TaranofPrydain
Telly Talk Active Member
Just a hunch that they kept it on the air for that final year, because Disney has just paid a large sum of money for ABC.... which was beginning to enter an extremely dry period. If you look at the 95/96 TV season, ABC's biggest scripted hits were all sitcoms that had been on for years: this, Coach, Home Improvement, Grace under Fire. Thie new shows weren't doing well, so i assume they left it on the schedule to just say they still had a hit, and then of course it all fell apart for Roseanne.If I weren't being too picky, I'd say ROSEANNE only really tapped out its final season. I've heard talk that the eighth season was supposed to have been the last, and I hate that it wasn't. The ninth season was a mess. I hate that they had Dan cheat on Roseanne: that was a major negative for this viewer. Dan and Roseanne had one of those rock solid marriages (despite all the hardships), and for him to 'step out' on her went against the very fundamentals of the show.
They way the writers handled Dan's affair wasn't that good either. I remember that episode and there wasn't hardly a laugh from the audience in it. ROSEANNE had 'jumped the shark' and they needed to stop. They went one year too many.
Disney wouldn't really have much success with ABC until 2004-2005, when they started Desperate Housewives, Lost, Grey's Anatomy, and Boston Legal in the same season. the only bonafide hits they had between 1996 and 2004 were Who Wants to be a Millionaire, The Practice, Spin City, and Dharma and Greg, while Alias, Sports Night, and Once and Again were critically acclaimed.