Roseanne’s Halloween Gamble

Halloween on TV it’s like a sweet spooky spectacle of television. There are many ways that we celebrate Halloween through different stories that celebrate Halloween. Sometimes it’s a story made for Halloween and sometimes there’s a show that depicts what Halloween is like for characters that we see every day on television.

But Roseanne’s Halloween specials don’t get talked about as much in my opinion .

Roseanne is a comedian who carries a controversial tone for different eras. No one can forget the outlandish acts she’s done from the Super Bowl National Anthem to the Twitter comment. She’s had a controversy for every era, but she still had a humble beginning from the sacrifice paying off, and that has to count.

I’d you have to look at TV history and the struggle to get horror on Halloween specials. Roseanne is a part of that history. This is where the road got paved for The Simpsons to make Treehouse of Terror be presented.

Roseanne is technically not the first to make Halloween on television. But in terms of her area of TV, this mattered to have the change. But she did change sitcoms of a blue collar environment to have a brighter limelight… and then challenged a studio to do the same for Halloween.

For the season four Commentary, of Trick Me Up, Trick Me Down she shared a story about how she put her career on the line to get Halloween on television. Remember the timeline I mentioned earlier with Roseanne taking place before The Simpsons?

BOO! Came out in 1988, it predates The Treehouse of Horror, and other horror themed Halloween specials.

Roseanne sat with the company Carsey-Warner (the studio, responsible for shows like Roseanne as well as third rock from the sun and grounded for life). There were disagreements made about presenting the Season 2 Halloween episode to be more horror themed.

She was told that she could have this, make the whole special the way she pitched—-but if it didn’t work out, she had to take the hit for her own choice to have horror mixed with Halloween.

And it did.

Because of that gamble, this is what it led to. We ended up getting other shows that gave their own spin on Terror with taste. And that leads to other specials, taking it a little bit further, but we wouldn’t have gotten there if Roseanne didn’t do it first. (Not first but one of the more successful!)

It was made for an audience that can take a little bit more terror in a fun way. Like it or not. Roseanne has the same spirit of Halloween like many of us do that love a little bit more blood and guts.

I’m a Roseanne fan, and her show felt the most like my own home. The Connor Clan had a humor similar to my own that kept me a fan. The Halloween specials were my first in a series to celebrate. I loved their prank wars and elaborate costume but above all, I loved the spirit of Halloween that was presented just like the premiere.

That was where the Halloween specials went in the future. That was how Roseanne‘s gamble of Halloween on sitcoms went that be the greenlight for others to get a little bit creative with Halloween …and an audience that still comes back to These specials.

She showed the families that don’t have traditional Halloween celebrations. Not everyone celebrates Halloween the same way, which is refreshing, but it was nice to see it reflected on television for once. Time had to change and Roseanne was one of all people that carried that Halloween celebration of horror to TV.

The Halloween specials did not run as long as Roseanne‘s airtime, so it exists in a time period before the comedian got too controversial for her work to be too affected. The legacy is still there in eight Halloween episodes that gave us Halloween lovers gave us a fright for a delight.

So if you are looking for another Halloween special to get into then I would recommend

Season 2 : Boo!

the introduction to how the Connors celebrate the spookiest time of the year with Roseanne and Dan having a prank off

Season 3: Trick or Treat

Roseanne and Jackie end stranded at the lounge with Roseanne having way too much fun with how her Halloween costume blends in)

Season 4: Trick me up, Trick me Down Roseanne believes her snobby neighbor is out to get her

Season 5: Halloween IV:

being down in the dumps, Rosanna is visited by the ghost of Halloween past, present, and future .

Season 6: Halloween V:

Roseanne tries to get DAN to do one of his famous pranks for Nancy

Season 7: Skeleton In The Closet

It has one of the best written pranks that just needs to be experienced.

Season 8: Halloween - The Final Chapter

Roseanne’s (extremely overdue) baby is born on her favorite time of the year, and serves as a tribute to Jerry Garcia.

If you want to check out more TV analysis like these, check out The Screen Queen on any Podcast platform.

Take care ❤️