Directed by Gail Mancuso
Written by Allan Stephan
The Conners find themselves going back in time in this spoof of 1950s sitcoms (shot mostly in black and white): Roseanne's a fussy hausfrau, Dan is a hapless businessman stewing over "the Anderson account", and Jackie's the wacky neighbor.
Original airdate, November 7, 1995
Examples
- The '50s: Exactly What It Says on the Tin. The episode is introduced as a "lost pilot" from the fifties and styled like a 50s sitcom. Roseanne is now a classic housewife, Dan rules the house, and Becky sports a ponytail and a poodle skirt.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The episode is all in black and white except for Roseanne's intro describing the "pilot".
- Deliberate Values Dissonance: Most of the jokes are about making fun of past values and morals, such as women needing to be submissive and hide their intelligence, or the promotion of smoking, complete with child-appeal animal mascot.
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Harsher in Hindsight / Hilarious in Hindsight: One of the gags involves the treatment of black people, who wonder if their situation will ever change for the better, adding "Maybe when one of us is President." Roseanne's eventual fall from grace twenty years later leading to her character being killed off would involve racially charged tweets towards an Obama staffer.- The episode itself was directly suggesting that said first black president might be Colin Powell.
- Obfuscating Insanity: Jackie is cast as Roseanne's wacky next door neighbor, who turns out to actually be a covert feminist who drops the façade when Roseanne admits how unhappy she really is as a housewife. She then reveals that women have begun congregating to discuss how miserable they are under the guise of something called a "Tupperware party."Roseanne (shocked at how serious Jackie is): But Jackie, you're so... so wacky!Jackie: THAT'S MY COVER!
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Real-Life Relative: Matthew Fishman, the little brother of Michael Fishman (DJ) plays the cutesy youngest son 'Stinky', who dresses like a cowboy and speaks only a catchphrase about people being in trouble.
