# What was the signifigance of bringing back Becky no. 1 on the TV show Roseanne **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [June 19, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-signifigance-of-bringing-back-becky-no-1-on-the-tv-show-roseanne/308936 "2005-06-19T18:53:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Wesley\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wesley_clark/32/20581_2.png) [@Wesley\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wesley_Clark)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-signifigance-of-bringing-back-becky-no-1-on-the-tv-show-roseanne/308936/1 "2005-06-19T18:53:49Z")
Becky was played by Alicia Goranson & Sarah Chalke On Roseanne. For the first 4–5 seasons the original Becky is played by Goranson, who then moves away. After a while she comes back but Chalke plays her. However the first episode after Dan has his heart attack brings back Goranson. Since everything after Dan had his heart attack was a myth was this supposed to have some special meaning (brining the original Becky back the episode after Dan has his heart attack) or was it just coincidence? ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2005, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-signifigance-of-bringing-back-becky-no-1-on-the-tv-show-roseanne/308936/2 "2005-06-19T20:11:20Z")
Actually, no. There are several misconceptions in your post. I’m fairly certain Goranson came back in the beginning of season 8. The two actresses switched on and off throughout that season (at one point, when the family goes to Walt Disney World in the middle of that season, Roseanne asks Becky, “Aren’t you glad you’re here this week?”). Dan’s heart attack was the third-to-last episode of season 8. Becky one was already back, so the only significance was that Lecy Goranson decided to renegotiate a contract. Now, on to the other (bigger, IMO) misconception: Everything after Dan had a heart attack wasn’t a myth. Many things were, many things weren’t. Darlene’s baby, for instance. Some things before Dan’s heart attack were myths: Jackie’s being straight, for instance. The _entire show_ was the depiction of a book being written by Roseanne’s character about her life. This is all revealed in the final monologue. She says: “And in choosing life I realized my dreams of being a writer wouldn’t just come true I had to do the work. As I wrote about my life I relived it. Whatever I didn’t like I rearranged.” Some of those things: In “real life,” Dan died after the heart attack, but in the story (and thus the show) he didn’t. From the monologue: “I lost Dan last year when he had his heart attack. He’s still the first thing I think about when I wake up and the last thing I think about before I go to sleep.” This is obviously the biggest thing, and the thing that most people latch onto and thus erroneously think that it was the “turning point” of the series or something. It wasn’t, it was just another thing she changed. In “real life” the daughters’ husbands were switched. From the monologue: “When Becky brought David home a few years ago I thought, “This is wrong.” He was much more Darlene’s type. When Darlene met Mark I thought he went better with Becky. I guess I was wrong, but I still think they’d be more compatible the other way around. So in my writing I did what any good mother would do: I fixed it.” In “real life” many of the things in the final season didn’t happen (but some did). From the monologue: > [@](#): > > My writing is really what got me through the last year after Dan died. I mean at first, I felt so betrayed, as if he’d left me for another woman. When you’re a blue collar woman and your husband dies, it really takes away your whole sense of security. So I began writing about having all the money in the world and I imagined myself going to spas and swanky New York parties just like the people on TV, Where nobody has any real problems and everything is solved within thirty minutes. I tried to imagine myself as Mary Richards, Jeanie, That Girl, but I was so angry I was more like a female Steven Seagal wanting to fight the whole world. For a while I lost myself in food and in a depression so deep I couldn’t even get out of bed, until I saw that my family needed me to pull through so that they could pull through. One day I actually imagined myself with another man, and I felt so guilty that I had convinced myself that it was for some altruistic reason. And then Darlene had the baby and it almost died. I snapped out of the mourning immediately and turned all my life energy into choosing life. The “leaving for another woman” is a reference to Dan’s going to California to help his mom, falling for her nurse, returning home, telling Roseanne and leaving (episodes 12-14 of season 8). The “all the money in the world” is obviously a reference to the lottery (the end of ep. 1 and ep. 2). There was a spa episode (ep. 6), and the “swanky New York parties” could have been either the parties with the “Prince of Moldavia” (Jackie’s boyfriend for a few episodes, played by Jim Varney) or the Halloween episode with Patsy and Edina (of Absolutely Fabulous). I remember the episode where she imagined herself as TV characters, but I think it was in a previous season. The “female Steven Seagal” reference is to episode