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television – 714 Delaware St. Podcast
television – 714 Delaware St. Podcast
98 episodes
5 months ago
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!
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TV Reviews
TV & Film
Episodes (20/98)
television – 714 Delaware St. Podcast
S7 E7: The Grand Finale




What a bittersweet time, listeners: in our latest episode, we discuss the very last episode of The Conners. Someone fetch the Kleenex! In “The Truck Stops Here,” our beloved Conner family is once again saying goodbye, and this time might be even harder than it was in 1997. The finale wraps things up in perfectly imperfect fashion, with Dan (and Louise) surviving a difficult deposition, Jackie (against all odds) rejoining the Lanford PD, Darlene and Ben finally resolving their issues du jour, and Becky and Harris rolling merrily along, both ending the series in a good place. We discuss the episode’s light touch and references to Roseanne, who is present in spirit during a heartfelt scene at the cemetery, and we contrast The Conners‘s ending with Roseanne‘s – it’s almost as though they’re trying to right the wrongs of that show’s off-the-rails final season.



We also discuss the casts’ own thoughts on the ending, as shared in recent interviews, and we consider the “series finale” as a genre, wondering if it’s possible for a long-running sitcom to really meet expectations.



Join us for this tearful goodbye to our favorite family, plus tangents on Friends, Mad Men, Cheers, and more. Thank you for listening through the years! We hope to be back for at least one more episode before saying goodbye ourselves.
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5 months ago

television – 714 Delaware St. Podcast
S7 E6: Mad Dash to Deposition




The Conners is clattering along like a runaway train, cramming as much in as possible ahead of the sixth and final episode. Dive in with us, won’t you? In this installment, we discuss “Danny Boy, the Interview, the New Hire, and the Hanging Chad” and “Exercise Bands, Money Plans, and Faraway Lands.”



There’s good and bad news for our favorite family, as Becky gets a new job and a new truck, Harris snags a cute new boyfriend, and Jackie barrels along, confidently delusional, toward her dream of rejoining the PD. Meanwhile, Mark the cybercriminal improbably goes from sullen fixation on the University of Chicago to a college-free life plan, riding off in a cab like the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air to a new job in New York that somehow he never had to even apply for. We’re…happy for him?



Dan and Darlene aren’t faring as well, with Dan struggling with the stress of his upcoming deposition, and Darlene dealing with an absent Ben and an all-too-present (and cute and David-like) Chad. We don’t like where this is going, and can’t help but be somewhat hurt by what the show is doing to Ben. He loves Darlene and has been a good stepdad! Why is hardware magazine suddenly ruining lives?? And HOW will it all end? We’re nervous.



Join us for this discussion plus tangents on technophobia, Conclave, series finales, John Lithgow, and more. Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts!
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6 months ago

television – 714 Delaware St. Podcast
S7 E5: Reflections on Rosie




In our latest episode, we discuss The Conners season 7 episodes “Fame, Flying Fists and Cold Feet,” and “Applications, Accusations and a Man-Bag.” We’re halfway through the final season and we don’t know how to feel! The main thread in these episodes is that after much family bullying (and an unearthed, heartbreaking text from Roseanne herself), Dan decides moving forward with the lawsuit against the drug companies, with help from charming and hilarious guest star Jane Lynch. But the decision already begins to have consequences when past tensions between Becky and Dan rear their ugly head.



Meanwhile, Darlene meets another charming guest star – Sara Gilbert’s real-life pal Seth Green – at the Lobo while drowning her sorrows about Ben. These two have great chemistry, and we’re worried. Ben, stop treating Hardware Magazine like your own personal Megalopolis and go home and see your wife once in a while!!



Also, Jackie is still gunning (ha) for a position on the Lanford PD, and Neville is back – incredibly wise, quite buff, and working at the zoo. Mark, on the other hand, is the opposite: foolish, willowy, and performing illegal hacking services. He’s a brat and we’re damn sick of it! Where is all of this going? We’ll have to wait and see.



Stay tuned for this plus digressions on Ransom Canyon, the late-80s Justine Bateman film Satisfaction, Thora Birch, Chi-Chi’s and more. Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts!




