Roseanne: The Complete First Season

(Anchor Bay Entertainment, 8.30.2005)

Roseanne was an ass-kicker of a show and its maiden voyage on DVD confirms this. Anchor Bay has gathered 23 episodes onto four discs, all with excellent transfers, as well as a series of additional interviews and bloopers that should keep fans of the show satisfied. There are no commentaries here and the menus are budget, but the show is of such high quality that these weaknesses are barely noticeable.

The show's opening credits alone are praise-worthy. Accompanied by the now-legendary blaring saxophone title music, the credits open on Roseanne at a kitchen table, before panning around, revealing the primary characters of the show idly chatting and laughing. I might be stretching here, but I think we're seeing an influence on the opening scene of Reservoir Dogs. Tarantino's subconscious is a pop culture sponge beyond compare so I wouldn't be surprised.

The credits also use a sly trick that I'm surprised more studio sitcoms don't employ: as the camera pans, we see the "fourth wall" of the set. Roseanne was a show that made particularly good use of deep space, especially down hallways and through rooms. The lack of a kitchen door (a rarity in sitcoms) also gave the blocking and movement of the characters a realness that adds to the sincerity of the show, despite being shot on a traditional sitcom set in front of a studio audience. Seeing the Conner family home as a house with four walls in the opening credits only adds to the realness of the series.

And speaking of opening credits, what is the deal with not being able to skip past TV credits on DVD? I love the Roseanne credits but, after seeing them four or five times, I just wanted to get to the show. In the land of TV on DVD, a chapter break between credits and episodes is a must.

Legendary episodes are in abundance here, including "Toto, We're Not in Kansas Anymore" (in which a tornado hits the Conner's hometown of Lanford), "Lover's Lane" (which takes place in a bowling alley and features Jackie's on-again off-again boyfriend, Booker), and "D-I-V-O-R-C-E" (in which the Conners discover during a night of dining and dancing that yet another couple they know has gotten divorced). This discovery leads to Dan (John Goodman) feeing insecure about a variety of things, particularly the stability of his marriage.

Of note, Booker is played by George Clooney. He's in full bobblehead mode, aided by what can only be described as a massive reverse mullet. With this haircut, the party is definitely in the front and the business is definitely in the back.

Roseanne's unique place in the world of situation comedy is revealed by the division throughout this season between "high concept" episodes and episodes in which the mundane, daily activities of the Conners is loosely held together by a simple concept like fixing a truck or gathering up junk for a garage sale. Strangely, the more complex the scenario, as in an episode when a door-to-door salesman winds up dying in the family kitchen, the more stunted the humour.

The extras here provide insights into the pleasant working conditions on the set, as well as Roseanne and Laurie Metcalf (who plays Jackie)'s crushes on John Goodman when they first started working with him. Roseanne's appearance in the footage shot for the interviews is alarmingly different from her chipmunk-cheeked, frizzy haired, 1988 counterpart. Gone is the appeal of Roseanne as she debuted on television, replaced by years of plastic surgery and an obvious abandoning of the domesticity that made her famous. Here we see a full-on embrace of the effects that success in Tinseltown can have on a person's psyche.

Roseanne's current appearance also reminds me that I will definitely not be picking up the 9th and final season of Roseanne when it's released on DVD. That's the season in which the show went off the rails following a lottery win by the Conners, concluded by the real-life Roseanne's annoying attempt to claim that the entire run of the show was a fictional analogy of the Roseanne character's "real life," which viewers never see.

I hate bullshit altering of beloved TV series towards the end of their runs. It's disrespectful to loyal viewers and fans, hijacking the value of entertainment with the megalomaniacal rants of individuals who have too much control over their creations. There's also a subtle, self hatred theme going on between the altering of Roseanne's physical appearance and the trajectory her show took in its final season. In both cases, she disowns the elements of her persona and appearance which made her famous. At least we can still look forward to several more high quality seasons of Roseanne to be released on DVD. I can't wait. -- Jason Woloski