S05.E22: The Grad Finale

[Irate Panda]

So the family is so poor they’re eating days old baked goods and beef that’s ready to be thrown in the trash? 🙄 So 6-7 working adults can’t purchase food now and if they are so poor wouldn’t at least one or two qualify for food benefits from the state? The imaginary finances of this show drives me nuts.  I wish Ben would run away.  None of them deserve him, but it was nice to see Mark realize how much Ben has done for him.  I figured Dan and Jackie’s yearbook picks were their real yearbook pics.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 5, 2023 by Irate Panda

[QQQQ]

2 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

Interesting, but in my experience, the valedictorian isn’t determined until very close to graduation, long after a lot of college plans have been finalized. As in, you can’t count on being valedictorian to base your plans on.

If a school bases valedictorian on cumulative GPA/class rank, it's determined by the grading term prior to graduation (since final grades wouldn't be available until after graduation). So in a semester system, this is usually January. However, it's not unusual for there to be multiple 4.0s (or ties in whatever the highest possible # is). Then there  must other criteria, such as ACT/SAT scores, course rigor, etc. My school even uses a coin toss to break ties.

 

As far as full rides for valedictorians, that's pretty rare. In my state (WI) each school gets a limited # of $2,250/year scholarships for its top students. Which is nice, but definitely not a full ride. There is actually a trend to no longer use the terms valedictorian and salutatorian, and schools are moving away from ranking students.

[Yeah No]

4 hours ago, SoMuchTV said:

Interesting, but in my experience, the valedictorian isn’t determined until very close to graduation, long after a lot of college plans have been finalized. As in, you can’t count on being valedictorian to base your plans on. 

Sorry, I’m overthinking this. We all want to be Mark’s college counselor!

That's true, but if he was valedictorian material his grades would have had to be excellent all the way through HS so even months to a year before graduation he would have been considered scholarship material based on his grades.  I know other factors are also considered but some merit scholarships are based primarily on grades.  And yeah, we're overthinking this for sure!

Also a student doesn't have to be valedictorian to get a merit scholarship.  Many non-valedictorians get them.

1 hour ago, QQQQ said:

As far as full rides for valedictorians, that's pretty rare. In my state (WI) each school gets a limited # of $2,250/year scholarships for its top students. Which is nice, but definitely not a full ride. There is actually a trend to no longer use the terms valedictorian and salutatorian, and schools are moving away from ranking students.

I think a more realistic storyline would have been to show Mark getting a merit scholarship but it not being enough to cover the entire cost of his education.  If they wanted to show how things are not that easy they could have taken this angle, but the writers aren't up to that level unfortunately.

Edited May 5, 2023 by Yeah No

[Wizardpatch]

It's ironic how Darlene says David has "never changed" when, in his first appearance, he was being portrayed like a cool laid back clone of his brother.

[iMonrey]

Quote

The story of where David is/what he's been up to over these last few years has been ambiguous enough that I could definitely see why people would be upset at him having minimal to no contact with Harris or Mark over these last few years (as I recall, the last time we saw him he was in town/at least close enough where they might have SOME relationship if they wanted one with him), but when Mark first brought up inviting him to his graduation, I immediately fell on the side of him being a deadbeat dad/wondering why Mark would bother asking him in the first place, and was relieved when he told him not to come after all.

Didn't David re-marry the last time we saw him? Or at least get engaged? To a character played by Juliette Lewis? Maybe his new wife doesn't want him involved with his old family.

I agree it's unfortunate what they've done to David's reputation, because it was driven solely by the fact that Johnny Galecki was on another show when the Roseanne reboot began.

[emmyG]

8 minutes ago, iMonrey said:

Didn't David re-marry the last time we saw him? Or at least get engaged? To a character played by Juliette Lewis? Maybe his new wife doesn't want him involved with his old family.

No, not at all. When The Conners started, he was dating Juliette Lewis's character, but then she wanted to have kids with him so he broke up with her, both because he figured he'd already made enough of a mess that way and DEFINITELY did not need more, and because he wanted to try again with Darlene. Darlene dated both Ben and David behind each other's backs for a few episodes, then David broke up with her, realising she was never going to be emotionally open with him.

The last we saw of him, he said he would always be there for the kids as a father, but that he had to give up on Darlene.

[ChicksDigScars]

On 5/3/2023 at 10:40 PM, SilverLake0315 said:

I’m curious about this, too. 

