Patricia Abbott (pattinase): Roseanne

Wednesday, March 08, 2017

Roseanne

Watching CNN's series on THE HISTORY OF COMEDY, which I have to say gives short shrift to too many things and the clips are too short, but it still reminds me of what TV shows that really nailed particular eras or issues. Although I enjoyed sitcoms in the fifties and sixties, they were not portraying the real world for most people. It was the ideal world or their idea of it. What shows were most honest in portraying life to you but at the same time were funny. I would choose Roseanne as one although my husband detests it. Or rather her. But that was how life was for a lower middle-class family in the eighties-nineties. This scene could be from most plays I have seen off-Broadway.

10 comments:

George said...: Today's comedies focus on difference: gay couples raising kids, older husband/younger wife, single parents with children, former druggie Mom living with her daughter, etc. A comedy like ROSEANNE couldn't get the Green Light on any network today.; 8:19 AM
Charles Gramlich said...: I liked it when it was on, but unlike some other sitcoms, like Frazier and WKRP, I haven't had any urge to rewatch episodes of Roseanne.; 8:56 AM
Jeff Meyerson said...: I agree. Until the last two years, she did a really good job with it. And for all the comments about Tom Arnold, the years he was helping run the show were among the best, funniest, and sharpest.

If you want to watch a rerun, one favorite is the Mothers Day barbecue episode. The special Halloween episodes were usually good too.; 10:17 AM
pattinase (abbott) said...: Love the one where they find pot!; 10:30 AM
pattinase (abbott) said...: Frasier holds up best of all.; 10:31 AM
Rick Robinson said...: There was a block of syndicated shows on for a while on one of the LA secondary stations, ROSEANNE, MARRIED WITH CHILDREN, LA LAW. I'd watch Roseanne, then make dinner or whatever, then watch LA Law. It was John Goodman I watched it for, he was very good, and very funny.; 12:21 PM
Steve Oerkfitz said...: POLICE SQUAD (1982), they only made six episodes but they are still hilarious and in my opinion comic genius.; 1:31 PM
Al Tucher said...: Steve is right, cult shows like POLICE SQUAD still make me fall about laughing no matter how often i watch the same episode where-as the more mainstream shows from that era like ROSEANNE and COSBY hardly make me laugh at all anymore, but then again i suppose that defines the difference between "CULT" and "MAINSTREAM", some shows dont 'click' with the audience right away but years later people realise they were in fact masterpieces of comedy magnificence.; 2:35 PM
Todd Mason said...: Farce is hard...which is why the weaker episodes of FRASIER are kind of sad (while the better ones are great). POLICE SQUAD! might've started falling over sideways, as some of GET SMART did, certainly, or SLEDGE HAMMER, had it gone on longer...certainly the Mel Brooks series WHEN THINGS WERE ROTTEN fell apart almost immediately. And I had high hopes.

I'm not sure I don't think MOM isn't trying to do in its compass, at least, some of what ROSEANNE was trying to do.

And the CNN series is pits. A foot rather than a mile wide, and a millimeter deep. David Sternberg's interview series on Showtime managed to cover much of the same ground rather well. Even the potted PIONEERS OF TELEVISION series on PBS has done a little better.; 5:58 AM
Todd Mason said...: Among the favorite sitcoms: WKRP, NEWSRADIO, THE BOB NEWHART SHOW, M*A*S*H for the first four seasons and fitfully afterward, TRYING TIMES, SONS AND DAUGHTERS, FRASIER's better episodes, GILMORE GIRLS till the last season (still haven't watched the revival)...all, even SCRUBS, at some level were imparting some kind of truth no matter how stylized (Alice notes SCRUBS was the most cogent tv series about internship/residency she's yet seen, Easily shaming the likes of ER or GRAY'S ANATOMY)...which reminds me of the Elliott Gould E/R and CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL...and RIPPING YARNS. YOU'RE THE WORST, MAN SEEKING WOMAN particularly in its latest season, STAN AGAINST EVIL, BROAD CITY and SCHITT'S CREEK are perhaps my favorites among those still in production.; 6:27 AM