Unpopular Opinions: "The Post-Lotto Episodes Were the Best!"

[Petunia13]

Sarah Chalke was amazing on Scrubs but I loved original Becky and she's so perfect for Becky.

[truelovekiss]

I couldn't stand Nancy. I did like that they added several gay and lesbian characters, but Nancy was awful.

I didn't really like DJ. He was okay in the beginning, as the token cute kid, but he was just kind of an afterthought and the butt of the joke for a lot of years. Then when he was older, it seemed like they didn't know what to do with him.

I loved original, child Darlene. She was witty, snarky and hilarious. I even think the teenage depression could have been a good storyline, but they just treated her like she was a whiny burden. I also hated how they had her marry David when she was like 20 and had a baby. I felt like that should have been Becky's story and Darlene should have stayed in Chicago or moved to New York or San Francisco or something.

I liked Mark and disliked David.

[UYI]

^^^^I know what you mean about Darlene and Becky's marriage storylines, but at the same time I appreciate that Becky was NOT pregnant at the time she married Mark. I think that would have been too obvious. She was just a teenage girl who wanted to be with her boyfriend, while also trying to find a way out of her home now that she couldn't go to college*. Not only that, but by not getting pregnant (until the final episode, anyway), there was still a bit of initial hope that she would either go to junior/community college and find a way to make something of her life, or even realize that she and Mark weren't meant to last and then go on trying to start her life.

 

Then again--and this is a bit of a UO, I guess--it many ways Mark & Becky wound up being the best couple on the show by the end of the series. Probably by default more than anything else, given how little they cared about (Sarah's) Becky later on, but there was something I believed about them being happy together later on, whether it was Lecy or even Sarah in the role. 

 

*More accurately, she refused to go to community college in Lanford because she didn't want to work at the Buy n' Bag to pay for it. 

Edited June 20, 2015 by UYI

[Lorna Mae]

There were times when I thought DJ was being treated abominably. Yes, the "No, honey, you were a surprise!" scene is very touching...but it doesn't seem to carry over to Thanksgiving 1991. When people talk about how "weird" DJ is, I think of the sheer heartlessness of D&R making him sit alone at a card table, and snarling at him when he tries to join the conversation. How could anyone be "normal" when they're shunned like that? And I never understood why, when he was 12 and wanted to assert himself ("I'm not done talking about this...You never listen to me!") it was at the beginning of the episode where Al dies, so it couldn't be pursued. Why write it that way? 

[DkNNy79]

^^^^I know what you mean about Darlene and Becky's marriage storylines, but at the same time I appreciate that Becky was NOT pregnant at the time she married Mark. I think that would have been too obvious. She was just a teenage girl who wanted to be with her boyfriend, while also trying to find a way out of her home now that she couldn't go to college*. Not only that, but by not getting pregnant (until the final episode, anyway), there was still a bit of initial hope that she would either go to junior/community college and find a way to make something of her life, or even realize that she and Mark weren't meant to last and then go on trying to start her life.

 

Then again--and this is a bit of a UO, I guess--it many ways Mark & Becky wound up being the best couple on the show by the end of the series. Probably by default more than anything else, given how little they cared about (Sarah's) Becky later on, but there was something I believed about them being happy together later on, whether it was Lecy or even Sarah in the role. 

 

*More accurately, she refused to go to community college in Lanford because she didn't want to work at the Buy n' Bag to pay for it. 

I was really disappointed in Becky about her giving up on college because she couldn't afford it and for blowing up at her parents for not having the money to send her to college.  It wasn't like they got poor overnight.  She was a smart girl and if she really wanted to go to college, she should've made it happen.  Whether she goes part time and works part time to pay for it.  A lot of poor people (myself included) found ways to go to college w/out their parents help.  So, I always hated it when she blamed her parents or would blame Mark for that.

[bigskygirl]

I did not care for the way the show went when Roseanne left the hair salon and became a waitress, Becky started dating Mark, Jackie becoming a cop and getting injured, and Dan buying the bike shop. I also did not care for Darlene barely passing high school, and she ends up going off to college to study writing. Really...I think it was a bad story line because it sounds like something Roseanne wanted to do, and she was trying to turn Darlene into a younger version of herself. They dumbed up Becky and Jackie. I would have love to see Roseanne become a partner in the hair salon or even becoming a hair stylist or help run the business side of it. Jackie could have continued being a cop instead of going through many career changes. I also do not buy the fact the Lunch Box made enough profit to support Jackie, Roseanne, and Nancy.

