Roseanne - Season 7

Happy belated Halloween everyone and welcome to the season seven recap of Roseanne (season 7 excerpt). You can catch up on past season recaps by clicking here. I was hoping to sneak this write-up in time for Halloween since the yearly Halloween episode is always a big occasion for the series, but alas I just missed that window.

-There is not too much of a change for the job roll call this season. Dan (John Goodman) is still running the city auto body shop, with Mark (Glenn Quinn) and Fred (Michael ‘O Keefe) working there too. Roseanne (Roseanne Barr), Jackie and Leon (Martin Mull) are still holding down the fort at The Lunchbox, however the amount of episodes that transpire there is dialed back a couple notches. There are a couple episodes where DJ (Michael Fishman) and Darlene (Sara Gilbert) are seen helping out there too. Becky (Sarah Chalke) is presumably still working her waitress gig, but it is never really addressed this season.

-One of the big season hooks this year is Roseanne and Dan deciding to want to have another child and eventually getting pregnant midway through the season. Since it happened a good ways into the season there is no stereotypical season finale with the new family member arriving on the household. It is a surprisingly lukewarm episode when it comes to season-ending storylines as the finale is half David (Johnny Galecki) debating on taking a post-graduation trip to Europe, and half fantasy tribute to the cast dressing up as characters in a spoof of Gilligan’s Island.

-Carrying on the theme of last season, the show rotates the amount of Connor children appearing on each episode with Roseanne and Dan being at the forefront of most episodes. There are a few shows where the whole family is on, but since Darlene is still in school in Chicago and Becky and Mark move out into a trailer halfway into the season, Roseanne trended to rotating those three characters on and off. Speaking of Mark, his character regrettably got dramatically dumbed down this season to the equivalent of Joey from Friends. It is cringing to endure Mark getting played for cheap laughs several seasons into his character, and I am surprised this lasted throughout the season. Speaking of Friends, it debuted this year in the TV lineup of 1994-95 and it must have had a really strong first season because it is even referenced in one of the final episodes of this season of Roseanne.

-This is a second strong Halloween episode this season where the theme is once again Roseanne being the victim of the prank. Roseanne is led to believe her mother is bald and falls for thinking Fred is gay with a huge payoff at the end of the episode. This is an edgier season for the dialogue, and a bit more explicit language thrown around casually this season. I am all for it as it only seemed natural for the characters to be looser with their vernacular, but were held back all these years until the FCC eased up their guidelines. Roseanne has a lot of entertaining exchanges with Leon this season where the two casually throw fat/gay jokes at each other in a bizarrely loving way.

-Roseanne & Jackie’s co-owner of The Lunchbox, Nancy (Sandra Bernhard) is only on one or two early episodes this season before mysteriously not appearing again afterwards. After being limited to just a few appearances in the last couple of seasons, this is the first season with no Crystal (Natalie West). While doing a little research for this entry, I found out she will only be appearing in one more episode before she is done with the show.

-One of the peculiar arcs this season to follow was the love triangle between David, Darlene and Jimmy (Danny Masterson). Darlene dumps David for Jimmy at the beginning of the season, only for Jimmy to break up with Darlene halfway through the season. David and Darlene finally get back together towards the end of the season. Speaking of relationship troubles, Jackie and Fred’s marriage seemed doomed from the beginning as the two are squabbling over initial hurdles, but things take a major turn after Jackie starts going out with another man and Fred finds out. The two then soothe things over and reunite, but then go into couples counseling an episode or two later, before they finally call their marriage off in a depressing scene in the penultimate episode of the season. It looks like Fred will be around for a little while longer into season eight before officially departing the show, but I am bummed as I really dug his character and wit, and he gelled in perfectly and was in the mix prominently for these past two seasons.

-Once again, there are no extra features for this season. As I referenced earlier, I am curious with the direction of the last couple seasons to shuffle in and out the Connor children and I would have liked to see some interviews with cast and crew explaining the evolution of the show at this point in the series. One other little nitpick I have is throughout the entire run of the series on DVD at this point there is no option for subtitles. Not a huge deal breaker, but thought I would mention it for those that appreciate that option. Split hairs aside, this is yet another solid season of Roseanne as they found new ways to evolve the show and its characters and keep it must-see throughout.

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