714 Delaware St. is a podcast about the television sitcom Roseanne, its reboot and its second reboot, The Conners. Hosts Maura and Katherine are longtime fans of the original series who met in graduate school, where they both studied literature, film and television studies. Roseanne was a groundbreaking series, depicting a working-class family led by strong female characters who broke the mold for women in family sitcoms. It was also a formative cultural text for the two of us, who grew up glued to every episode and feeling like, in some sense, it got us.
This podcast is not in any way intended to excuse or defend the recent racist and offensive statements of Roseanne Barr herself, whose involvement with the show was rightly terminated following a racist tweet about President Obama’s former advisor Valerie Jarrett. Instead, we hope to revisit significant episodes of the original series with a critical eye, celebrating our personal connections to the show and its trailblazing, charming, and moving qualities while also acknowledging its shortcomings and biases. We discuss these episodes side-by-side with new episodes of The Conners, exploring what the series looks like without Roseanne herself and whether the universe of Lanford, though markedly changed since 1988, can still provide the setting for stories and characters that resonate and offer an honest depiction of life for a working class that remains underrepresented on television.
So grab your favorite afghan, pull up a stool at the Lobo or slide into your favorite booth at Rodbell’s, and join us!
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714 Delaware St. is a podcast about the television sitcom Roseanne, its reboot and its second reboot, The Conners. Hosts Maura and Katherine are longtime fans of the original series who met in graduate school, where they both studied literature, film and television studies. Roseanne was a groundbreaking series, depicting a working-class family led by strong female characters who broke the mold for women in family sitcoms. It was also a formative cultural text for the two of us, who grew up glued to every episode and feeling like, in some sense, it got us.
This podcast is not in any way intended to excuse or defend the recent racist and offensive statements of Roseanne Barr herself, whose involvement with the show was rightly terminated following a racist tweet about President Obama’s former advisor Valerie Jarrett. Instead, we hope to revisit significant episodes of the original series with a critical eye, celebrating our personal connections to the show and its trailblazing, charming, and moving qualities while also acknowledging its shortcomings and biases. We discuss these episodes side-by-side with new episodes of The Conners, exploring what the series looks like without Roseanne herself and whether the universe of Lanford, though markedly changed since 1988, can still provide the setting for stories and characters that resonate and offer an honest depiction of life for a working class that remains underrepresented on television.
So grab your favorite afghan, pull up a stool at the Lobo or slide into your favorite booth at Rodbell’s, and join us!
In our latest, we get reflective thanks to The Conners season 6 episode “Smash and Grab and Happy Death Day,” which touches on the death of Mark Healy, husband to Becky, brother to David, and regular on the original series of Roseanne. The episode reveals Becky’s still-raw grief over losing her husband in a motorcycle accident years earlier, though we find it odd that she tells Beverly Rose he was her “special friend” rather than just level with the kid – you were married, and he was the love of your life, Becky! The frustrating shallowness of this episode’s discussion of Mark’s place in Becky’s life prompted us to go back in time to consider who Mark Healy (played by the late Glenn Quinn) really was. We’ve discussed his and Becky’s relationship and their elopement, but we’ve never really paused to study the man himself. Through a review of original series episodes “Her Boyfriend’s Back” (season 3), “Secrets” (season 4), “Busted,” (season 6), and “Becky Howser, M.D.” (season 8), we learn that Mark was—despite the bad-boy, dim-bulb personas he occasionally inhabited—an earnest, hardworking and sincere person dedicated to building a life with Becky, of whom he thought the world.
Join us for this discussion plus riffs on singing competition shows, Under the Bridge, car wash jigsaw puzzles (??), chatting with strangers, Children of the Corn, and Baby Reindeer. Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts!
television – 714 Delaware St. Podcast
714 Delaware St. is a podcast about the television sitcom Roseanne, its reboot and its second reboot, The Conners. Hosts Maura and Katherine are longtime fans of the original series who met in graduate school, where they both studied literature, film and television studies. Roseanne was a groundbreaking series, depicting a working-class family led by strong female characters who broke the mold for women in family sitcoms. It was also a formative cultural text for the two of us, who grew up glued to every episode and feeling like, in some sense, it got us.
This podcast is not in any way intended to excuse or defend the recent racist and offensive statements of Roseanne Barr herself, whose involvement with the show was rightly terminated following a racist tweet about President Obama’s former advisor Valerie Jarrett. Instead, we hope to revisit significant episodes of the original series with a critical eye, celebrating our personal connections to the show and its trailblazing, charming, and moving qualities while also acknowledging its shortcomings and biases. We discuss these episodes side-by-side with new episodes of The Conners, exploring what the series looks like without Roseanne herself and whether the universe of Lanford, though markedly changed since 1988, can still provide the setting for stories and characters that resonate and offer an honest depiction of life for a working class that remains underrepresented on television.
So grab your favorite afghan, pull up a stool at the Lobo or slide into your favorite booth at Rodbell’s, and join us!