[BitterApple]

On 3/19/2017 at 6:45 PM, bigskygirl said:

I did not care for the way the show went when Roseanne left the hair salon and became a waitress, Becky started dating Mark, Jackie becoming a cop and getting injured, and 

I never understood why the family acted like the hair salon gig was some horrid job. The ladies Roseanne worked with liked her and treated her well, and it was probably a lot less physically strenuous than waitressing. For some reason the Connors acted like Roseanne was mucking out sewers in 18th century London instead of answering phones and shampooing a few heads of hair. 

I also hated how Jackie up and quit the police force because they were going to make her take a desk job. Yeah, real smart move. Give up a career with a good salary, benefits and pension to do God knows what in a dead-end blue collar town whose only industry (Wellman Plastics) was on its' last legs. I understand that Jackie was always flighty when it came to job decisions, but come on. 

Edited March 24, 2017 by BitterApple

[Aja]

I never got the hair-salon hate either. Surely it was better than Wellman, Chicken Divine or selling magazine subscriptions! Personally, out of all the jobs Roseanne had, that seemed like the one I certainly would have enjoyed the most. It was bizarre that she and everyone else in the family seemed to look at it as some huge step down for her. 

I also agree that it didn't make sense that the Lunch Box made all their financial problems disappear. The bike shop established that Landford isn't exactly a boomin' place to open a business. Plus, after the first season or so, Roseanne started to act like it was just another pain-in-the-ass job she was always trying to get out of going to instead of a business that she was the partial owner of. 

[Lorna Mae]

On 3/23/2017 at 11:30 PM, BitterApple said:

I also hated how Jackie up and quit the police force because they were going to make her take a desk job. Yeah, real smart move. Give up a career with a good salary, benefits and pension to do God knows what in a dead-end blue collar town whose only industry (Wellman Plastics) was on its' last legs. I understand that Jackie was always flighty when it came to job decisions, but come on. 

Jackie seemed like the kind of person who never grew out of thinking her life would be like a movie, or a nighttime soap. Glamorous, well-paying job, perfect marriage with beautifully furnished home, or swinging-single social life with fabulous rent-controlled apartment, and every day a new adventure. Any aspect of her life that didn't measure up to that wasn't worth pursuing. 

[qtpye]

On 3/24/2017 at 8:47 AM, Aja said:

I never got the hair-salon hate either. Surely it was better than Wellman, Chicken Divine or selling magazine subscriptions! Personally, out of all the jobs Roseanne had, that seemed like the one I certainly would have enjoyed the most. It was bizarre that she and everyone else in the family seemed to look at it as some huge step down for her. 

I also agree that it didn't make sense that the Lunch Box made all their financial problems disappear. The bike shop established that Landford isn't exactly a boomin' place to open a business. Plus, after the first season or so, Roseanne started to act like it was just another pain-in-the-ass job she was always trying to get out of going to instead of a business that she was the partial owner of. 

The irony is that Tom Arnold and Roseanne actually did open up a loose meat sandwich store in a depressed Midwestern town in real life and it went under pretty quickly after their marriage dissolved

Here is an article about the diner and the town.

http://ew.com/article/1994/12/23/roseanne-and-tom-arnold-leave-town/

From the article:
 

Quote

 

Whither loose meat? The walls of the 66-seat diner (resembling the Lunch Box on Roseanne) are still packed with photos of the duo mud-wrestling and Tom flashing his pancake-size tattoos. But a souvenir glass case that once housed Roseanne’s Emmy before she demanded it back sits mostly empty. Overhead, a color TV plays Roseanne. Nobody’s watching.

Sit for a while and an occasional customer drifts in. A preacher sips coffee in the corner with a leather-bound Bible. A man in overalls flips through the sports pages. Things are quiet, until the staff gets going about the Good Old Days when Tom hired the Tattoo-Mobile and paid for some 20 diner workers to get inked.

