In the second part, Lacey Goranson is now playing Becky, who shares literally one scene with Darlene and is never seen again in the episode. There’s even a small reception in Dan’s hospital room where all the Conner children attend except for Becky. The writers eventually tried to catch that kind of idiotic distraction in the two part Disney episode where a narrator points to the audience how Sarah Chalke will be playing Becky in the episode, to which Roseanne exclaims “Aren’t you glad you came this week?!” But by then it wasn’t even an interesting gag, anymore. Being even more self-aware detracted from the attempted take on reality that the show once embraced in the first two seasons. In the awful Halloween episode where Roseanne finally has her baby, Chalke appears as a random trick or treater for a minute, marvelling at how nice the Conners looked as a family. Constant gags like that felt almost as if they were throwing actress Chalke a bone. It’s sad that Chalke as Becky also never gets to flex her comic timing and ability to act, and that’s likely due to the nepotism Roseanne displayed toward Goranson and Gilbert.
It’s only until “Scrubs” years later she was finally able to stop being “The Other Becky” and form her own mold as a comic actress. Season eight takes further bounds as the Conners launch wildly out of character when they go to vacation at Disney World. Suddenly the cynical and sarcastic Conners become fun loving and affectionate, a surefire bit of handiwork from producers to promote how magical the theme park is. Even on the Conners. The show attempts to save face by spoofing Disney in “Springtime for David,” but the episode is a bust. To boot, there’s an embarrassing fantasy episode where the characters are in a fifties sitcom, and Roseanne goes all preachy feminist in “The Getaway, Almost” where she and Jackie go on a road trip. While not terrible, “Of Mice and Dan” is a mediocre episode focused on Dan and his further resentment in never becoming a country singer. How he found time to be a football player, wrestler, biker, sing in a blues band, and get married I’ll never know. But hey, Roseanne gets to squeeze in a guest spot from band “Blues Traveller.”
The season isn’t a total wash out as there are a number of entertaining episodes including Roseanne and Jackie’s feuding as food samplers in a supermarket job, Roseanne’s efforts to give character Leon (and introducing the hilarious Fred Willard as Leon’s longtime companion Scott) a gay wedding that spells disaster, and Roseanne’s sudden blast in to celebrity status as a morning commentator who provides a hilarious rant about food that lands her a job on a major morning news program alongside newscasters. There’s also a really good two episode stint focusing on Darlene and Becky as Darlene begins to garner success, being offered a high paying job which accidentally spawns resentment from her family, while Becky questions her life leading to a potential divorce from Mark and begins looking for a new path to success. Focusing on the inherent dysfunction, there’s a great episode featuring Roseanne and Jackie feuding about raising children and a destructive habit that causes Roseanne to realize she may not be as good a mother she thought she was.
There’s also the pretty good episode where Darlene reveals she’s pregnant, which leads in to a hysterical confrontation at the dinner table. The two final episodes of the season are the best, though melodramatic. As Dan suffers a heart attack during Darlene’s wedding, the family tries to cope with the event, leading to a touching meeting in the hospital. When Dan returns home, the Conner’s re-evaluate their marriage and level of trust when Dan refuses to stay healthy, leading to an excellent screaming fight between Dan and Roseanne, with brilliant performances from Goodman and Roseanne. It’s too bad the series didn’t end with Roseanne and Dan reconciling since the battle nearly broke them apart and helped them realize they had so much more work to do as a couple with their hiddenr resentment, anger, and trust issues toward one another. If it ended on them re-uniting it would have been a graceful exit, allowing for a reunion show years later. Roseanne’s hush hush ideas for a future reunion with DJ dying in the Iraq war, and the Conners losing their house is something I want no part of, even as a fan of the series.
The Season Eight DVD features video commentaries with Co-stars Michael Fischman and Roseanne, as well as a feature about Roseanne, the working class actress. The millionaire working class actress.