Roseanne - The Complete Fourth Season
by Andrew D. Weyman, Gail Mancuso
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Actor: John Goodman, Laurie Metcalf, Michael Fishman, Roseanne, Sara GilbertDirector: Andrew D. Weyman, Gail Mancuso
Brand: STARZ HOME ENTERTAINMENT
Writer: Amy Sherman
Writer: Barry Vigon
Writer: Bob Myer
Writer: Brad Isaacs
Writer: Chuck Lorre
Writer: David Forbes
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Box set, Color, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 583 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-06-27
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Starz / Anchor Bay
DVD Reviews of Roseanne - The Complete Fourth Season
DVD Review: The last of the Golden Years of Roseanne
Summary: 5 Stars
Season Four of Roseanne has some of the best individual episodes as well as the best overall storyline of any of the show's nine seasons. The season opens with the Conners having opened their motorcycle shop on their own after irresponsible friend Ziggy ran out on them at the last minute last season, Roseanne and Dan have finally accepted Becky and Mark as a couple, Darlene is starting high school, and Jackie has been drifting ever since she left the police force rather than accept a desk job due to her back injury.
The season opener, "A Bitter Pill to Swallow", is excellent as Becky - under advisement of Jackie - goes to Roseanne and asks her for the birth control pill. Obviously, the boy involved is Mark, and, as Becky freely admits, the sexual part of the relationship has already begun, she just wants a safer method. Roseanne's immediate reaction to Becky's request is hilarious as she has a Joker-sized grin on her face that says she is having a nervous breakdown, but she manages to hold it together and keeps her cool. It's a great episode dealing with the struggle between rewarding your kids for being responsible and truthful, and at the same time wondering if your own permissiveness as parents got you to this point in the first place.
The situation of the Conners opening the motorcycle shop Dan's always dreamed of, and watching that dream ultimately go up in smoke over the course of a year, is handled skillfully too. Too often in TV, characters open a business and somehow everything just magically falls into place, when in actuality over 90% of these startups fail. The show pulls no punches in portraying the sacrifices made to get the business started, the disappointment as things never really take off, and the financial fall-out to the entire family when the end finally comes. "Take My Bike ... Please!", the second episode of the season, shows the hard work and sacrifices involved as Roseanne is enlisted to work at the shop since the Conners cannot afford a second paid employee. On top of this, she has her job at the diner, and the household is falling apart as the kids are not holding up their end with the housework. Dan says she can't quit working at the cycle shop until she sells a bike, and she finds it as difficult to move a motorcycle as it was to sell magazine subscriptions in season two, even if the customers do actually come to you versus you phoning them. Particularly poignant in this episode is D.J.'s little tirade about him feeling ignored and left out. Dan and Roseanne apologize to him and promise to read him a bedtime story. Exhausted, they head to bed themselves, having completely forgotten D.J. a full five minutes after they promised to be more mindful of him. Fortunately they remember and head upstairs to keep their promise to him.
The Bowmans, the Conners' snobby neighbors are still around. Actually Mr.Bowman is fitting in just fine. It is his wife, Kathy, that is very unhappy living in Lanford. She is not amused when the Conners' annual Halloween hijinks involve her. This year's prank has what appears to be a blood-spattered Roseanne greeting Kathy in her living room, cleaver still in hand, acting as though she has just murdered Dan in a homicidal rage and that Kathy is next. When Kathy learns this is all just a joke, she seems more upset than she was at the idea of Roseanne having gone over the edge and after her. Now Roseanne and Dan's annual Halloween outing at the lodge has a pall cast over it due to Roseanne's expectation that Kathy will retaliate with a prank of her own. She drives Dan to distraction with her suspicions until Dan is forced to fake a prank and lay it on Kathy so that Roseanne will finally relax. I thought it was one of the better Halloween episodes.
Darlene begins high school this year, and it is not a happy transition. In "Darlene Fades to Black", she feels like she doesn't fit in with her middle school friends any more, but she can't find a place in high school social life in which she belongs either. As a result she begins to go gothic, lies on the couch watching TV all day, and refuses to communicate with anyone. As Dan and Roseanne focus on Darlene due to her bizarre behavior, it just causes trouble with the other kids since they see it as Darlene being rewarded with attention for being a problem. This is a very realistic portrayal of a situation many parents face when balancing the needs of one depressed child with those of the other children that seem well adjusted and end up being ignored. At Christmas this situation reaches a climax in the episode "Santa Claus" when Roseanne discovers that Darlene has a close friend who happens to be a woman Roseanne's age that owns a bookstore. Darlene apparently tells this woman everything about herself, even sharing some of her poems and short stories with her. Roseanne's hurt over the entire situation is very touching. Things do look up for Darlene eventually, as she finds a boyfriend and soulmate in the unlikeliest of candidates - David Healy, Mark's younger brother, who is the opposite of Mark in every way imaginable.
Jackie's drifting comes to an abrupt end in "Why Jackie Becomes a Trucker" after she wakes up with Arnie after a night of drinking at the Lobo. Laurie Metcalf was at her very best in this episode, from her look of shock when Arnie exits her bathroom brushing his teeth, to her expression of embarrassment when she blurts out the news to Roseanne and her coworkers at Rodbell's, to her busily decontaminating her mattress and sheets at the end of the episode. If the whole episode had been entirely about this one night stand it might have been somewhat tiresome, but there is also a hilarious poker game between Dan and the guys in which Leon comes out to the group. One of Dan's friends, trying to break the uncomfortable silence caused by Leon's revelation, asks Leon if he knows his friend Bob in Chicago who shares Leon's sexual orientation. Leon's response is funny without being taunting - "Oh of course, Bob in Chicago!" - as though this is a secret society in which everyone knows everyone else.
"Aliens", the end of the season is bittersweet. After all the hard work and sacrifice, it becomes clear that the motorcycle shop is not going to make it. At the same time, Rodbell's is closing and Roseanne will be losing the income from that job too. The only bright spot is D.J. winning the spelling bee, so the whole family dresses up for the occasion of him being honored. For once D.J. is the center of attention, and it couldn't come at a more needed time. This episode also sees the end of Arnie and Nancy's brief marriage. Nancy has had it with Arnie when he leaves her a note saying he has been abducted by aliens. She considers this his way of copping out of admitting what his real reason for leaving is. However, Arnie actually has been abducted by aliens - a bizarre exit to a bizarre recurring character.
I could talk at length about all of the episodes in this season since they were all very good, but suffice it to say that Season Four probably does the best job of combining great comedy, hard-hitting drama, and highlighting situations that should look familiar to any member of the middle class. Although this is not the last of the good seasons of Roseanne, I would say season four is the last of the golden years of that series, and definitely worth viewing.
Description of Roseanne - The Complete Fourth Season
For the Conner household, it was the year of Lanford Custom Cycles and Rodbell?s Luncheonette, Roseanne?s breast reduction and bingo addiction, Becky?s birth control, Dan?s bowling team, Darlene in black, a Las Vegas wedding and even an alien abduction. There?s an unforgettable Halloween, an outrageous Thanksgiving, one very surprising mall Santa, a Mother?s Day surprise and much more, all in this classic season of the comedy series that changed television forever. Martin Mull, Bonnie Bramlett, Sandra Bernhard, Natalie West and Tom Arnold co-star in these 25 uncut episodes featuring such guest stars as Bob Hope, George Clooney, Wayne Newton, Shelley Winters, David Crosby, Neil Patrick Harris, Rick Dees, Estelle Parsons and more.Bestsellers in DVD
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