 

I wonder how the town is doing now?

 

On 3/28/2017 at 3:28 AM, Lorna Mae said:

Jackie seemed like the kind of person who never grew out of thinking her life would be like a movie, or a nighttime soap. Glamorous, well-paying job, perfect marriage with beautifully furnished home, or swinging-single social life with fabulous rent-controlled apartment, and every day a new adventure. Any aspect of her life that didn't measure up to that wasn't worth pursuing. 

It really was a very childish mentality.  It was almost like if it did not live up to her childhood dreams, she would not bother with it.  Even those of us who have careers that they trained and worked hard for realize that our jobs are not everything we hoped for...but to just quit when you have nothing else on the pipeline is so stupid.

[Affogato]

On 4/1/2014 at 6:54 PM, Bastet said:

My ultimate Roseanne UO is I don't hate the "It was all a book" reveal.  In fact, I kind of love it.  I hate the husband switch, where Darlene was actually with Mark and Becky with David, but I love the basic idea of Roseanne Conner regaining a sense of control over her life by writing it down and changing what she didn't like along the way. I like the voice-over - when it first aired, and Roseanne said "I lost Dan" as the camera panned to an empty chair, I got chills - and I like Roseanne walking back into the real living room.

I absolutely agree I think it made the show, and brought the point of view back to Roseanne. The wish fulfillment of the previously annoying last season was poignant. 

I didn’t mind the husband switch that much because it really sucked but I could see it happening in real life. 

[peacheslatour]

1 hour ago, Affogato said:

I absolutely agree I think it made the show, and brought the point of view back to Roseanne. The wish fulfillment of the previously annoying last season was poignant. 

I didn’t mind the husband switch that much because it really sucked but I could see it happening in real life. 

I don't think Darlene would ever go for someone as stupid as Mark. My UI is that I really liked their house. It had three bedrooms, two full baths, a finished basement, a detached garage and a huge kitchen. 

[SparklesBitch]

54 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

My UI is that I really liked their house. It had three bedrooms, two full baths, a finished basement, a detached garage and a huge kitchen. 

Same here! The Conners had more room in their house than we had in ours while I was growing up and we had the same size family. That second full bath and finished basement would have been great to have, along with a kitchen that big. My parents weren’t even struggling financially like Roseanne and Dan were, so I was super jealous of the size of the Conner house.

Edited March 18, 2018 by SparklesBitch

[peacheslatour]

Right? And they were always complaining about it like it was the worst hovel in the world. I would kill for that kitchen alone, I always wanted a kitchen big enough for that table that comfortably seats six or eight. I used to dream of my kid doing his homework while I bustled about preparing dinner. 

[chocolatine]

1 hour ago, peacheslatour said:

My UI is that I really liked their house. It had three bedrooms, two full baths, a finished basement, a detached garage and a huge kitchen. 

That's why, when I first watched as a kid in the early 90s, I didn't realize they were supposed to be poor until the episode where they had the electricity cut off.

[StaceyNotStacie]

3 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

I don't think Darlene would ever go for someone as stupid as Mark. My UI is that I really liked their house. It had three bedrooms, two full baths, a finished basement, a detached garage and a huge kitchen. 

The floor plan drove me nuts, though. I could never figure out where the basement entrance was. I always loved when the camera angles showed areas of the kitchen and living room that weren’t seen as often (wall views). 

[peacheslatour]

29 minutes ago, Stacey1014 said:

The floor plan drove me nuts, though. I could never figure out where the basement entrance was. I always loved when the camera angles showed areas of the kitchen and living room that weren’t seen as often (wall views). 

I know what you mean and I think about it every time they show the exterior of the house. Then I tell myself to knock it off before I go crazy. The other day they showed the basement entrance as being next to the refrigerator and then I've seen it seem as if you would have to go into the sun porch to get to it. And don't even get me started on how the second floor would work with the placement of the upstairs windows. Not to mention the fact that Dan and Rosanne's bathroom had two entrances but you never see how you get to the second one from the first floor.

Edited March 18, 2018 by peacheslatour

[AM1418]

I have a few UO's.