I'm curious about Mark going by Conner, but if we go by OG show canon, Harris' MIDDLE name is Conner. So it's not Conner-Healy with the hyphen. She's Harris Healy. I guess they didn't want her to be Harris Conner Conner?

I did love the oversized Senior pictures, especially of 1993 Becky, and the actual senior pics of John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf. The GLASSES on Goodman!!

The thing is, wasn't Darlene also a GED recipient? She went to art school without graduating high school. That was the big problem that Roseanne and Dan had with her leaving. She was underage and hadn't graduated from high school, which always bugged me because they talked about Darlene going to "college," but what college lets you matriculate without graduating from high school, first? Then later, there was mention that she got her GED after she left. Shouldn't we also have had Darlene up there? 

 

2 hours ago, Wizardpatch said:

It's ironic how Darlene says David has "never changed" when, in his first appearance, he was being portrayed like a cool laid back clone of his brother.

And his name was "Kevin." LMAO. 

[emmyG]

11 minutes ago, ChicksDigScars said:

I'm curious about Mark going by Conner, but if we go by OG show canon, Harris' MIDDLE name is Conner. So it's not Conner-Healy with the hyphen. She's Harris Healy. I guess they didn't want her to be Harris Conner Conner?

I did love the oversized Senior pictures, especially of 1993 Becky, and the actual senior pics of John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf. The GLASSES on Goodman!!

The thing is, wasn't Darlene also a GED recipient? She went to art school without graduating high school. That was the big problem that Roseanne and Dan had with her leaving. She was underage and hadn't graduated from high school, which always bugged me because they talked about Darlene going to "college," but what college lets you matriculate without graduating from high school, first? Then later, there was mention that she got her GED after she left. Shouldn't we also have had Darlene up there? 

 

I was honestly never sure whether OG harris was supposed to be Harris Conner Healy or Harris ??? Conner-Healy. I know some fansites have listed both kids as Conner-Healy, figuring that Darlene might have been the kind of woman who would hyphenate rather than take David's name, especially given that he was kind-of-sort-of a Conner anyway. Other sites stuck with Conner in order to make it less confusing about which Mark was which. 

As for what college lets you matriculate without graduating from high school? There actually are a couple, both in the 90s and now, that have specialised "junior college" programs where you can enter after either 10th or 11th grade. You don't have to have a GED and you don't have to have taken the SAT/ACT. It's not totally impossible.

It did seem weird that they skipped over Darlene in that scene. I guess they felt like she had less angst about the subject so didn't need the attention? (Of course, it was also funny, because who was the one person in the Conner household that actually did graduate high school during the original show and everyone cheered for? DAVID.)

Edited May 5, 2023 by emmyG

[ChicksDigScars]

Yes, they have programs where you can simultaneously take college courses (mostly at a local college/university) while finishing up your high school requirements, but they didn't portray it that way for Darlene. She quit high school and left to go away to Chicago. One of my co-workers daughters takes high school classes in the morning and then busses to one of the local universities to their math-science academy for gifted students where they earn college credit. Darlene was never what they'd say was gifted. She was smart, but didn't apply it to her schooling. Unlike Becky, who was book smart until they decided to make her dumb when they recast the actress. That always bugged me. Becky was the "brain," and Darlene was the "athlete, who was street smart but got crappy grades" until they hired Sarah Chalke. She should have been insulted by the portrayal, but hell. She was getting paid and the show was successful. 

Getting back to this episode, Darlene should have been up there, too. And also, I never got the impression that Roseanne and Jackie's parents would have blown off either of their graduations. The same mom that Jackie claimed was WEEPING as she watched Jackie trying out for the drill team (the episode where Darlene's poem is selected for "culture night") Yes, the Harris parents were annoying as f, but I always got the impression that they were strict and hovering. They'd BE at that graduation.

Now, Big Ed might have blown off Dan's, because he was on the road selling crap, and they always portrayed Ed as an absentee father. His mother (the original version played by Ann Wedgeworth) was attentive and concerned about Dan's weight. It wasn't until later that they began to portray her as having mental issues. I can see Dan's mom showing up. Maybe she would have embarrassed him in some way, and that's what they should have written in. 

It would have made much more sense for them to write that both Jackie and Dan were embarrassed by their parents at graduation, doing something crazy in front of everyone. Or in Jackie's case, have her refuse to attend because her parents (mother) were going to be there. THAT would be totally on brand for Jackie. 

