OFF THE RAILS

What the heck happened to Roseanne?

Starring smart-aleck comedian Roseanne Barr, the 1989–97 series was lauded as a realistic portrayal of an average, working-class family. Then in the show’s ninth season, the Conner family wins a $100 million lottery jackpot. Plot lines about the pitfalls of lower-middle-class life were replaced by the travails of living the good life. And things became increasingly surreal: In one episode, Roseanne fights terrorists on a train; in another, she encounters satanists. The series finale culminated in a bizarre monologue in which Roseanne’s character reveals that the entire final season didn’t really happen—it was the basis of a book she was writing to cope with the death of her husband, Dan (John Goodman). In the time line of the show, there had been no lottery and no terrorists, and Dan had died at the end of the second-to-last season.

tags: trivia