I absolutely love the 1st Season. I know that Roseanne was still coming into her acting capabilities then, but I still think it's fantastic. Most of my favorite episodes are from the first 2 seasons.

One of my least favorite episodes is "Don't Make Me Over." I don't know that I've talked to anyone else that doesn't like that episode. I have a hard time not reaching thru the T.V and beating Darlene and Becky's heads together. The ending when Roseanne realizes it was all a front so they could con their way to a concert breaks my heart into pieces. Roseanne is a lot of things, but she loves her family fiercely, and they were being ungrateful little brats.

I cannot stand Nancy. Not even with Arnie.

[peacheslatour]

Quote

I have a hard time not reaching thru the T.V and beating Darlene and Becky's heads together. 

Lulz. When my son was being a typical smart assed teenager I used to tell him that I wished he had been twins so that I could smack his heads together.

[methodwriter85]

On 3/18/2018 at 5:34 PM, chocolatine said:

My UI is that I really liked their house. It had three bedrooms, two full baths, a finished basement, a detached garage and a huge kitchen. 

Did Dan and Roseanne give Becky and Darlene the master bedroom? Their room seemed bigger and they had a full bathroom while Dan and Roseanne seemed relatively cramped in their room.

On 3/18/2018 at 5:34 PM, chocolatine said:

That's why, when I first watched as a kid in the early 90s, I didn't realize they were supposed to be poor until the episode where they had the electricity cut off.

They do live in the mid-West, where the cost-of-living is lower, and they probably got their house in the mid-1970's, before housing costs really started to soar. It's definitely not that unrealistic.

[chocolatine]

1 minute ago, methodwriter85 said:

They do live in the mid-West, where the cost-of-living is lower, and they probably got their house in the mid-1970's, before housing costs really started to soar. It's definitely not that unrealistic.

That wasn't my point, it was whether a family who owns their own - well-maintained and nicely-sized - home can be considered poor. I always considered the Conners' lifestyle lower-middle-class, with occasional cash-flow problems. Having been actually poor when I first watched the show in the early 90s (recent political refugees; we fled with little more than the clothes on our backs) I would have killed to be able to live in a single-family house, occasionally order take-out, and shop for clothes at the mall. My family and I were living in a crappy apartment (the shower was in the kitchen), made our own "skillet pizza" from bread, tomato paste, and cheese as our weekly treat, and wore donated used clothes.

[methodwriter85]

12 minutes ago, chocolatine said:

That wasn't my point, it was whether a family who owns their own - well-maintained and nicely-sized - home can be considered poor. I always considered the Conners' lifestyle lower-middle-class, with occasional cash-flow problems. Having been actually poor when I first watched the show in the early 90s (recent political refugees; we fled with little more than the clothes on our backs) I would have killed to be able to live in a single-family house, occasionally order take-out, and shop for clothes at the mall. My family and I were living in a crappy apartment (the shower was in the kitchen), made our own "skillet pizza" from bread, tomato paste, and cheese as our weekly treat, and wore donated used clothes.

True. Although I do think that you have to take Roseanne into the context of the late 1980's. Other than Married With Children which was pure broad satire, t.v. families were pretty affluent and lived fabulous lives- the Keatons, the Huxtables, the Seavers, the Tanners etc etc all lived in pretty enviable houses and never seemed to suffer from money problems. Their problems always came from whatever problems their kids were coming up with.

They weren't poor, but they were poor in relation to what t.v. families usually seem like.

[Dee]

The Evans Family on Good Times was poor. The Conners were lower working class.

[JAYJAY1979]

The Connors were blue collar-working class... before the 90s, blue collar/working class actually were paid a decent salary... hence why you see Dan/Roseanne dressed semi-decently in the first 4 seasons.  Once she lost her job and the bike shop went under, you saw a change in how Roseanne dressed and wore her hair.

My unpopular opinion is that I thought Jackie was on too much and liked it better in the earlier seasons when she wasn't on as much.  Plus, I liked Darlene better in season 1 through 3 before she went through her Gothic phase and before she got saddled with snowflake David.

[Bastet]

3 hours ago, methodwriter85 said:

Did Dan and Roseanne give Becky and Darlene the master bedroom?