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6 months ago

television – 714 Delaware St. Podcast
S7 E4: Second Chances & Backward Glances




We’re back for one more round! Join us as we discuss The Conners’ final season. Our discussion of episode 1, “It’s Gonna Be a Great Day,” is tinged with wistful sadness as we contemplate the end of our favorite family’s story. First of all, we’re hit with a gut punch of grief as the episode dares to invoke then name “Roseanne.” Jackie has gotten the idea that the family should bring a lawsuit against the drug company responsible for her death and, in typical Jackie fashion, she goes from zero to sixty, bullying Dan into joining a fight that is certain to open old wounds. In addition to considering lawsuits, Jackie has apparently been listening to 714 Delaware St in her downtime, as she contemplating a return to the Lanford Police Force! Age and physical requirements be damned — can she actually do it? Laurie Metcalf’s daughter, portraying a dismissive young policewoman, surely doesn’t think so. We think it might be better to open the Jackie Harris Detective Agency, our brilliant idea for a spinoff that ABC should really consider.



In other unfortunate news, Ben has shaved his beard, and he’s going whole hog on Hardware Magazine, throwing caution to the wind and inspiring predictable plot lines about couples not getting enough time together. And Becky and Tyler are more in love than ever, which is causing problems for her master’s thesis.



Give us a listen for all this plus tangential discussions on Beyond the Gates, Elizabeth Taylor,After Midnight, Jason Ritter vs. Josh Ritter, “Power-down TV,” and how we maybe want to see Arnie come back. Just for a scene. Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts!
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7 months ago

television – 714 Delaware St. Podcast
S7 E3: Roseanne, I’m a Cop.




Roseanne, I’m a cop: the famous words uttered by Jackie Harris in the original series of Roseanne, eventually becoming I was a cop but no less bursting with pride. As The Conners draws to a close and our time with the inimitable Jackie Harris dwindles down, we decided to take a look at what Jackie continues to remember as one of the high points of her life: her brief stint as an officer on the Lanford police force, a time when she wore a blue uniform and spent her days “printing perps” and “frisking biscuits.” We look back at four episodes of classic Roseanne: season two’s “Little Sister, “Lobocop” and “All of Me,” and season 3’s “Goodbye, Mr. Right,” exploring why this career was so meaningful to Jackie and how it impacted her relationship with the aforementioned “Mr. Right,” aka the sometimes-likable-sometimes-terrible Gary. Through these episodes, we also learn a lot about Jackie’s approach to relationships, and the regular disrespect—played for laughs—she endures from other characters. While an injury in the line of duty prompted Jackie to impulsively quit the police force, leading to her stint as a trucker and finally as proprietor of the Lanford Lunch Box, we wonder what might have been for our Woman in Blue.



Join us for this plus a discussion of what Jackie’s apartment decor reveals about her personality, vampire stuff, the newest Lindsay Lohan Netflix movie, Hot Frosty, Man on the Inside, and more. Listen and subscribe on Apple podcasts!
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11 months ago

television – 714 Delaware St. Podcast
S7 E2: SAD Man on Campus




In our latest, we discuss The Conners episodes “Flying, Applying and Rassling Gators,” and “Less Money, More Problems,” wrapping up season 6! The main focus of these episodes is Mark, who is in “SAD” sack mode, unhappy with his lot in life and his less-than-prestigious education at Steven Douglas University (otherwise known as SAD U). Never mind that Mark strived and sort-of-cheated and contrabassoon-played his way into this little institution that could, or that Darlene has debased herself as a lunchwoman so he can afford it — we are told it is Beneath him and, thanks to Becky’s meddling, he falls into a University of Chicago-fueled funk that leads to some very questionable decisions. We love Mark and don’t doubt he has earned his reputation as the genius golden child, but we wonder: is he really suffering at SAD U, or is the University of Chicago just blinding him with its ritzy top-tier-ness? Should he rethink his chosen major of “AI”? Is ALL the money Ben JUST received from the hardware store fire indeed already gone, sunk into a hardware trade magazine in the year 2024? And finally, will The Conners end with Mark going to prison?



