Roseanne Reviews D

This is a set of reviews of Roseanne episodes. My general thoughts about that show are here. I will focus only on the political aspects and will mention what percent of lines spoken by non-family members are spoken by people of color.

“Workin’ Overtime” Episode 19, Season 1. Wikipedia summary is: “The Wellman Plastics employees are exhausted after Booker continues to lengthen work shifts due to upped quotas and machinery errors. Even Roseanne, the queen of the circle, cannot handle the pressure—especially when Dan starts working overtime as well. After one too many long days, she takes a breather at a local diner where a waitress provides some perspective about life and loneliness.”

It seems that there is no union. Although there is at least one episode in a later season that is pro-union, and one episode that is about employees buying their factory, there is nothing in this episode that is pro-union. However, it DOES illustrate conflict between management and labor, but not in a way that is pro-union and there is very little pushback by labor, which might be what happens in that situation in reality, but ideally there would be something pro-union in there.

There is a bad joke that is more of a transphobic than an anti-transphobic statement.

Of about 40 lines by non-family members, about 10% are by a Latina work-friend of Roseanne’s (I’m going to slightly edit some of the earlier reviews to reflect that this woman is a Latina, something I just found out (there were two barely perceptible hints, but they could have said her name, and I just finally found her name)).

“Toto, We’re Not In Kansas Anymore” Episode 20, Season 1. Wikipedia summary is: “A dangerous tornado is heading for Lanford, and the Conners, along with Crystal (who takes shelter at their house), prepare for the storm. Problems arise: Becky insists on retrieving her pet guinea pigs from the garage, while Jackie barely makes it to shelter after a trip to the grocery store, prompting a fight with her and Roseanne.”

There are about 20 lines by a non-family member and all of them are by a white person.

“Death and Stuff” Episode 21, Season 1. Wikipedia summary is: “During the family's busy weekend activities, a door-to-door salesman drops dead in the Conner kitchen. Roseanne and Dan attempt to conceal the corpse from potential buyers for their washer and dryer. The police officer who responded to their emergency call helps Darlene with a school assignment while waiting for the coroner to arrive.”

There are about 25 lines by non-family members and practically all of them are by white people.

“Dear Mom and Dad” Episode 22, Season 1. The Wikipedia summary is: “An unannounced visit by Roseanne's parents throws the Conner house into an uproar. Dan and Jackie are pushing a usually outspoken Roseanne to stick up for herself after she is at a loss for words. Hostility and craziness abound, but the biggest shock comes when Bev announces that they are moving to Lanford. Bruce Willis makes a cameo appearance as himself during the end credits.”

There is one flawed anti-homophobic statement. We learn that Roseanne has a gay aunt. It involves a bad joke about female gym teachers, but considering how anti-homophobic the show is later on (looking at the entire series, I think that about 1% of all lines are spoken by characters who are out when they speak those lines, and that goes up to about 3% if we count lines spoken when viewers didn’t know those characters were gay) I think it’s an anti-homophobic statement.

“Let’s Call it Quits” Episode 23, Season 1. Wikipedia summary is: “The Wellman factory women rebel against the stringent rules imposed by a tough new supervisor. After he raises the cap on the quotas yet again, Roseanne asks him to ease off. The boss agrees, but only if Roseanne agrees to treat him with undeserved respect. When he reneges on the deal by claiming he now controls Roseanne, she, along with Jackie and their friends, permanently clock out. Final regular appearance of George Clooney as Booker.”

This episode finally has some stuff that is near pro-union and at the VERY end turns into something pro-union. It would be better if it resulted in an organizing campaign or some kind of non-union action (I don’t know what the legal boundaries on that are) but it’s still pretty good. It’s a good illustration of abusive management, not to mention stupid management. Besides the argument that it’s just wrong to treat workers like that, setting an unreachable quota can create anxiety, stress and depression that affects their ability to get anywhere near that quota.

Although it would have been better if they had started a union and/or engaged in some kind of collective action, some of the workers DID talk and get a representative, Roseanne, to talk to the supervisor and she negotiated with him and briefly got the quotas lowered. But he clearly had absolutely no respect for workers and he raised the quotas to the earlier, unmeetable level. Shortly after that, Roseanne and her friends leave.

How far is this from being pro-union? The show expresses solid support for unions in at least one later episode and in the 9th season Roseanne and Jackie use some of their lottery wealth to help the factory employees buy the factory., So, this episode is in the context of a pro-labor show. At the very end of this episode those factory workers who left cheer as Roseanne says her name is Sally Field, which must be a reference to the pro-union movie “Norma Rae” where Field plays a pro-union worker.

There’s probably about 85-100 lines by non-family members and about 20% are by a black female friend of Roseanne’s at work.