Edited May 5, 2023 by ChicksDigScars

[emmyG]

No, it's a different thing than doing high school simultaneously with some college classes. With early college programs, you do go away to college full-time and leave high school behind. 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_entrance_to_college

I don't know that the writers knew anything about that or cared, because they mostly just needed to get Sara off the show full-time, but it is a thing that is possible.

[ofmd]

Did they use the "other" Becky's picture as her graduation pic? If so, that was actually... funny.

And Dan's looks like a young Elton John!

Edited May 5, 2023 by ofmd

[ChicksDigScars]

No, it was Lecy. But it was a younger version with longer hair. The last couple of seasons of the OG show, Lecy had cut her hair short. The photo they used was teenage Lecy with shoulder length hair.

The graduation photo of Laurie Metcalf really emphasizes how much her daughter Zoe Perry (the mom in Young Sheldon) looks like her. 

 

Edited May 5, 2023 by ChicksDigScars

[madpsych78]

I always thought Michael Fishman looked exactly like Roseanne, but I'll tell you what, grown-up Michael Fishman looks exactly like Dan Conner (John Goodman) from HS (especially the picture where he is wearing glasses).

I don't really mind how they are portraying David now, but it's not really fair for us long-time fans of Roseanne to change David's story then. People can change over time and it can just be as simple as that.

 

[Bastet]

I figure Darlene wasn't part of the HS graduation "ceremony" at The Lunchbox even though she, too, got her GED rather than a diploma, is because she did graduate from her art school, so she got a graduation then. 

[Wizardpatch]

If you noticed carefully, Dan was one of the only people to not say anything negative about David.

Maybe we can chalk this up to John Goodman disliking David's character change. Or maybe it is just reflecting that Dan is still highly resistant to insulting a boy he treated like a son for many years.

[JAYJAY1979]

On 5/3/2023 at 8:32 PM, Snow Apple said:

I hate that too. Original Show David would never abandon his children. He was weak but he was always there trying.

Original Show David would have been level 5 static clinger...and Darlene would have been the one to dump him.  

Darlene and David were so toxic in the original show

[Wizardpatch]

20 hours ago, JAYJAY1979 said:

Original Show David would have been level 5 static clinger...and Darlene would have been the one to dump him.  

Darlene and David were so toxic in the original show

Exactly! That is how they should have introduced Darlene in the first season of the revival. Just say that David became even more clingy after his brother died. He wouldn't give Darlene her space, maybe one of them cheated etc. 

Making him a deadbeat dad just ruins so much of what we knew about him. 

[Rocknrollzombie]

24 minutes ago, Wizardpatch said:

Exactly! That is how they should have introduced Darlene in the first season of the revival. Just say that David became even more clingy after his brother died. He wouldn't give Darlene her space, maybe one of them cheated etc. 

Making him a deadbeat dad just ruins so much of what we knew about him. 

I am literally trying to write a fic where Darlene and Becky live together raising their kids (Darlene still has Harris and mark, becky has two teenage boys twins that she had with Mark before he passes) and I just have David and Darlene divorced.

[Giuseppe]

Where are y'all getting that Mark was valedictorian? Did I miss it in this ep or another, because I thought he just said he was acting president of the national honor society at the beginning of his speech? Doesn't negate the fact that he could've earned a scholarship probably, but I didn't remember hearing he was first in the class.

[emmyG]

I think it's just a little fuzzy so people are confused. What he actually said (early in the episode) was "I ended up with the highest GPA in the Honor Society, so I get to speak at graduation."

Because he led with "highest GPA" and because it's usually valedictorians who get to speak, a lot of people are making that connection. He didn't actually say he was valedictorian of the whole class, but it's easy to see why people would get that impression.

Then later in the episode when he's reading his speech, the speech starts off claiming that he's speaking only as acting president of the honor society because the real president has shingles. Which is, obviously, a lot less impressive, and wouldn't lead to so much confusion about why he didn't get automatic scholarships.

 

[Yeah No]

11 hours ago, emmyG said:

I think it's just a little fuzzy so people are confused. What he actually said (early in the episode) was "I ended up with the highest GPA in the Honor Society, so I get to speak at graduation."

Because he led with "highest GPA" and because it's usually valedictorians who get to speak, a lot of people are making that connection. He didn't actually say he was valedictorian of the whole class, but it's easy to see why people would get that impression.

