Actually, I remember this one really well, because our oldest daughter was born before we were married. So I memorized it in case I needed it one day.
DJ: What’s the difference?
Roseanne: An accident is something that, if you had it to do over again, you’d change it. A surprise is something you didn’t know you wanted until you got it.
One other thing I loved about this show: none of the characters had “Signature Catch Phrases™” like: “Sit on it!” “Up your nose with a rubber hose” or “Dy-No-Miiiite”. I mean, real people just don’t do that! Sure, someone might have a pet catch phrase for a month or two, but whenever I’m watching one of those sitcoms, as soon as those phrases come up, the studio audience cracks up, and I want to throw up!
I couldn’t live without this sitcom. Now that I have a family of my own the daily struggle between wanting to hug them or throw them out the window parallels that show so much I’m convinced it’s the most realistic family sitcom ever. And most days, just like in Roseanne, you have to laugh about all the stresses and little issues or you’d make everyone (including yourself) miserable.
I agree that the “lottery season” was not as good as the preceding years. However, I was intrigued by the idea of the Connors dealing with the sudden acquisition of money. All their lives they had heaped scorn on “yuppies” and people richer than them, and now they found themselves on the other side of the economic coin. I would have welcomed some intelligent writing on this interesting situation, to the point of putting up with the implausible lottery plot.
I say this because I and the mister came into a bit of good luck in the mid 90’s (nothing major, just some stock options that considerably eased our situation in life), and I was struck by the way friends started treating me after that. Some started sneering at me and another shunned me altogether. I was shocked and hurt because, to my knowledge, I didn’t behave any differently - I didn’t start wearing diamonds or designer clothes or anything, andI had to learn to do without a couple of my friends. There’s a lot of good material to write about in this situation, and I think Roseanne & Co. should have done a better job with it.