Sure,
she’s crass and abrasive, and probably not someone with whom you or I
would really want to work. (Not to mention horrible at carrying the
national anthem’s tune.) But there’s no denying that Roseanne
Barr-Arnold-back-to-Barr is funny, and that her eponymous sitcom helped
change the face of television in the late 1980s and early ’90s,
becoming a smash hit with an underclass that collectively saw a bit of
themselves in the less than perfect family on display.

Rooted in her in-your-face stand-up persona, Roseanne
starred its namesake as the cranky, sarcastic head of the blue collar,
Midwestern Conner family. Along with husband Dan (John Goodman) and
sister Jackie (Laurie Metcalf), Roseanne rode herd on her three kids,
perpetually exasperated oldest daughter Becky (Lecy Gorenson), sardonic
and reserved tomboy Darlene (Sara Gilbert), and young DJ (Michael
Fishman). The fourth season, spanning 1991 and ’92, finds Dan
continuing to struggle to make ends meet at his motorcycle shop, while
Roseanne picks up shifts at a diner at the mall, where Martin Mull
recurs as her boss. Frank foregrounding of social and other family
issues remains the series’ bread and butter, though, including Becky
asking her mother to consent to getting her birth control bills, as in
the season opener, and Darlene growing continually disaffected as she
enters her high school years.

This fact — and of course Roseanne’s own gum-smacking, dismissively
acerbic personality — points to the show’s greatest strength: its
willingness to show its frequently bickering main characters in an
unsympathetic light and then slowly redeem them through genuine
familial fence-mending. Such indulgence not only makes for a more
realistically three-dimensional family unit, but also lends old sitcom
clichés — as when Roseanne and Dan pull a prank on a neighbor during
Halloween and win a costume contest — a fresh energy. It’s also worth
pointing out that Metcalf really reveals herself as the glue of the
entire show, whether it be in her wide-eyed or slow-burn counterpoint
silences or in a more central role, such as when she becomes depressed
over seeing an ex-boyfriend with his new lover in “Why Jackie Becomes a
Trucker.”

Spread out over four discs in two slimline cases in turn housed in a cardboard slipcase, all 25 episodes of Roseanne’s
fourth season are presented here in 1.33 full screen, with a Dolby
digital audio track that honestly seems mixed across the board a bit
too low. Thankfully, though, distributor Anchor Bay graces the
collection with a number of pleasurable extras rare for many catalogue
small screen releases, and rarer still in later-season sets. Included
are new interviews with the always outspoken Roseanne, as well as
Gorenson and Fishman.

Best among the supplements, though, are two video commentaries with
Roseanne. While it’s obvious she hasn’t prepped at all for these,
that’s part of the charm, as she assays her own look as “pre-nose job,
pre-facelift” and rips writers for, at her insistence, bringing back
guest star George Clooney — who did 10 episodes on the show’s first
season as Booker, Roseanne’s coworker — only to stick him in a moose
costume during most of the Halloween episode. She also reveals a few
random fun tidbits, such as the fact that the cast apparently kept fan
letters stocked in the freezer of the on-set refrigerator, the better
to read through during production down time. B+ (Show) B+ (Disc)