1
"Roseanne" was
the most female-centric
sitcom in TV history.

Building upon its star's stand-up comedy act as the all-knowing, all-seeing "domestic goddess," "Roseanne" brought feminism into the mainstream and suggested that it wasn't something to fear -- it was just a fancy word for "fair play," and it had relevance and usefulness in the average woman's life. Roseanne and her sarcastic, brooding daughter Darlene (Sara Gilbert) were strong, opinionated and independent. The show kept the pot boiling under the meat and potato issues with which any woman could identify -- economic inequality at work, unequal division of labor at home. But it also turned up the heat with episodes about issues like teen sexuality (the poignant and hilarious show where Roseanne bites the bullet and takes sexually active Becky to the doctor for birth control pills), domestic violence and the abortion question (the extraordinary Thanksgiving '94 episode in which the show's four generations of women talked about their reproductive history as Roseanne waited out test results concerning the health of her fetus). "Roseanne" was not the first sitcom to deal with these issues (Maude is still the only sitcom woman to ever actually have an abortion); what was different here was the consistently unsoftened point of view. In its last couple of seasons, "Roseanne" became in-your-face pro-woman, with mixed results. Some of this season's surreal episodes spoofing fashion and female pampering were riotously funny (if slapped together), but the one where all the women laid hands on Darlene's fragile premature newborn in order to impart their life-saving female energy ... just forget I mentioned it, OK? Sure, there was something rude about the way the women on "Roseanne" kept getting more and more capable and the men kept getting more and more useless and expendable -- Dan cheated on Roseanne; Jackie's ex-husband, Fred, was a bore; Becky's husband, Mark, was an idiot. But then, Roseanne and Darlene also made sport of Darlene's husband, David, the most evolved and sensitive male on the show, for being, too evolved and sensitive. Men couldn't win on "Roseanne," but then, that was the point: This was a kick-ass women's show, and if men felt left out, well tough. 2. "Roseanne" was the most gay- and lesbian-friendly sitcom of its time.