No, Dan and Roseanne had the bedroom (with an attached bathroom) that was separate, downstairs, and the two extra bedrooms for the kids were upstairs. 

[qtpye]

On 3/21/2018 at 11:16 PM, methodwriter85 said:

Did Dan and Roseanne give Becky and Darlene the master bedroom? Their room seemed bigger and they had a full bathroom while Dan and Roseanne seemed relatively cramped in their room.

They do live in the mid-West, where the cost-of-living is lower, and they probably got their house in the mid-1970's, before housing costs really started to soar. It's definitely not that unrealistic.

 

On 3/22/2018 at 12:09 AM, methodwriter85 said:

True. Although I do think that you have to take Roseanne into the context of the late 1980's. Other than Married With Children which was pure broad satire, t.v. families were pretty affluent and lived fabulous lives- the Keatons, the Huxtables, the Seavers, the Tanners etc etc all lived in pretty enviable houses and never seemed to suffer from money problems. Their problems always came from whatever problems their kids were coming up with.

They weren't poor, but they were poor in relation to what t.v. families usually seem like.

Very true...other families on tv never thought about money unless it was the obligatory holiday episode where they befriended a homeless person for only one episode. The sad thing is that blue collars families used to make a decent wage. I know that Mark is gone (RIP), but I doubt if Mark and Becky could afford or have a better life then their parents at the same age.

The small stuff that made Roseanne stand out

1.  Wearing the same clothes repeatedly-the infamous chicken shirt
2. Having unstylish cloth that looked like they had been washed too many times
3. Outdated furniture with no money for upgrades
4. Unstylish home decor
5. Hair and makeup that did not always look perfect

These things definitely did not make them poor, but it really stood out from the affluent middle-class family that dominated the airwaves at that time. Other families on tv were purchasing $10,000 paintings and paying for college educations like they were nothing. Roseanne was the one show that finances were often discussed and money just did not fall out of the sky whenever it was needed.

Also, realistically the family's finances took a downturn when the bike shop failed.

The funny thing is that tv still usually does mostly aspirational in the guise of realism. The impossible lifestyles of the Sex and the City crew and the way Modern Family can always have their affluent families go on expensive vacations.

There are shows like The Middle and Mom that do talk about finances and The Middle is the one that is closest to Roseanne in terms of financial realities.

Edited March 26, 2018 by qtpye

[Bastet]

3 hours ago, qtpye said:

I know that Mark is gone (RIP), but I doubt if Mark and Becky could afford or have a better life then their parents at the same age.

Nope.  Just like we saw that Al and Bev, with one income and two kids, were more financially secure than Dan and Roseanne, with three kids but two incomes, we saw Mark and Becky on the road to struggling even more. 

I always found that a poignant juxtaposition - Roseanne and Dan's goal was to make things 50% better for their kids than they'd had it, but they raised a family in an age when institutional roadblocks to that sprung up all over the place.  The destruction of unions and increasing privatization of public services slowly gutted the working class, making the roads to middle class few and far between.

[peacheslatour]

29 minutes ago, Bastet said:

Nope.  Just like we saw that Al and Bev, with one income and two kids, were more financially secure than Dan and Roseanne, with three kids but two incomes, we saw Mark and Becky on the road to struggling even more. 

I always found that a poignant juxtaposition - Roseanne and Dan's goal was to make things 50% better for their kids than they'd had it, but they raised a family in an age when institutional roadblocks to that sprung up all over the place.  The destruction of unions and increasing privatization of public services slowly gutted the working class, making the roads to middle class few and far between.

And look at the millennials. They will never have it as good as we did.

[qtpye]

4 hours ago, Bastet said:

Nope.  Just like we saw that Al and Bev, with one income and two kids, were more financially secure than Dan and Roseanne, with three kids but two incomes, we saw Mark and Becky on the road to struggling even more. 

I always found that a poignant juxtaposition - Roseanne and Dan's goal was to make things 50% better for their kids than they'd had it, but they raised a family in an age when institutional roadblocks to that sprung up all over the place.  The destruction of unions and increasing privatization of public services slowly gutted the working class, making the roads to middle class few and far between.

 

3 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

And look at the millennials. They will never have it as good as we did.

