Roseanne - Season 5

Time does not stop for the Roseanne marathon. Welcome to my blog covering season five of my all-time favorite sitcom (s5 excerpt). If you missed my past season write-ups, click here to consume the previous installments. As with my past editions, I will continue my format of bullet point highs and lows of the season:

-Like last season’s blog, I will kickstart this season’s list with a job status roll call. If you recall, the café in the mall Roseanne (Roseanne Barr) worked at last season closed down in the season four finale, so Roseanne starts off the season jobless. Also as I alluded to season four ended with Dan (John Goodman) not being optimistic about the future for the bike shop, and his worries prove true as the bike shop closes the in the first episode of season five. I loved the bike shop! I was sad to see it go, and the show goes to great lengths to make it feel rotten for a family investing it all and striking out. The first few episodes of the season are pretty depressing for the Connor family as the episodes have a despondent undertone for them as the Connors try to find work and make the most of what they have.

Things take an upswing a few episodes later as Roseanne, Jackie (Laurie Metcalf), their mom Beverly (Estelle Parsons) and friend Nancy (Sandra Bernhard) open up their own diner, The Lunchbox. Now this is the restaurant I primarily associated the Conner family working at from what I recalled watching growing up. Things end up going well for the Conner ladies, while Dan struggles finding multiple new jobs throughout the season. I love the homey atmosphere of The Lunch Box. Leon (Martin Mull) is not their manager as I recalled, but he does make a cameo as a health inspector in one episode in a scene that he and Roseanne instantly pick up their love/hate relationship where they left off.

-The first few episodes of the season have a lot of heavy material. Aside from what I mentioned above of the bike shop closing down and the Conners falling on hard times, Becky (Lecy Goranson) and Mark (Glenn Quinn) elope and move to Minneapolis. There are a lot of intense verbal spats between Becky and her parents where the three really bring it in an explosive first two episodes that saw some of the best acting in the entire series by this point. Becky and Mark are only in the first three episodes this season. This is because Lecy took a break from the show to pursue college, and would explain Sarah Chalke filling in for Becky for the remainder of the series.

-The relationship between Darlene (Sara Gilbert) and David (Johnny Galecki) also escalates. I enjoyed the running gag this season that the two would never have sex. In the latter half of the season, a family blow-up causes David to be taken in and made an official part of the Conner family. This gets thumbs up for me as David seemed like an unofficial member of the family by this point anyways as he was always making himself at home. Darlene and David spend a good chunk of the season debating on leaving town for a writing school, and their relationship is put to the test in the final episodes of the season when only one of them gets accepted to the school.

-I was a fan of Roseanne’s new neighbors this season, The Tildens. The daughter Molly (Danielle Harris) is an awesome foil for Darlene this season. Charlotte (Mara Hobel) is the motherly older daughter filling in the mom role for the family since they are only raised by their father Ty (Wings Hauser). There is a fun episode where the Conners and Tildens all squeeze into Ty’s Winnebago for a cross-country road trip filled with nonstop family feuding that brought back countless memories of my family road trips. I was dismayed to find out when researching this blog that the Tildens were only featured in season five of Roseanne as I was a fan of all three by the end of the season.

-Roseanne’s and Dan’s friends are dialed back a lot this season. I was a little bummed by this as I was a big Crystal (Natalie West) fan and she only appears briefly in two or three episodes. DJ (Michael Fishman) is mostly in the background again this season and completely absent in a couple episodes. DJ primarily is only around to be the weird kid who chimes in with an awkward zinger or two an episode. He does have a couple fun scenes with a really young Joseph-Gordon Levitt in the season finale though.

-Other than a couple exception episodes, most of the middle third of this season is kind of a lull. To be honest, the crowd took it away from me with them suffering from cracking up way too much at every joke and one-liner regardless of how funny it actually was. This part of the season had a big reliance on one-liners and cheap jokes, and a good chunk of the middle episodes this season suffered because of it. I got the vibe from the crowd that Darlene’s new emo-character was the ‘hip/edgy’ character of the year as the audience triply reacted to all of her lines. This lead to what felt like all of Darlene’s lines becoming forgettable cheap laughs to give the audience their edgy-Darlene fix. It got to be insufferable halfway through the season, but thankfully Roseanne dialed it back a couple notches in the season’s final episodes.

-Other real quick tidbits to touch on are that I was surprised by the dark twist that transpires with Jackie her latest boyfriend, Fisher (Matt Roth) this season. Props to the show for touching on controversial issues in the early 90s. They also regularly feature a couple gay characters this season which was uncommon among most network sitcoms at the time. I like the 4th-wall breaking scenes where the actors portray themselves in quick little sketches during the end-credits, but I could not help but get the feeling season five jumped the shark on them with a few too many of them this season. I will give DJ props for keeping the Super Nintendo and Game Boy spirit alive in a couple moments again this season. Other notable celebrity cameos in season five include Tim Curry, Chris Farley, Bill Maher and Joan Collins to look forward to. There is only one extra feature on the DVD, but it is a goodie which is a five minute Q&A session with Roseanne Barr where she answers some of her most FAQs concerning the show lore and certain recurring gimmicks that made for a fun little bonus.

-That wraps it up for season five! It has a strong first few and final few episodes, but only a few worthwhile episodes in the middle which makes it a bit of a challenge to get through. Only five more months until the new season of Roseanne premieres on ABC this January! Get stoked!

Past TV/Web Series Blogs

2013-14 TV Season Recap
2014-15 TV Season Recap
2015-16 TV Season Recap
2016-17 TV Season Recap
Adventures of Briscoe County Jr: The Complete Series
Angry Videogame Nerd Volumes 7-9
Mortal Kombat: Legacy - Season 1
OJ: Made in America: 30 for 30
RedvsBlue - Seasons 1-13
Roseanne – Seasons 1-9
Seinfeld Final Season
Superheroes: A Never-Ending Battle
Superheroes: Pioneers of Television