first season, Roseanne was the second highest rated series on TV (behind only The Cosby Show). Seventeen years later, it's easy to see why it struck such a chord. Clothing bought off the rack at a department store, silly spats, money woes - these are all things we can relate to. In many other sitcoms, we may see ourselves in the individual plotlines, but the characters themselves have a glamour that most of us will never achieve. Has anyone besides June Cleaver ever vacuumed a house while wearing pearls and high heels? Roseanne, however, seems to be about us.
Familiar faces in season one include Todd Field (Once and Again), comedian Chris Tucker, William Sadler (Wonderfalls, Roswell), Lynne Thigpen (Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?), Fred Thompson (Law & Order), Ned Beatty (Deliverance), Estelle Parsons (Bonnie & Clyde), and Bruce Willis (Moonlighting). George Clooney (E.R.) has a recurring role in season one as Booker Brooks, Roseanne's supervisor at Wellman Plastics.
It should be noted that the episodes presented here are not the original broadcast versions. The opening and closing credits have been revised so that the star is referred to as Roseanne Arnold. This, however, is minor when compared to the fact that all of the episodes have been edited. When sitcoms first air on primetime TV, they are typically 24 minutes long with the remainder of their half-hour running time taken up by commercials. After they are syndicated to local stations, two or three minutes are edited out so that stations can cram in more commercials. The episodes included here are the syndicated versions. The Complete First Season, it seems, is not so complete.
This is disappointing to say the very least. DVD has come to be the only place that TV fans can see the uncut versions of their favorite shows. With Roseanne: The Complete First Season, however, viewers are stuck with the same chopped up episodes they can catch for free on cable and local stations. Some viewers may not be able to tell the difference, but certain episodes have noticeably abrupt transitions and a lack of rhythm. Hopefully this major flaw will be addressed before the December release of season two.
The twenty-three episodes that make up the first season are divided onto four discs. Each disc is decorated with portraits of cast members - Roseanne on disc one, Dan on disc two, Roseanne and Dan on disc three, and Jackie, D.J., Becky, and Darlene on disc four. The discs are housed in two slim, clear keepcases. The front covers are decorated with a series of cast photos. The back covers include episode titles, plot synopses, and the original airdates. The double-sided coversheets show through to the insides of the cases. The interiors feature trivia questions about the first season and the series in general. The two keepcases slide into a cardboard sleeve which showcases a large portrait of Roseanne and Dan along with smaller production stills.
The menus are simple to navigate. The main menu features the same portrait of Roseanne and Dan found on the front of the box. A strip of windows in the background presents full-motion clips from the series. From this menu, viewers can play all of the disc's episodes or view the episodes menu. Choosing an individual episode brings up a plot synopsis and a production still from the episode.