Then later in the episode when he's reading his speech, the speech starts off claiming that he's speaking only as acting president of the honor society because the real president has shingles. Which is, obviously, a lot less impressive, and wouldn't lead to so much confusion about why he didn't get automatic scholarships.

 

I think it's a safe assumption but I'm trying to imagine a situation where having the highest GPA in the Honor Society wouldn't mean also being valedictorian, although at this hour of the night that's hard.  Most schools still go by straight GPA when electing a valedictorian, although I'm hearing now that some schools will elect more than one if there's a tie, and some schools will consider extracurricular activities as well in order to elect only one.  So maybe that's how he could have his grades and not also be valedictorian?

Anyone with his grades not getting any academic scholarships at all is still a head scratcher for me.  I have known many people with lower grades than him (presumably) getting academic scholarships.  One doesn't have to have the highest grades of anyone in the school to get one.  Unless it doesn't take very high grades in his school to have the highest GPA in the Honors Society!  🤷‍♀️

Edited May 8, 2023 by Yeah No

[ljenkins782]

On 5/4/2023 at 11:28 AM, iMonrey said:

I actually thought this was a pretty decent episode, but I'm grading on a curve. The writing has really been all over the map on this show since it started.

They managed to get in some nice moments, and some solid scenes between Mark and Darlene, Ben and Darlene, and Ben and Mark. I even got a little misty-eyed at Mark's speech about Ben.

Yeah there's a lot of dumb premises to get past so that makes it tough. Having a few heartfelt, decent scenes and a few laughs here and there is about the best you can hope for on this show. I liked the running joke about the white socks.

Agreed. I can't bring myself to care if David's character has been assassinated. DJ was an actual member of the family and his character was dispatched entirely, Andy and Jerry were written out of existence and I don't really care about that either. I don't watch the show for a chronicle of the Conners, past and present, I just watch it as a sitcom. People used to bitch about why Roseanne didn't take community class courses on computers and shit in the original and while that would have been a good choice for a real person, I sure as hell did not want to watch a show about it so I didn't care that the fictional Roseanne Conner was on a dead end path, career-wise.

And I really enjoyed this episode on the basis of funny jokes throughout. The white socks joke theme cracked me up and I thought Sara Gilbert was especially good throughout the entire episode, she's hit her sweet spot again in terms of joke delivery. I wish they'd lean away from the heavier themes of the history of awful choices of the Conner family and find more funny dialogue. The cast is talented enough to make funny writing work, Harris seems like an awful person all around in real life terms, but I think the actress can sell a joke really well so I like her scenes. Ben as a character doesn't make a lot of sense, like I don't get why he'd throw in with this lot of crazies who seem to suck everyone in the orbit down with them, but I adore the actor and his lines make me laugh so I'm glad he's there.

[iMonrey]

34 minutes ago, ljenkins782 said:

I wish they'd lean away from the heavier themes of the history of awful choices of the Conner family and find more funny dialogue.

Agreed. This can be a show about a blue collar, middle class family without making it look like the reason they struggle financially is entirely their own fault. Moreover, that the show seems to think it's funny that it's all their fault. The writers don't seem to understand the damage they are doing to the integrity of their characters.

There are loads of families that struggle but get by, and that's what the Conners should be about. I don't want jokes about dumb financial choices they make or really stupid writing that's totally unrealistic, like Darlene quitting a good paying job in management to become a lunch lady. That's just insulting to the audience.

It's not an either-or situation, like they either have to be dirt poor (because they make dumb choices) or else they're well-off financially. There's loads of middle ground.

[emmyG]

2 hours ago, ljenkins782 said:

Agreed. I can't bring myself to care if David's character has been assassinated. DJ was an actual member of the family and his character was dispatched entirely, Andy and Jerry were written out of existence and I don't really care about that either.

On the level of caring about the show rather than "realism" it's obviously personal taste. Jerry had no character to be nostalgic for, he was just a baby. But if DJ or David (or Mark RIP) was your favorite character, the lack of them now is a bigger loss.

As a child, DJ was rarely a major story factor but he was a great injector of weird chaos into the family. He'd show up briefly in an episode with some off-the-wall comment or wacky scheme, a total sideline to the real plot, but funny. I think that's missed now.