Meanwhile, Harris and Becky decide to move out, which puts Darlene into a brief tailspin — but we’re excited for Harris — a Conner child getting her own place is cause for celebration! Even though Darlene, forever neglecting her sharp and savvy eldest child, fails to appreciate it. And in cuddly news, Becky is getting majorly serious with Tyler, who Katherine calls “a cardigan sweater with a pulse.”



Join us for this discussion plus more on spooky-season favorites Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal and Unsolved Mysteries (again), Hulu’s Social Studies, and why high-top tables are truly the worst. Listen and Subscribe on Apple Podcasts!
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1 year ago

television – 714 Delaware St. Podcast
S7 E1: Magazine Dreams & Internal Flames




We’re back for our (final??) season! After a summer hiatus, we’re finishing up season 6 of The Conners ahead of the show’s final season. (We’ll also have some classic Roseanne analysis in store this season, so please join us!) In this installment, we discuss The Conners season 6 episodes “Campaign U-Turn and a Hard Write” and “Fire and Vice.” First up, we have some shenanigans surrounding Louise’s school board campaign and Jackie’s general mania, and Ben’s jealousy toward Dan, who has an unexpected writing gig for “Hardware Magazine.” We discuss Ben’s complicated emotions toward Dan: namely, he tries to compete with him while also kind of worshipping him? In the next episode, Hardware Magazine (a name we think COULD allow a shift to adult subject matter, if the publisher were so inclined) strikes again as Ben’s substantial insurance windfall from the hardware store fire leads him to one obvious conclusion: he will buy Hardware Magazine! But… hold on, wait… couldn’t they pay off their bills and like, get jobs they actually want? Is the insurance money earmarked for hardware purposes? We’re told this is Ben’s “dream,” but like Darlene, we’re skeptical about its viability. Lastly, on a more serious note, we turn to an emotional plot line about Becky, whose new internship at a rehab clinic is seriously endangering her mental health and her recovery. It’s a relief when, just like in classic Roseanne days, Jackie steps in with a shoulder to cry on and words of support.



Join us for this plus tangents on Evil, Olympic surfing, the new Beavis and Butthead, Meryl Streep and Martin Short, Ancient Aliens and more. Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts!
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1 year ago

television – 714 Delaware St. Podcast
S6 E7: All the Meals and All the Feels




In our latest, we start to wrap up season 6 of The Conners, discussing the episodes “Toilet Hacks and the Management Track” and “Manifesting, Marriage Testing, and Cheeseballs.” We have a lot of opinions and feelings about these lively episodes, with questions such as: Why is Darlene staging a decidedly unrealistic takeover of the college cafeteria, and then dumping all the work on poor Harris? (And isn’t it some kind of violation to haul a batch of off-site burgers into the caf?) Why does Dan decide to make extra money through the highly specific scheme of toilet-seat-screwing-on classes? Why are Ben and Darlene always manufacturing drama in their clearly close and loving relationship? (And what are Jay R. Ferguson’s hair secrets?) Oh yeah… and why, exactly, is Louise running for school board? (We still don’t get it.)



We pay special attention to the plot about Harris, who is diagnosed with ADHD and is struggling to manage the onslaught of work that her (thoughtless?) mother has piled upon her. As usual, we love to get riled up about our most vexing Conner, Darlene!



In addition, we discuss the news that season 7 will be The Conners‘ last (tears!), the bummer that is Under the Bridge, Katherine’s soon-to-be-hit song “Lady Cop,” The Most Dangerous Animal of All and the David Fincher film Zodiac (a masterpiece!), To Catch a Thief, and more. Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts!




