As I write this, very little is known about the new Roseanne spinoff The Connors. Holy fucking everlasting chicken t-shirt where do I even begin with this situation? I’ve been a fan of this show most of my life and never would I have predicted there would be a day where a reboot happened, Roseanne would get it cancelled with record ratings after saying a black person looked like “planet of the apes and the Muslim brotherhood had a baby”, THEN ABC would say “fuck that, everybody except Roseanne is coming back because we got too many viewers to lay this to rest juuuuuust yet.” Now here we are with a Roseanne spinoff coming out the same year the reboot premiered.
Good lord.
I’m taking bets as to what will be a bigger jumping the shark moment, The Connors winning the lottery in season 9 or this alternate universe where Roseanne hitchhikes with the grim reaper.
Enough of that, it’s now time to hop into a time machine and go allllll the way back to 1990 when the third season of Roseanne aired what has to be their most comedically strong Halloween episode, Trick or Treat.
Compared to other episodes, Trick or Treat can be considered a little lackluster in the Halloween spirit. Towards the beginning you get a great display of traditional Roseanne macabre costumes like Darlene’s demonic chestburster and Becky’s half mangled prom queen. Later on you also see a great haunted Halloween maze that the lodge has set up with a guy dressed as Dracula waiting to pop out of his coffin and scare the hell out of some children.
For the most part though, this episode takes place in the show’s bar, The Lobo and I don’t think there’s a single fucking Halloween decoration in this bar. If I was Dan Connor when I walked in there I would’ve decked the bartender like he was Bobo, the guy who ruined his birthday party in season one and yelled out, “NEXT YEAR I BETTER SEE A FUCKING FRANKENSTEIN SOMEWHERE IN THIS PISS STAINED EXCUSE YOU CALL A BAR!”
The lack of Halloween decorations in this dive is somewhat forgivable because of the great humor. Roseanne is dressed as a guy and nobody realizes it’s her. The way she is so ambitious to act like one of the guys from talking like a creep around the pool table to exploring the bathroom is still funny almost thirty years later. On top of that you have Krystal flirting with Roseanne and suddenly realizing who it is. Then there’s the big kicker at the end when Dan finally arrives to pick her up and is willing to freak out a local homophobic patron.
This is without a doubt one of the more progressive moments you’ll ever see on a network sitcom. This was 19FUCKING90 and you have things like a father realizing that it’s alright for his son to dress as a witch, a woman flirting with another woman dressed as a man and then a man kissing a woman dressed as a man. Props to the network. Wonder what it was like when Roseanne had to make sure the censor board gave her the ok…..
“Sure who cares? We’re ABC circa 1990! You wanna have a guy possessed by a demon who kills his daughter and then her cousin who is a spitting image of her? Fine by us! We’re currently hip for a limited time!” Spoilers for Twin Peaks….
If you’re looking through the Roseanne Halloween episodes and wondering which one packs the most laughs, it would probably have to be Trick or Treat.
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