ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, October 12, 1996 TAG: 9610150058
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: S-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CARYN JAMES N.Y. TIMES NEWS SERVICE
For the last few years the sitcom ``Roseanne'' and the star Roseanne have been dancing around a tricky question: How can a rich, powerful, surgically revamped Hollywood star remain a working-class heroine?
This season the show is confronting that question with a plot twist that might be the smartest, or the worst, thing the show ever did. The fictional Conner family won the lottery, $108 million worth. Roseanne Conner had a fast, tongue-in-cheek plan for spending the cash. ``I'm getting me a ton of plastic surgery,'' she said.
The real Roseanne has already been there, of course. In the eight years since her show began, she has transformed herself from a stand-up comic making jokes about being a domestic goddess in a trailer park into a glitzy celebrity trailing gossip wherever she goes. She has turned into a one-name wonder, like Cher or Madonna.
And she has transformed her face, as every week's opening credits proudly display. In a series of photographs from the show's beginning to now, Roseanne, after about a ton of plastic surgery, comes to resemble a distant relative of her former self.
So winning the lottery offers more than a way to rejuvenate an aging sitcom. It brings Roseanne Conner, who began as her creator's comfortable alter ego, closer to the real Roseanne.
But nearly a month into the new season, the lottery plot seems a lost opportunity. It is evidence that the show, which has tumbled out of the top 10, lost its working-class soul long ago.
Like it or not, ``Roseanne'' (airing Tuesday at 8 p.m. on WSET-Channel 13) was a benchmark series. It was a hit because it tapped into the audience's desire to see something other than the typical idealized, upper-middle class television family.
On ``Roseanne,'' the parents screamed and had weight problems. The children didn't seem destined to be brain surgeons. Crude and loud on the surface, and loving way beneath, the Conners seemed refreshingly close to home to many viewers.
As Roseanne became more powerful, her show tackled serious social issues like unemployment, abortion and alcoholism, and depicted a gay wedding before it became a hot-button political issue. But like any aging show, ``Roseanne'' has strained for effect lately and the transformed star has seemed increasingly distant from her working-class creation.
In this season's opener before winning the lottery, Roseanne and John Goodman, who plays her husband, Dan, walked through weakly written parodies of old television shows like ``Mary Tyler Moore'' and ``I Dream of Jeannie,'' a trick that flopped last year. Instead of tapping into pop-culture nostalgia or making some social comment, the fantasies were about Roseanne dressing up as earlier television icons.
Since then the lottery plot has made the fakeness of Roseanne Conner more pronounced, and resulted in self-indulgent fantasy sequences. First, the Conners' house was invaded by journalists and hangers-on, a situation more meaningful to the celebrity Roseanne than to her alter ego. Recently, the Conners sat at the kitchen table discussing the local fame that has come with their money.
``How come that Ted Koppel ain't called us yet?'' Roseanne whined.
``Oh, he's lost his edge,'' said Dan.
``Well, he's no Jerry Springer,'' Roseanne said, as the episode went into a fantasy of the family on ``The Jerry Springer Show.'' The Conners were tongue-tied; the audience was stupid; Roseanne ended up being bleeped when she screamed at a woman in the audience.
What was meant to be a parody of talk shows turned to be a dull, condescending jab at them, largely because Roseanne the celebrity hovers uncomfortably over Roseanne Conner, a character she no longer inhabits in any convincing way.
Dan Conner remains the show's tether to reality. His heart attack last season may have had practical reasons behind it, because Goodman had said he was probably not returning to the series. Still, the story was effective.
Goodman is back after all, though not every week. Tuesday night's episode centered on Dan, who worried that he has neglected his clinically depressed mother. Goodman, the actor ``Roseanne'' can least afford to lose, will then vanish for a few episodes.
Roseanne has said this season will be the sitcom's last. But she has strayed so far from what made the show succeed in the first place, she might as well pack up her cash and her celebrity, and move on.
LENGTH: Medium: 86 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: Ratings have not been thumbs up so far this season forby CNB``Roseanne,'' the ABC comedy starring John Goodman and Roseanne. The
show airs Tuesday at 8 p.m. on WSET-Channel 13. color.