With the confirmation of television’s worst-kept secret – that Roseanne was dead, the victim of her growing dependency on opioids to manage a painful knee problem the family could not afford to have properly treated, because that’s how health care impacts the working class – we have lost the most polarizing character on television since Archie Bunker. Like most of them, Roseanne reflected the liberal values that dominate the businesses of entertainment and academia. But, fascinatingly, she also had a strong conservative streak, one that seemed to intensify with age and ongoing frustration over her family’s lot in life. When the sitcom Roseanne was revived earlier this year -- and instantly became the highest-rated series on primetime broadcast television, as it had been back in the late ‘80s – the character Roseanne was (like the actress who portrayed her) an ardent supporter of Donald Trump.
And suddenly, for the first time since the ‘70s, when the Bunkers were the first family of American television, we had a show that dared to explore and comment on politics, popular culture and most of all the economy as experienced in the average working-class household, ably enhanced by brilliantly comic writing that allowed liberals and conservatives alike to laugh at each other and, of more importance, themselves. Roseanne was as needed today as All in the Family was when it debuted on CBS in 1971, when the tumult of the ‘60s was still very much a part of everyone’s everyday life. All in the Family instantly shook everyone who watched out of themselves and initiated important conversations among families and friends and between generations in ways that that no scripted series ever had before.
As its top-rated, nine-year run continued All in the Family kept all kinds of dialogues going without ever once seeming preachy, a problem that is crippling the continuation of Murphy Brown, I’m sorry to say. Nobody likes to sit down to a lecture at the end of a long day. (Side note: I recently attended a taping of an upcoming episode of Murphy Brown featuring Bette Midler, and it was very amusing throughout, in part because it avoided any speech-making on the part of any of the characters as they navigated romantic developments in their personal lives. It felt very much like the Murphy Brown of old, but fresh and new.)
Sadly, Roseanne the character won’t get the chance to learn from the world around us, or teach her family a few things along the way, as Archie Bunker did throughout nine years of All in the Family and four of its continuation, Archie Bunker’s Place. Speaking of the latter, watching the Conners react to the loss of Roseanne had me thinking about the death of Archie’s wife Edith, which happened before the start of the second season of Archie Bunker’s Place. Edith (played by Jean Stapleton), still one of the most beloved comic characters in the history of American television, had died quietly in her sleep before the season began. Though still traumatic, the peaceful and completely natural nature of her passing helped soothe millions of viewers, whereas having Roseanne pass as a result of popping too many pills does not seem especially fitting, given what she meant to so many people on her show and in real life.
The Conner family looks like it will collectively carry on just fine without Roseanne, regardless of how much viewers will miss her. The Bunkers, on the other hand, were devastated by Edith’s death, especially Archie (Carroll O'Connor, pictured below with Stapleton). The two episodes of Archie Bunker’s Place that dealt directly with the family’s loss were laced with humor but nevertheless difficult to watch, as there was genuine grief on the screen – something I didn’t really notice on The Conners(though I imagine each of them, especially Dan, will have more to work through as the season progresses).