I think a lot of people upset about Andy aren't so much upset about Andy as they are about the effect it has on Jackie, who's there all the time, and it making her "funny" in all the wrong ways (ie, wacky and pathetic)

3 hours ago, ljenkins782 said:

 People used to bitch about why Roseanne didn't take community class courses on computers and shit in the original

Did they actually bitch about that at the time? Or just spitball it in the twenty years afterwards for fanfic purposes? I didn't see any such complaints in the USENET groups of the day. Not to mention that the original show DID discuss community college and computers. 

I agree that sometimes you have to do things because they're funny rather than realistic because it's a sitcom. I think a lot of the complaints about Darlene quitting her job to become a lunch lady was that it wasn't funny, it was dreary and depressing and played up like this big inevitable sacrifice she has to make, so of course everyone argues about all the ways it could have been avoided.

[Rocknrollzombie]

2 hours ago, iMonrey said:

The writers don't seem to understand the damage they are doing to the integrity of their characters.

No they don’t. For me the integrity for most of them went down the toilet season 2 or 3 (the stupid love triangle again)and just got worse with each season (Becky doing it in a Church bathroom like gross, Harris getting with Aldo..:.list goes on…) the show is just a empty puppeteering husk of itself. 
 

The conners has had so many jumping shark moments since season 1

Edited May 8, 2023 by Rocknrollzombie

[ljenkins782]

39 minutes ago, emmyG said:

On the level of caring about the show rather than "realism" it's obviously personal taste. Jerry had no character to be nostalgic for, he was just a baby. But if DJ or David (or Mark RIP) was your favorite character, the lack of them now is a bigger loss.

As a child, DJ was rarely a major story factor but he was a great injector of weird chaos into the family. He'd show up briefly in an episode with some off-the-wall comment or wacky scheme, a total sideline to the real plot, but funny. I think that's missed now.

I think a lot of people upset about Andy aren't so much upset about Andy as they are about the effect it has on Jackie, who's there all the time, and it making her "funny" in all the wrong ways (ie, wacky and pathetic)

Did they actually bitch about that at the time? Or just spitball it in the twenty years afterwards for fanfic purposes? I didn't see any such complaints in the USENET groups of the day. Not to mention that the original show DID discuss community college and computers. 

I agree that sometimes you have to do things because they're funny rather than realistic because it's a sitcom. I think a lot of the complaints about Darlene quitting her job to become a lunch lady was that it wasn't funny, it was dreary and depressing and played up like this big inevitable sacrifice she has to make, so of course everyone argues about all the ways it could have been avoided.

I don't think the internet was around when the show was airing and I was a kid, so I'm not sure. But in forums such as this one where people were discussing it, yes, people complained about why the writers didn't have Roseanne take a computer class instead of just losing that good job she had for 5 minutes.

In terms of wanting that level of realism, it is personal taste and I personally can't understand why a 22-minute sitcom would spend time on such dull pursuits. I assume the characters go to the bathroom and take showers, but I don't need to see it. 

I completely agree on the dreary nature of some of the storylines, which is why I wish they could find the balance the original had. Their lives were no picnic, but the writing made it funny and enjoyable to watch. Part of the credit has to go to the relationship of Dan and Roseanne, which really weathered the storm of a difficult life and the relationship of Roseanne and Jackie, which was a constant even when they were fighting. I guess none of the current relationships really have that same earned quality or maybe the actors don't have that personal chemistry that they had in the original.

I think what I liked about this episode was that it showed Darlene actually standing up FOR someone and not being entirely self-absorbed, her character showed a little bit of warmth for a change. 

[emmyG]

1 hour ago, ljenkins782 said:

I don't think the internet was around when the show was airing

There was but it was different, that's why I mentioned usenet. Long ago there was a place called alt.tv.roseanne but you have to have been old enough to be there to even know that it existed and how to find the records of it anymore. It was the 90s, though, so people were obsessed with different things, mostly gossipping about who was going to turn out to be gay, both on and off the show. (There was also some debate about whether Sara Gilbert was secretly pregnant and that's why Darlene was. Fans will ALWAYS speculate about that kind of thing! 😄)

[Wizardpatch]

2 hours ago, emmyG said:

 

Did they actually bitch about that at the time? Or just spitball it in the twenty years afterwards for fanfic purposes? I didn't see any such complaints in the USENET groups of the day. Not to mention that the original show DID discuss community college and computers. 