There have been some claims that the Industrial Revolution is what created the working middle class. Some claim that before there was really only rich and poor with few people (like skilled tradesmen) in the middle.

Now that the Industrial Revolution is over and Manufacturing in America suffering a long hard death, that this will be the death knell for many working-class families that could have afforded a middle-class life in the twentieth century. It was even represented well on the show by the closing of Wellman's factory and how Roseanne had so much trouble finding a place that paid a decent wage after she quit that factory job. Dan and Roseanne are actually pretty economically solvent in the first season when the drywall business was doing well and Roseanne had a steady factory job than they were in some of the later seasons.

[Mmmfloorpie]

33 minutes ago, qtpye said:

 

There have been some claims that the Industrial Revolution is what created the working middle class. Some claim that before there was really only rich and poor with few people (like skilled tradesmen) in the middle.

Now that the Industrial Revolution is over and Manufacturing in America suffering a long hard death, that this will be the death knell for many working-class families that could have afforded a middle-class life in the twentieth century. It was even represented well on the show by the closing of Wellman's factory and how Roseanne had so much trouble finding a place that paid a decent wage after she quit that factory job. Dan and Roseanne are actually pretty economically solvent in the first season when the drywall business was doing well and Roseanne had a steady factory job than they were in some of the later seasons.

Post WW2 boom is what created what we know as the "middle class".

[ItsHelloPattiagain]

On 3/21/2018 at 1:45 PM, AM1418 said:

One of my least favorite episodes is "Don't Make Me Over." I don't know that I've talked to anyone else that doesn't like that episode. I have a hard time not reaching thru the T.V and beating Darlene and Becky's heads together. The ending when Roseanne realizes it was all a front so they could con their way to a concert breaks my heart into pieces. Roseanne is a lot of things, but she loves her family fiercely, and they were being ungrateful little brats.

I do like this episode but I wanted to slap Becky and Darlene after the way they acted. (Which actually made them very believable as teenagers). 

[bigskygirl]

5 hours ago, qtpye said:

 

There have been some claims that the Industrial Revolution is what created the working middle class. Some claim that before there was really only rich and poor with few people (like skilled tradesmen) in the middle.

Now that the Industrial Revolution is over and Manufacturing in America suffering a long hard death, that this will be the death knell for many working-class families that could have afforded a middle-class life in the twentieth century. It was even represented well on the show by the closing of Wellman's factory and how Roseanne had so much trouble finding a place that paid a decent wage after she quit that factory job. Dan and Roseanne are actually pretty economically solvent in the first season when the drywall business was doing well and Roseanne had a steady factory job than they were in some of the later seasons.

A major part of the reason why Roseanne had problems finding a job after leaving the factory was due to her not wanting to get further training/education. She left a decent paying job at the hair salon to be a waitress. She could have taken business classes in computer, accounting/bookkeeping, etc. etc. instead of becoming a waitress. Throw in the fact Dan left the drywell business in order to run the motorcycle shop without any idea on how to run a business, they both were going to fail.

[HeySandyStrange]

3 hours ago, bigskygirl said:

A major part of the reason why Roseanne had problems finding a job after leaving the factory was due to her not wanting to get further training/education. She left a decent paying job at the hair salon to be a waitress. She could have taken business classes in computer, accounting/bookkeeping, etc. etc. instead of becoming a waitress. Throw in the fact Dan left the drywell business in order to run the motorcycle shop without any idea on how to run a business, they both were going to fail.

Could they have really afforded for Roseanne to go back to school, though? I mean, yes, there were options (loans, government grants) but would that have been exactly viable for Roseanne and Dan? 

[Browncoat]

11 hours ago, bigskygirl said:

Throw in the fact Dan left the drywell business in order to run the motorcycle shop without any idea on how to run a business, they both were going to fail.

Dan's drywall business was owned by Dan -- the bank guy said as much when they went for a loan for the motorcycle shop.  And since Dan seemed to do pretty well with the drywall, I suspect he did have a pretty good idea of how to run a business.

[bigskygirl]

9 hours ago, HeySandyStrange said:

Could they have really afforded for Roseanne to go back to school, though? I mean, yes, there were options (loans, government grants) but would that have been exactly viable for Roseanne and Dan? 

