Great TV Series

My favorite mother-in-law and I had a brief discussion about "Roseanne" (the TV series) on Saturday. I knew that she didn't like Roseanne Barr, the actress, so I didn't bother arguing the merits of Roseanne Barr as an example for actresses - that would have been like talking to a statue. So I conceded that Roseanne Barr was not the greatest actress, but added that the series had dealt with a lot of subjects. I found three clips from the show that provide kind of a snapshot of what I'm talking about when I wrote that the series had dealt with a lot of subjects.

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• Jackie, Roseanne's sister, was being abused by her boyfriend and Roseanne confronted her about it. The scene that follows the one above is Dan, Roseanne's husband, confronts the boyfriend, punches him, and ends up in jail. Roseanne gets a phone call that she needs to go bail Dan out at the jail.

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• The scene that happens in the episode after the kitchen table discussion with Roseanne, Dan, and Darlene but before the scene where David and Darlene are making out, is a very powerful scene. Roseanne goes to David's house and talks to David's mother, who verbally abuses David. Roseanne tells David to come with her. There is also a very powerful scene when Roseanne tells Dan that she told David to live with them and when Dan protests about having another mouth to feed, Roseanne tells Dan that David's mom was really bad and that she had grown up in a house like that.
• I'm not kidding when I say that as I wrote the above description, tears welled up in my eyes.
• And, yes, those are the actors that play Leonard and Lesile on "The Big Bang Theory"

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• The scenes that came before this one are about Dan & Roseanne having a good time at the bar and the guy who gets punched harassing Dan. When Dan threatens to take the guy outside, Roseanne tells him not to do it and Dan listens to Roseanne. Thus, that's why Dan asked for Roseanne's permission before belting him.

There are many other great scenes in the series that addressed other serious issues and, perhaps, those other scenes trump the three I put above. Regardless, I found myself defending the merit of the series to my favorite mother-in-law with the three scenes above floating in my head.