Roseanne

Some people are younger than me, and they are too young to remember. Some people are my age or older, and their memory isn't what it used to be. Between these two groups, the number of people who remember Roseanne in her prime are few and far between. My sister is both young and knowledgeable, and she reminded me of good old Roseanne, the domestic goddess, the universal goddess that made one of the best TV shows in history long before TV's "golden age" that we're still enjoying today.

The most remarkable thing I want you to notice about this show is that the characters in it actually laugh at each-other's jokes. The only other sitcom I know of where this occurs is "Curb Your Enthusiasm" - it took about 15 years and a guy like Larry David to repeat this feat - it didn't even happen on Seinfeld. In every other comedy show the character says something funny, and then everyone in the room struggles to keep a straight face wile the audience laughs. Not these people. That's why Roseanne and Dan look like an actual couple, they have an amazing love relationship that any of us would be proud to have. When they fight they actually yell at each-other at the top of their voices and tell each-other really hurtful things, and still manage to be a loving couple through it all (look up an episode named "Lobocop"). They are so believable together that Roseanne's real-life husband made a nuisance of himself with jealous fits and tried to write their love scenes out of the scripts.
If I remember correctly, in its later seasons Roseanne made a point of breaking taboos that people try to keep away from even now. They also had the brilliant idea to cast Shelley Winters as the grandmother. I also know that they jumped the shark a bunch of times before they finally gave up. I'll have to re-watch all the episodes (I'm on season 2) before I can talk about all that.

One day I'll write something long about how artists achieve inner peace at the expense of their creativity, and how we are torn between being happy for them and the heartbreak of losing them forever. Roseanne married and divorced Tom Arnold, then she lost her mind for a while, then she found Kabbalah, lost half her weight and cut 20 years off her face. She had a talk show that got canceled, and now she is mostly a gray-haired political activist. She hasn't lost her edge completely, but the good old days will never return. I am here to shake the dust off the good old days:

This is an episode from the first season of Roseanne:




This is her first TV stand-up appearance:



And here she is annoying a stadium full of baboons:



Finally, this is today's political activist Roseanne:



I've skipped her blonde beauty stage because I find it hard to stomach, you're welcome to Google it yourself.

Please remember this whenever you're tempted to believe that women aren't funny, that there's nothing good on TV, that romance is dead and other dark thoughts that make a person give up on this world.