Roseanne Reviews M

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.

“Vegas” Episode 7 Season 4. Wikipedia summary is: “Arnie and Nancy invite Roseanne and Dan to their Las Vegas wedding. Roseanne and Dan have a fight when she feels neglected and pulls him out of a lucky craps game.”

Out of about 60 lines by non-family members, none are spoken by people of color.

“Vegas, Vegas” Episode 8, Season 4. Wikipedia summary is: “Roseanne is upset that Dan would rather play craps than spend a romantic night together. She and Nancy get drunk and walk into a Wayne Newton impersonator performance, unaware she is heckling the real Wayne Newton who is making a surprise on-stage appearance. After Arnie and Nancy's wedding, they offer Dan and Roseanne the chance to renew their vows.”

Out of about 60 lines by non-family members, none are spoken by people of color.

“Stressed to Kill” Episode 9, Season 4. Wikipedia summary is: “Roseanne resumes smoking to cope with her stressful life—then tries to hide the renewed habit from her family. Roseanne is thrilled when Darlene gets a B on a school report until she learns that Becky actually wrote it for her.”

There is some anti-Columbus stuff. Darlene says that he was a slave trader. I’ll be honest I’m not real familiar with that part of how horrible he was, but I’ve heard it elsewhere from a good source so it’s probably true. She also said that he slaughtered thousands of people. Although I’m not sure if it was thousands or tens of thousands, I DO know for sure that while he was governor of Hispanola (the island now made up of Haiti and the Dominican Republic) at least 99% of the indigenous population was killed.

Although she ends up letting Becky write a politically moderate essay about it for her history class assignment, and this takes place at the height of her anti-social phase, I believe that what Darlene says about Columbus is the view of the show because in a later episode, the show offers a very critical view of Thanksgiving.

Out of about 15 lines by non-family members, about 10% are by people of color.


“Thanksgiving ’91” Episode 10, Season 4. Wikipedia summary is: “During Thanksgiving dinner, Roseanne and Jackie discover their father has been having an affair for 20 years that their mother has known about. Darlene hides out in her room and refuses to open up to anyone except Nana Mary.”

Darlene says: “I opt not to celebrate the exploitation of Indians by a group of religious fanatics.”

This isn’t the later episode I was referring to in the review above. That later episode doesn’t involve DARLENE criticizing Thanksgiving. So, independent of Darlene’s anti-social depressed phase, the show is critical of what happened to American Indians. There’s at least three episodes with that message.

“Kansas City, Here We Come” Episode 11, Season 4. Wikipedia summary is: “Jackie and Roseanne head to Kansas City to meet their father's mistress. Dan goes to beat up Becky's boss for being grossly disrespectful to her, but finds that Mark has beaten him to it.”

Out of about 20 lines by non-family members, none are by people of color.