If they could apply for a loan for the motorcycle shop, they could afford for Roseanne to attend a few classes. There could be classes at the library, business school or even an employer may be willing to pay for classes or help pay for classes. She ripped into Dan for not getting the job at the meat packing plant because she had no computer skills. It was not Dan's fault for her not trying to update her skills. The unemployment office could have helped her find resources to help her improve her office skills in order to get a better job. A few classes would not have caused a major hardship for Dan and Roseanne, and it looks like Dan was all for it.

Plus the fact running a drywall business is completely different from running a motorcycle shop. Running the shop was almost a 24/7/365 business where the drywall business was mostly seasonal especially during the winter months. He left a decent drywall business to run a business he knew very little about because a friend came into town from out of the blue wanting to open the shop with him. Dan also left a good city government job with decent pay and benefits to get one government job building a prison and only got the job because of his one friend being an African American. Not to bright on Dan's part especially when the job ends, and he has nothing else to fall back on.

[peacheslatour]

Quote

Plus the fact running a drywall business is completely different from running a motorcycle shop. Running the shop was almost a 24/7/365 business where the drywall business was mostly seasonal especially during the winter months. He left a decent drywall business to run a business he knew very little about because a friend came into town from out of the blue wanting to open the shop with him. Dan also left a good city government job with decent pay and benefits to get one government job building a prison and only got the job because of his one friend being an African American. Not to bright on Dan's part especially when the job ends, and he has nothing else to fall back on.

Yep. They both made terrible financial decisions all the way down. And running a contracting business out of your house is a whole nother ballgame compared to running a retail store. They did absolutely no research into whether there would be enough demand for motorcycles and motor cycle repair in Landford. And leaving a good paying job with the city for a temporary dry walling job and then spending every penny of his pension and vacation pay to go to Disney World was beyond stupid. I love Roseanne and Dan but they really screwed the pooch at every turn.

[Browncoat]

41 minutes ago, peacheslatour said:

And running a contracting business out of your house is a whole nother ballgame compared to running a retail store.

It is, but he was not completely ignorant of things like payroll and budget, since at one point, he had 11 guys working for him.  I absolutely agree, though, that opening a bike shop without doing some market research was a bad bad idea.

[CherryAmes]

1 hour ago, peacheslatour said:

I love Roseanne and Dan but they really screwed the pooch at every turn.

Totally agree but I think this was the point of the show in some ways.  They really weren't very smart people and there were reasons they were always behind the eight ball.  I've known people like Dan and Roseanne - am related to people like Dan and Roseanne.  It was a bit refreshing to see main characters on a TV show who didn't always end up somehow saved from their own mistakes at the 11th hour.

[Bastet]

I agree.  And the pattern of compounding the situation the rigged economy put them in via their own short-sighted/foolish choices (and how often that was rooted in ignorance, which also ties in to the institutional nature of things) was one of the best parts of the show for me - refreshingly realistic, yet simultaneously frustrating.  I love that I almost always understood why they were making the decisions they made (probably everything other than that Disney World trip, and it's no coincidence that was rooted in Disney's purchase of ABC, not an organic plot), even when I could see the writing on the wall that it was a bad decision; they weren't idiots, they were products of their environment.  Neither blameless nor the sole architects of their destiny -- another one of the many balances this series was so good at striking.

[Zoe]

9 hours ago, peacheslatour said:

Yep. They both made terrible financial decisions all the way down. And running a contracting business out of your house is a whole nother ballgame compared to running a retail store. They did absolutely no research into whether there would be enough demand for motorcycles and motor cycle repair in Landford. And leaving a good paying job with the city for a temporary dry walling job and then spending every penny of his pension and vacation pay to go to Disney World was beyond stupid. I love Roseanne and Dan but they really screwed the pooch at every turn.

Don't forget giving Darlene grief over not taking that job before she was finished with college.

[qtpye]

11 minutes ago, Zoe said:

Don't forget giving Darlene grief over not taking that job before she was finished with college.

I remember them being absolutely astounded at the type of money she was being offered. It never occurred to them that having the right type of training could make that much of a difference.

[bigskygirl]

12 minutes ago, Zoe said:

Don't forget giving Darlene grief over not taking that job before she was finished with college.