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1 year ago

television – 714 Delaware St. Podcast
S6 E6: The Mark Healy Show




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!
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1 year ago

television – 714 Delaware St. Podcast
S6 E5: Mysteries of Crystal, Cringe, and Pineapple Upside-Down Cake




In our latest, we discuss The Conners, “When Sisters Collide and the Return of the Grifter” and “Hanging in Dorms with Boys and the Secret Life of Men,” the first of which most notably features the triumphant-yet-brief return of our beloved Crystal (Natalie West), friend of Roseanne and Jackie and second wife of Dan’s father, Ed. Crystal appears amid another dispute between Dan and Neville over money, through which they eventually bond over daddy issues. We are interested in Crystal’s negative characterization of her relationship with Ed, and curious about her potentially distant relationship with Jackie. More Crystal, please! We also revisit a common Conners thread: tension between Darlene and Becky, as a fight over who’s smarter leads Darlene down a cringeworthy path to Mark’s favorite college-kid trivia night. Darlene, why are you SO embarrassing?



In the latter episode, the ever-charming Sean Astin returns as Becky’s beau Tyler – and things are getting serious! Darlene wants Ben to make more guy friends, and he and Tyler form an awkward acquaintance-ship that involves hiding out at Neville’s veterinary hospital, petting and singing to sick animals. Also, Harris is hanging around Mark’s dorm room too much and even though the boys love her, it’s WEIRD. Is Harris destined to become as embarrassing as Darlene? Say it ain’t so!



Tune in for discussion of all this as well as Maura’s strange tale of a ghostly pineapple upside-down cake, Katherine’s experience with puppy yoga, Girls 5Eva, Carol and the End of the World, The Summer I Turned Pretty, male strip clubs and what makes for good trivia. Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts!


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1 year ago

television – 714 Delaware St. Podcast
S6 E4: 1 Tearful Adieu and 3 Terrible Ideas




In our latest, we discuss two somewhat strange Conners episodes, “Moms and Rats” and “Shrinks Don’t Talk and Kids Don’t Sing.” In “Moms and Rats,” we deal with the fallout from Jackie’s dumbass credit card fraud scheme (terrible idea #1). And in light of her tearful trainside goodbye with Bev, we wonder if in fact we are saying goodbye to our favorite nonagenarian for good – say it ain’t so! In the latter episode, Mark is bummed about being a lonely college commuter, but Darlene’s response, and the show’s tenuous-at-best grasp of how college works, are truly vexing. Are there solutions that could have been tried BEFORE Darlene decided to get Mark a job as a student custodian (terrible idea #2), complete with blue jumpsuit? Yes, many. The bottom line is, Darlene is cramping Mark’s growth and independence. Will the show reckon with this, or will she continue ruining Mark’s life unabated? Meanwhile, Louise is teaching music at Beverly Rose’s school and becomes embroiled in a culture war, which leads to Becky cosplaying Say Anything with a cube-shaped boombox, and Louise deciding to run for school board (terrible idea #3). Well Conners, at least you’re not boring!



In addition to mulling these new developments, we revel in the episodes’ offbeat humor, consider Becky’s potentially Old America-inspired taste in decor, and follow digressions on Maura’s suspended Facebook profile, Rosemary’s Baby, the Pittsburgh “butthole window,” Costco, and Mrs. Claus’s hairstyle. Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts!










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1 year ago

television – 714 Delaware St. Podcast
S6 E3 Bev, Bitterness & Beyond




The Conners season 6 is here, and we’re diving in (albeit a little bit late) with the first two episodes, “The Publisher Cops Show Pilot” and “Valentine’s Day Treats and Credit Card Cheats”! In the first episode, we find the Lunch Box receiving the “Restaurant Rescue” treatment with special guest star Nick Offerman, and though we support anything to keep the restaurant going, we wonder if it’s all a bit abrupt. Does Harris really want to run the place? Will she have what it takes to keep it afloat? We consider emotional weight of the Lunch Box and its meaning in Conner family history, as both a connection to Roseanne and a reminder of a time at which Jackie felt truly successful and stable. We also explore familiar territory with the latest installment of the Emotional Roller Coaster of Darlene Conner, who wears her career choice to be a lunch lady with a very-Roseanne-Conner mix of defiant pride and bitterness.



In the second episode, we get to see our favorite nonagenarian – Bev Harris, played by the great Estelle Parsons! But Jackie’s making poor decisions again, parlaying a round of irresponsible spending from Bev into an extremely ill-conceived fraud scheme. The episode leaves us hanging, and we’re truly concerned – is Jackie going to go to prison? Will she be working on a chain gang before the season is out? Only time will tell.



