Joss's Episodes of "Roseanne"

Thursday, May 12, 2005 7:10 AM

If you've got DirecTv, you'll notice sometimes the Director of episodic television will be included in the info... sometimes also the writer. For most sitcoms, this really isn't important information (is one 'Raymond' writer better than another?), but since I knew Joss wrote a couple 'Roseanne' eps back in the day, I always check the credits when I see it's on.

Tonight I caught "Little Sister" (the IMDB leaves this one out, just as it incorrectly credits "Somebody Stole My Gal" to him), and a few weeks back I caught "Brain Dead Poet's Society." If you're a fan of Joss, you should really catch these episodes.

I remember reading an interview with Joss where he said he did post-prod work on "The Getaway," and the movie evidently had 'an edge' to it, in the background, like, he wrote all the dialogue for people who weren't the main characters. I still haven't re-watched the movie since I found this out, but these episodes of "Roseanne" really did have that edge. Weird for a sitcom, you say? YOU BETCHA.

Both "BDPS" and "Little Sister" weren't all about jokes. In the first, the entire episode just builds up to Darlene reading this dark, personal, highly-effecting poem about how she's the girl boys don't look at (cuz she's a tomboy). It was more a character piece than a sitcom! ... In the 2nd, there are TWO dark subplots, one where Jackie wants to be a cop, and Roseanne hates the idea because (as we find out at the end), it's easy to get blown away (the final 30 seconds of the ep are this long, dramatic pause... "Alright, Meter Maid is good, too)... earlier, Darlene had gone to hang out with Jackie, and Jackie's hella drunk... come to think of it, there was also the thing about Darlene tattling on Becky for looking at Dan's nudie magazines. Does this sound like a sitcom? Joss, you twisted bastard.

"BDPS" was new to me, but I rembember "Little Sister" from when it was new. At the time I remember thinking it was a strange episode... both episodes DO have jokes, but none of it's setup/punchline. It's nearly all situational, much like the humor on 'Buffy/Firefly/Angel (and in "Speed" which Joss rewrote).

Anyway. I know it seems weird to talk about "Roseanne" on the Firefly site, but if it's late at night and you get the chance to see a Whedon-written episode of ANYthing, do it. He's not usually credited for his movie work (Speed, The Getaway, X-Men 1), so grab it where you can. Here's hoping he avoids therapy for as long as possible.

(qs)

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