After seeing NBC's fortunes turn around with The Cosby Show, ABC executives asked producers Marcy Carsey & Tom Werner to give them a similar tentpole sitcom.
Roseanne lasted about as long as Cosby did, and, as it returns for a short-season revival on Tuesday, it doesn't have the tabloid baggage that has convinced certain cable networks to shy away from reruns of any of Cosby's shows.
Roseanne Barr based her show on her own life and stand-up comedy routines, the latter in much the same way Cosby had mined his act for Fat Albert & The Cosby Kids years earlier. While Cosby was set in New York, Roseanne opted for an Illinois suburb.
You might remember this intro.
There was the curious case of recasting the part of Becky Conner, with Sarah Chalke stepping in for Alicia "Lecy" Goranson. Such a casting change was rarely done in primetime by that point. In the revival, both actresses will appear, with Chalke playing a different character. Johnny Galecki is splitting time between the revival and his current gig, The Big Bang Theory, and likely will pull viewers from his CBS series over to Roseanne just for fun.
The big question, of course, is how to explain Dan (John Goodman) being alive and well when he was killed off near the end of the original series. I guess we'll all find out together on Tuesday. There will be more muscial clips from the original series down the road. I have seen some reruns over the years, but not enough to merit a rating. For now.
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