Join us for all this plus more on our enjoyment of the show’s crude jokes, Dan and Darlene’s VERY embarrassing game of “Kiss, Marry, Kill,” Jon Stewart, Russian Doll, Ortega brand Mexican food products, and The Monkees. Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts!
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1 year ago

television – 714 Delaware St. Podcast
S6 E2: The Case of the Disappearing Baby




We’re back, listeners – for real this time! Ahead of next month’s premiere of season 6 of The Conners, we’re looking at two episodes from Roseanne‘s later seasons that focus on a plot point that’s been bugging us throughout the run of this podcast: Jackie and Fred’s child, Andy. The Conners has wiped Andy from existence for reasons unknown, but a look at season 7 episode “Nine Is Enough” and season 8 episode “Let Them Eat Junk” demonstrates Jackie’s once all-consuming, unhinged and obsessive love for her now-disappeared baby. In “Nine Is Enough,” a hilarious episode that revolves around the Conners’ overcrowded house (and Dan shaving his armpits and being weird about it), Jackie’s overprotective, controlling attitude surrounding the baby has put a wall between her and Fred that never really seems to come down. In “Let Them Eat Junk,” this same parenting approach causes problems between Jackie and Roseanne, who violates Jackie’s “no junk food” rule, resulting in some soul-searching for Roseanne regarding her relationship to food, as passed down by Bev. We discuss how high-strung Jackie is in these two episodes, and how much more in line this late-Roseanne characterization is with the way she is depicted on The Conners, albeit without the presence of Andy. We also have some fun with Bev and a lively discussion of the differences between Sarah Chalke-Becky and Lecy-Becky.



Join us for all this plus digressions on Willem Dafoe (his charm and small stature). Beef, The Bear, our hatred for Incubus, May December, Loudermilk, the terrifying 1845 children’s book Struwwelpeter, Frog and Toad, and Cher’s Christmas song. Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts!


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1 year ago

television – 714 Delaware St. Podcast
S6 E1: Chicken & Rodbell’s

Greetings, long-lost listeners – we’re back for season 6! Though the SAG-AFTRA strike continues and The Conners is indefinitely on hold (and we support the striking actors – give them what they deserve, ya greedy bastards!), we’re starting slow this season with some relevant Roseanne reflections. In the spirit of the summer of labor, we take a look at two deeper cuts from the original series that deal with job woes: “Chicken Hearts” (season 2) and “Like, A New Job” (season 3). The first of the two revolves around Roseanne’s employment at a degrading fast-food chicken joint where she has a total American Psycho of a teenage boss; the second, which takes place in our favorite-ever-fake-restaurant Rodbell’s, depicts Roseanne’s struggle to cede control at home to Dan while working long hours. We discuss the theme that dominates these episodes – the struggle of raising a family while working menial jobs that don’t even treat you like a human being – and we also consider Roseanne’s tendency to vilify middle management types as stand-ins for corporate America or government.



Join us for this discussion plus digressions on What We Did On Our Summer Vacation, Becky’s Fabio hair, Darlene’s “big butt” jokes, wooden console TVs, and smoking on TV. Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts!




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2 years ago

television – 714 Delaware St. Podcast
S5 E12: Finale Feelings




In our latest episode, we finish out season 5 of The Conners, discussing three Mark-related episodes: “What’s So Funny Bout Peas, Love and Understanding,” “Dating, Drinking and Grifter Logic,” and “The Grad Finale.” As Mark graduates from high school, we consider his role in the family as the one expected to achieve a type of conventional success no Conner has: attend a 4-year college and graduate. We’re dubious about Darlene’s decision to work in the college cafeteria in order to get a break on tuition, but it squares with her desire to give Mark the kinds of advantages she never had. We’re excited for Mark, and we DO hope he majors in the humanities (ahem, BEN)! We ruminate on a few other storylines — Dan and Neville’s conflict over money, Sean Astin as Becky’s new beau, Mark’s overbearing suitor James — before coming to perhaps this group of episodes’ most significant plot point: Mark’s non-relationship with his father, David. We air our confusion and frustration over the direction The Conners has taken David’s character — to full deadbeat dad territory — when we have such residual fondness for David Healy, and we discuss Mark’s rollercoaster of emotions when it comes to his dad and his stepdad.