I agree that sometimes you have to do things because they're funny rather than realistic because it's a sitcom. I think a lot of the complaints about Darlene quitting her job to become a lunch lady was that it wasn't funny, it was dreary and depressing and played up like this big inevitable sacrifice she has to make, so of course everyone argues about all the ways it could have been avoided.

I have no problem believing that Roseanne during her years working at the diner and raising DJ and Darlene would have been too tired to take computer classes. And she wouldn't have seen the need to after she bought the Lunchbox. It's just too bad she didn't try to get more education after the restaurant went out of business sometime in the last twenty years.

[ItCouldBeWorse]

On 5/3/2023 at 9:09 PM, jalady said:

I am unreasonably bothered by the fact that Ben didn’t bring out any forks with the dinner plates when he brought Mark dinner.  Napkins either (hello! pot pie crust will leave crumbs), but I kept looking for the forks.  Why yes, I am borderline OCD.  How did you guess? 😂

Ben took forks out of the drawer and put them on the plates and then brought them into the living room. You are correct about the napkins, which I also noticed.

On 5/4/2023 at 7:43 PM, mythoughtis said:

so no room for Mark and no kitchen table? 

They have a kitchen table. Becky mopped it in a previous episode. Ben was trying to coax Mark out from his window seat into the living room to eat, not into the kitchen where Darlene was.

[EtheltoTillie]

On 5/4/2023 at 6:21 PM, Angeltoes said:

I thought,"30 years?! That went by fast!"

One of his earlier commercials.  I wouldn't have known it was him except for the smile.

 

There's more that pop up after this one.  There's an Egg McMuffin Commercial with John Goodman and Megan Mullaly!

John Goodman was a very good commercial actor!   Since he's good at the short comic takes, it's so sad to see how hangdog  he looks and sounds now. 

[Browncoat]

That was a nice advertisement for "Guardians of the Galaxy 3" and also "Everything Everywhere All At Once."

(Mark's speech was predictable, but it did get me, too.)

[One Tough Cookie]

On 5/4/2023 at 12:24 PM, emmyG said:

Him deciding "oh, they're all better off without me, I'll just go" would be plausible for the character IF he left again because of Ben and Darlene being together now, but the timing for that is all wrong.

Well, he broke up with Darlene because he met Blue didn't he?

[emmyG]

1 hour ago, One Tough Cookie said:

Well, he broke up with Darlene because he met Blue didn't he?

That's sufficiently complicated that it's hard to give a yes-or-no to 😄

According to the s10 episode, David had run off to build houses for the poor without actually divorcing Darlene. He showed up in that episode saying that he'd started seeing Blue and he wanted a divorce from Darlene "because we both hate me". At which point Darlene jumped on him and tackled him to the bed.  Next morning, he was fully willing to dump Blue and try to make a go of it with Darlene again. She eventually decided it was a bad idea because they fight too much and it would be hard on the kids. They both agreed they still loved each other.

Because of this a lot of people at the time assumed he wasn't serious about Blue and had just brought that up to make Darlene jealous (and it worked). 

Then he brought Blue to town for the first season of the Conners. At the end of that season Blue proposes to him and he breaks up with her. Because he doesn't want a marriage and kids with Blue, he wants to get back together with Darlene. Season two starts with David thinking that Darlene has broken up with Ben to be with him, but actually she's two-timing David and Ben. David tries to get Darlene to go to couples therapy with him and she keeps blowing him off. Eventually, David breaks up with her, deciding that she's never going to be emotionally available and love him the way that he wants her to. The last thing he says is that he'll always be there for the kids.

After that we have no idea what happened to him because he was never mentioned again until now. He could have gotten back together with Blue after that, but that would be pretty sad for her if he did, since he absolutely always treated her as second-best. It was always Darlene that he wanted.

[ButterQueen]

On 5/5/2023 at 4:40 PM, madpsych78 said:

I always thought Michael Fishman looked exactly like Roseanne, but I'll tell you what, grown-up Michael Fishman looks exactly like Dan Conner (John Goodman) from HS (especially the picture where he is wearing glasses).

I don't really mind how they are portraying David now, but it's not really fair for us long-time fans of Roseanne to change David's story then. People can change over time and it can just be as simple as that.

 

I agree with you. I just don’t care about David or the Rosanne characters never portrayed in this show.  I am, however, sad we only get one more season.  I’ve enjoyed the show and it’s nostalgic feel.  