nine, when the family was traveling on a train that was taken over by terrorists, and Roseanne takes over. The depression episode was the 15th of the season (immediately following Dan’s leaving), when Roseanne wouldn’t leave her room and the family took turns trying to talk to her. She “imagined herself with another man” when Edgar Wellman (of the Wellman Plastics plant, major employer in Lanford) was going to close down the plant. Roseanne negotiates a buyout (or something), and they become attracted to each other. The “altruistic” reason was keeping jobs in Lanford. One thing to understand about the show is that Roseanne had more creative control in the beginning. Culminating in the final season, she had very little. So, while the show tanked in the final season, the execs decided to “let her have her show back” at the end, and the final episode(s) was her way of trying to make sense of it all. In my opinion, at least. –_TVtome contributed heavily to this post_ ---
**Author:** ![Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/a9a28c/32.png) [@Oslo\_Ostragoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Oslo_Ostragoth)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2005, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-signifigance-of-bringing-back-becky-no-1-on-the-tv-show-roseanne/308936/3 "2005-06-20T04:46:44Z")
> [@Garfield226](#): > > Actually, no. There are several misconceptions in your post. > … > –_TVtome contributed heavily to this post_ Wow, Garfield. I just kinda stumbled on this thread, and I must say that I am awwed by your post. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2005, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-signifigance-of-bringing-back-becky-no-1-on-the-tv-show-roseanne/308936/4 "2005-06-20T05:34:35Z")
> [@Garfield226](#): > > In “real life” the daughters’ husbands were switched. From the monologue: “When Becky brought David home a few years ago I thought, “This is wrong.” He was much more Darlene’s type. When Darlene met Mark I thought he went better with Becky. I guess I was wrong, but I still think they’d be more compatible the other way around. So in my writing I did what any good mother would do: I fixed it.” That was an interesting revelation. I hadn’t thought about it until I saw the last episode, but Becky/David and Darlene/Mark do seem more logical. However, then there wouldn’t be much conflict. It was more dramatically powerful to have vulnerable David pushed around by sarcastic Darlene, and for academic-minded Becky’s ambitions to be hobbled by her devotion to ne’er-do-well Mark. Nitpick: > [@](#): > > The “leaving for another woman” is a reference to Dan’s going to California to help his mom, falling for her nurse, returning home, telling Roseanne and leaving (episodes 12-14 of season 8). Season 9. We found that out during the tag scene of the Christmas episode, right after the family had opened their expensive gifts and burned the mortgage. Smooth sailing from now on, right? Uh…no. > [@](#): > > I remember the episode where she imagined herself as TV characters, but I think it was in a previous season. The That Girl/Mary Richards/Jeannie episode was the season 9 opener, before they found out they’d won the lottery, but there was also an earlier episode where Roseanne dreamed that she was in a soap opera (a real one, with the real actors making guest appearances). That said, excellent post! ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2005, 8:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-was-the-signifigance-of-bringing-back-becky-no-1-on-the-tv-show-roseanne/308936/5 "2005-06-20T08:30:52Z")
> [@Rilchiam](#): > > That was an interesting revelation. I hadn’t thought about it until I saw the last episode, but Becky/David and Darlene/Mark do seem more logical. However, then there wouldn’t be much conflict. It was more dramatically powerful to have vulnerable David pushed around by sarcastic Darlene, and for academic-minded Becky’s ambitions to be hobbled by her devotion to ne’er-do-well Mark. Yeah, when I thought about it I couldn’t really see it the other way around either, at least for the show. Although she always got good grades, Becky always seemed to be played for kind of an airhead (especially earlier in the series’ run), and David was an intellectual, so that wouldn’t really make sense to me. Likewise, although Darlene was on the edge of gothy for a season or two, she wasn’t a biker chick. She was also (supposed to be) “deep” and Mark is about as shallow as it gets. > [@](#): > > Season 9. We found that out during the tag scene of the Christmas episode, right after the family had opened their expensive gifts and burned the mortgage. Smooth sailing from now on, right? Uh…no. Indeed. Slip of the number key. > [@](#): > > The That Girl/Mary Richards/Jeannie episode was the season 9 opener, before they found out they’d won the lottery, but there was also an earlier episode where Roseanne dreamed that she was in a soap opera (a real one, with the real actors making guest appearances). So it was, so it was. I did remember there were two like that. > [@](#): > > That said, excellent post! Thanks. I’m a fan (obviously) for the main reason that Roseanne is one of the few shows that got “working class in the midwest” right in pretty much every way.