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.
“Scenes From a Barbecue” Episode 24, Season 3. Wikipedia summary is: “The Conners hold a Mother's Day barbecue at which feisty Nana Mary exerts her motherhood muscle on Bev, surprising Roseanne and Jackie with how alike their relationships are.”
Out of about 40 lines by non-family members, about 50% were by people of color.
“The Pied Piper of Lanford” Episode 25, Season 3. Wikipedia summary is: “Roseanne and Dan ponder opening a motorcycle shop with their friend, Ziggy. Ziggy gets cold feet at the last minute but leaves behind a generous token of gratitude: $20,000. Brad Garrett appears in this episode.”
Out of about 55 lines by non-family members, none are by people of color.
“Why Jackie Becomes a Trucker” Epiosde 3 Season 4. Wikipedia summary is: “Jackie is horrified to wake up in bed with Arnie after a drunken fling. Roseanne tries endlessly to return DJ's new dog to its owner. Dan and his pals discover Leon's gay when they invite him to their poker game. Jackie decides to start a new career as a professional truck driver.”
First, out of about 50 lines by non-family members, about 30% are by people of color.
Second, although I have decided to not offer notes about gay characters like the note I just made above about people of color, I am going to occasionally comment on their presence on the show. In this episode Leon plays poker with Dan and his friends and lets them know that he’s gay when they assume he's straight. Their response is positive but of course a bit flawed. One guy says that he knows a gay man in Chicago and asks Leon if he knows the man.
“Tolerate Thy Neighbor” Episode 5, Season 4. Wikipedia summary is: “Roseanne witnesses the Bowmans' possessions being donated to what she believes is charity while the Bowmans are out-of-town. Kathy Bowman is furious that Roseanne watched without realizing the house was being robbed. Bob Hope makes a cameo appearance during the end credits of this episode.”
There’s a lot of pro-LGB stuff in this episode. Leon’s boyfriend shows up at his work and Roseanne encourages Leon to let him stay at home while Leon’s mom visits- usually the boyfriend leaves when that happens. Jackie says that if she were gay she would tell her parents.
Out of about 55-60 lines by non-family members, about 10% are by a person of color.
“Trick me up, trick me down” Episode 6, Season 4. Wikipedia summary is: “When Dan and Roseanne play a gruesome Halloween prank on Kathy Bowman, Roseanne is worried that Kathy will get revenge. Her fears turned out to be for naught as Kathy wants nothing to do with Roseanne and her childish pranks. At the lodge's Halloween party, Jackie discovers that the moose she has been flirting with is Booker, her former boyfriend.”
Out of about 60 lines by non-family members, about 15% were by people of color.
This blog is mostly about 3 themes- Irish Republicanism, Star Trek, and opposition to bigotry, primarily in America (racism, homophobia, anti-semitism, etc.). It is mostly about Northern Ireland. It will mostly be about these issues in general and past events and will only sometimes touch on current events. Feel free to comment on the earlier posts.
About My Blog
My blog is about history, popular culture, politics and current events from a democratic socialist and Irish republican perspective. The two main topics are Northern Ireland on one hand and fighting anti-Semitism, racism and homophobia on the other. The third topic is supporting the Palestinians, and there are several minor topics. The three main topics overlap quite a bit. I have to admit that it’s not going to help me get a graduate degree, especially because it’s almost always written very casually. But there are some high-quality essays, some posts that come close to being high-quality essays, political reviews of Sci-Fi TV episodes (Star Trek and Babylon 5), and a unique kind of political, progressive poetry you won't find anywhere else. (there are also reviews of episodes of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit and reviews of Roseanne)
(my old blog was not showing up in Google search results AT ALL (99% of it wasn't being web-crawled or indexed or whatever) and there was another big problem with it, so this is a mirror of the old one although there will be some occassionnal editing of old posts and there will be new posts. I started this blog 12/16/20; 4/28/21 I am now done with re-doing the internal links on my blog) (the Google problem with my blog (only 1% of this new one is showing up in Google search results) is why I include a URL of my blog when commenting elsewhere, otherwise I would get almost no visitors at all)
(The "Table of Contents" offers brief descriptions of all but the most recent posts)
(I just recently realized that my definition of "disapora" was flawed- I thought it included, for example, Jews in Israel, the West Bank and the Golan Heights, and with the Irish diaspora, the Irish on that island. I'll do some work on that soon (11/21/20 I have edited the relevant paragraph in my post about Zionism))
(If you're really cool and link to my blog from your site/blog, let me know) (if you contact me, use the word "blog" in the subject line so I'll know it's not spam)
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