And the ironic thing is Darlene moved back in with parents with her two kids divorced and unemployed in the new remake.

[qtpye]

4 minutes ago, bigskygirl said:

And the ironic thing is Darlene moved back in with parents with her two kids divorced and unemployed in the new remake.

If I were to guess, I would say that Darlene's less then stellar attitude was not a great fit with corporate America.

[bigskygirl]

1 minute ago, qtpye said:

If I were to guess, I would say that Darlene's less then stellar attitude was not a great fit with corporate America.

Just like Roseanne's less than stellar attitude did not help her after she lost her waitress job because she waited on the department managers. I still have a hard time believing the diner made enough money for Leon, Nancy, Jackie and Roseanne especially with Roseanne supposedly supporting the family until Dan got the city government job.

[StaceyNotStacie]

11 minutes ago, qtpye said:

I remember them being absolutely astounded at the type of money she was being offered. It never occurred to them that having the right type of training could make that much of a difference.

That entire episode was embarrassing to watch.  The whole inheritance story along with the dinner at the restaurant. I couldn’t believe they were behaving like that at a restaurant. 

[qtpye]

1 minute ago, Stacey1014 said:

That entire episode was embarrassing to watch.  The whole inheritance story along with the dinner at the restaurant. I couldn’t believe they were behaving like that at a restaurant. 

Particularly right before Darlene's big job revelation, Becky said in her most dumbass voice to Darlene, " Your the only one here with no money", because Darlene was going to school. Becky...the one Conner who realized the value of a college education and who was actually I think working at a cut-rate Hooters at the time. The "no money" comment got a hearty guffaw from Roseanne.

[the-grey-lady]

I'm sure I'm alone in this opinion, but I always feel really bad for Becky when she finds out she no longer has a college fund.

I'm not saying she isn't bratty to her parents in that scene, because she is, but from her point of view, she's been working her butt off for good grades under the reasonable assumption that her parents have some money set aside for her, and she only finds out that the money is gone because she asks. Who knows if Dan and Roseanne would've said anything otherwise? I totally understand that Dan and Roseanne have had a really hard year financially, but in my opinion, Becky has a right to be upset to find out that she, a high-school senior, won't have any of the money she'd been promised.

[bigskygirl]

20 minutes ago, the-grey-lady said:

I'm sure I'm alone in this opinion, but I always feel really bad for Becky when she finds out she no longer has a college fund.

I'm not saying she isn't bratty to her parents in that scene, because she is, but from her point of view, she's been working her butt off for good grades under the reasonable assumption that her parents have some money set aside for her, and she only finds out that the money is gone because she asks. Who knows if Dan and Roseanne would've said anything otherwise? I totally understand that Dan and Roseanne have had a really hard year financially, but in my opinion, Becky has a right to be upset to find out that she, a high-school senior, won't have any of the money she'd been promised.

I can understand being upset, but she could have applied for financial aid. She also could have gotten scholarships, grants, and got a job in order to pay for college. I also had a hard time believing Darlene who was barely passing high school suddenly became a great writer and was able to attend college on a scholarship. I think Roseanne was trying to turn Darlene into a younger version of herself.

[the-grey-lady]

4 minutes ago, bigskygirl said:

I can understand being upset, but she could have applied for financial aid. She also could have gotten scholarships, grants, and got a job in order to pay for college. I also had a hard time believing Darlene who was barely passing high school suddenly became a great writer and was able to attend college on a scholarship. I think Roseanne was trying to turn Darlene into a younger version of herself.

That's a fair point, but wasn't Becky nearly done with her senior year before she found out about her nonexistent college fund? That time span wouldn't have left her with a lot of time to pursue other options, especially if she'd been led to believe there was money for her.

[Bastet]

15 hours ago, the-grey-lady said:

I'm sure I'm alone in this opinion, but I always feel really bad for Becky when she finds out she no longer has a college fund.

You're not alone at all; that's an oft-discussed storyline, with ample sympathy for Becky's situation and understanding of her ugly response to it.  You should check the Original Recipes thread for the various previous discussions of the topic, as it's always thoughtful and interesting.

Edited March 25, 2018 by Bastet