Roseanne Conner, Roseanne

Roseanne Barr wasn’t the first comic to parlay stand-up success into a smash-hit sitcom, but in bringing her domestic goddess schtick to life in the form of Illinois wife and mother, Roseanne Conner, Barr created an icon. Before Roseanne, sitcom moms often veered into Stepford territory – bland and perfectly put-together embodiments of an unrealistic ideal, always ready with a supportive word or a homemade meal, and lacking any real character traits other than their inherent mom-ishness. Roseanne Conner, on the other hand, was clearly no Donna Reed – an overweight, often-harried working mother with a brassy attitude and a sarcastic, scathing wit. Her kids could be bratty, her house was often messy, and she and her husband, Dan, often struggled to make ends meet. Whereas traditional sitcom families dealt with silly, light hearted mix-ups or misunderstandings, the Conners dealt with actual problems, like disobedient children, dead-end jobs, and failed businesses, but pulled through due to their real affection for one another (Rosie and Dan, especially in the early seasons, were still very much smitten and had a healthy sex life, which was also groundbreaking for a sitcom of the day) and Roseanne’s characteristic wit (for example, when the lights are shut off because they can’t pay their electric bill, the Conner matriarch’s shrill voice cuts through the darkness, “Well, middle class was fun.”)

Roseanne felt new and refreshing, but most importantly, real. Roseanne presented a much more identifiable model of motherhood than the glamorized portrayals of the past – she was someone viewers could relate to and, thanks to Barr’s sharp wit, find laughter in the often less than pleasant realities of family life. –Kimberlee Rossi-Fuchs, Senior Writer

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