[Yeah No]

13 hours ago, ButterQueen said:

I agree with you. I just don’t care about David or the Rosanne characters never portrayed in this show.  I am, however, sad we only get one more season.  I’ve enjoyed the show and it’s nostalgic feel.  

They did say it was only a "possibility" that there would be only one more season.  As bad as this show has been at times I'd still be sad to see it go.  The garbage that replaces shows like this isn't any better, and a lot of times even worse.

[qtpye]

On 5/3/2023 at 11:36 PM, buckboard said:

So Mark finishes first in his class and his family is poor, but he can't get a scholarship.  What else does he need to qualify? 

 

On 5/4/2023 at 7:43 PM, mythoughtis said:

Yet another thing the writers don’t know about Illinois. most valedictorians can find a college that offers them free tuition ...for being a valedictorian, 

This reminded me of the logic in the original series that since Becky suddenly decided to return to school that she would automatically become a doctor and leave Mark.

I imagine most of the writers come from privileged backgrounds and have no idea how the working class deal with college.

[Rocknrollzombie]

22 minutes ago, qtpye said:

 

This reminded me of the logic in the original series that since Becky suddenly decided to return to school that she would automatically become a doctor and leave Mark.

I imagine most of the writers come from privileged backgrounds and have no idea how the working class deal with college.

Yeah like their logic is so flawed when it comes to college, both situations make no sense when you think of it money wise or sources of income that (the characters) they would need or need to not have in Mark’s case.

Edited May 17, 2023 by Rocknrollzombie

[Wizardpatch]

At best, Becky might have become a nurse or paralegal. She never seemed that interested in science enough to pursue med school.

Edited May 18, 2023 by Wizardpatch

[mostlylurking]

On 5/3/2023 at 7:32 PM, Snow Apple said:

On 5/3/2023 at 7:11 PM, greekmom said:

I hate the way they have trashed David's character.  

I hate that too. Original Show David would never abandon his children. He was weak but he was always there trying.

I’m just now getting around to watching and I came on here to say this exact thing.  Why did they turn David into a deadbeat dad?  He was never that type in the original, in fact he was way more sensitive and nurturing than Darlene.  Are they pissed Jonny Galecki didn’t want to come back after Big Bang ended?  Weird writing choice.

I liked seeing Jackie and Dan’s graduation pics.  Jackie was so pretty.  She made me laugh so hard when she got emotional about Mark’s speech.  Laurie Metcalf just has the best comedic timing.

[iMonrey]

Quote

Why did they turn David into a deadbeat dad?  He was never that type in the original, in fact he was way more sensitive and nurturing than Darlene.  Are they pissed Jonny Galecki didn’t want to come back after Big Bang ended?  Weird writing choice.

I don't think they did it because they were "pissed" at Johnny Galecki. I think they just needed to find a way to explain his absence since the actor wasn't available. And as we all know by now, this show really can't seem to do "nuance." I think when the Roseanne reboot began, the explanation was a bit less ham-fisted. As I recall, David had some sort of breakdown after his brother's death and sort of took off on his own. And at that point when he returned he was trying to work his way back. Then they just sort of dropped the whole thing, and now it feels like more of a retcon.

[Rocknrollzombie]

On 6/3/2023 at 9:09 AM, iMonrey said:

I don't think they did it because they were "pissed" at Johnny Galecki. I think they just needed to find a way to explain his absence since the actor wasn't available. And as we all know by now, this show really can't seem to do "nuance." I think when the Roseanne reboot began, the explanation was a bit less ham-fisted. As I recall, David had some sort of breakdown after his brother's death and sort of took off on his own. And at that point when he returned he was trying to work his way back. Then they just sort of dropped the whole thing, and now it feels like more of a retcon.

Hit the nail right on the head 

[Im a 90s kid]

In the revival, I always felt it would have been more realistic if Darlene and David were already divorced and co-parenting to raise their kids. That would have made so much more sense to me than him running out on his wife and kids. 

 

[needschocolate]

This show is so unimportant to me that I just finished watching this season, 4 months after the Season Finale aired. I am basically watching because I always feel obligated to finish what I started (it is sort of more hate-watching at this point). 

There are a lot of complaints about they way they totally re-wrote the character of David.  I agree.  

Heck, I am still complaining about Jackie's child disappearing. 

[ESS]

This was a great finale and having Louise plan and give Mark and everyone else a gradulation was so sweet!