one tough mother

F I V E W A Y S " R O S E A N N E " K I C K E D N E T W O R K T V ' S B U T T I N T O T H E N E X T C E N T U R Y ILLUSTRATION BY CHARLIE POWELL

BY JOYCE MILLMAN | during the nine-year run of ABC's "Roseanne," which comes to an end Tuesday evening, Roseanne Conner has been a factory worker, a hairdresser's assistant, a waitress, a lunch counter owner, a TV commentator and a millionaire. She has imagined herself as Lucy Ricardo and Mary Richards. She has been married and separated and kissed a woman on the lips in a lesbian bar. She has been pregnant and considered an abortion. She has been fat and cosmetically enhanced. She's been a mother, a daughter, a sister and a grandmother. It's not that Roseanne Conner was Everywoman. It's more that, like most women, Roseanne Conner (who really can't be separated from her creator, Roseanne Barr Arnold Roseanne) played many roles in life, sometimes all at the same time. But while Roseanne Conner was changeable and volatile and contradictory, viewers always knew where she stood -- with her foot placed firmly on the throat of uptight society. And, more important, she always knew who she was. I can't think of a female sitcom character more self-confident, less regretful, than Roseanne Conner. "Roseanne" was the first of ABC's family-realism sitcoms of the late '80s and '90s (to be followed by "Home Improvement" and "Grace Under Fire"). But Roseanne gave ABC a little more reality, perhaps, than it bargained for. Once she wrestled control of the show from its co-creator and producer, Matt Williams, Roseanne began incorporating bits of her tabloid-ready life into the show. Like its star, "Roseanne" was rough and loose and unpredictable, veering from intense kitchen-sink drama to boisterous comedy, usually within the same episode. "Roseanne" had good seasons and disappointing ones; it weathered personality clashes and accommodated cast members' personal needs (Sara Gilbert and Lecy Goransen's college careers, John Goodman and Laurie Metcalf's movie careers). Like a family, it went on. "Roseanne" was a trailblazing series, but it never seemed to get enough credit (woman's work, you know). Here are five ways "Roseanne," and Roseanne, changed TV. 1. "Roseanne" was the most female-centric sitcom in TV history.