Join us for these discussions plus digressions on Katherine’s recent experience in the Hamptons, Jaclyn Smith for Kmart, sweatpants, cocktails, and more. Listen and subscribe on Apple podcasts!








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2 years ago

television – 714 Delaware St. Podcast
S5 E11: Big Rigs, Bodysuits, and the Rock-afire Explosion




We’re winding down season 5 of The Conners on our latest episode, discussing “Road Trip and Guilt Trip” and “Text Thread and the Marital Bed.” These two minor episodes don’t have too much to offer, though they do provoke plenty of speculation about topics including exactly how recently Jackie revived her career in the big rigs, whether there is an agreed-upon strategy for married couple finances, if an iPhone 4 would actually even work anymore, and most importantly, whether Chuck E. Cheese left his former ShowBiz Pizza bandmates to become the Foo Fighters to their Nirvana (or the Frasier to their Cheers). We enjoy more of Sara Gilbert’s tomfoolery this season and she cavorts around the living room in a leopard-print bodysuit, and we discuss Katherine’s love of another bodysuit-heavy program, Physical with Rose Byrne.



Join us for this random chatter plus even MORE randomness on the travesty that is the new Fatal Attraction series, our love of bad songs “I Wanna Kiss You All Over” and “She Drives Me Crazy,” Basic Instinct and the fantastic new season of You Must Remember This, Are You There God, It’s Me Margaret? and more. Listen and subscribe on Apple Podcasts!
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2 years ago

television – 714 Delaware St. Podcast
S5 E10: Nielsen Family Values




In our latest, we discuss The Conners season 5 episode “The Contra Hearings and the Midnight Gambler” alongside a classic Roseanne from season 7, “Couch Potatoes.” In particular we compare the plot of the family trying to impress Mark’s music teacher – played by guest star Whoopi Goldberg – with the memorable Roseanne moment when the Conners were selected to be a Nielsen family and have their TV-watching habits monitored. These plots both follow one of the shows’ favorite themes: that the Conner family is, as Roseanne puts its, “white trash and we’re gonna stay white trash until they haul us out to the curb.” We consider Roseanne’s and Darlene’s attempts to fit into a “classier” or more highbrow echelon of society, and how through the generations, the Conners seem to become more and more secure in embracing who they are.



Join us for this discussion plus Becky’s short-lived gambling addiction, Ben and Darlene as Peanuts characters, our love for Sister Act, disturbing novelty t-shirts, the 2019 BBC series Dublin Murders, and much more.
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2 years ago

television – 714 Delaware St. Podcast
S5 E8: Designated Basket Case: Family Trauma in Roseanne




In our latest episode, we take a look back at two classic Roseannes that focus on Roseanne and Jackie’s father Al Harris: “This Old House” and “Wait ‘Til Your Father Gets Home.” These are two of the series’ most memorable episodes, as they reveal the physical abuse Roseanne and Jackie suffered as children and chronicle their efforts to heal — a process still ongoing for Jackie and Bev in The Conners. We consider the way trauma from the past seemed to shape Roseanne and Jackie’s lives, as well as how recent revelations on The Conners shape our own understanding of these episodes and all that remains unspoken about the Harris family.



We also discuss Roseanne Barr’s own public revelation, in 1991, that she was sexually abused by her parents — an accusation she partially retracted in the 2010s — and how she seemed to be wrestling with her own past during the years these episodes aired. We also talk about Roseanne’s then-partner Tom Arnold, who was seen at the time as riding Roseanne’s coattails but whose own childhood pain inspired a key part of “Wait ‘Til Your Father Gets Home.”



While this conversation can get a bit heavy, we have our comedic diversions as always, including string cheese, Barbra Streisand’s basement mall, MTV Beach House memories and more. Listen and subscribe on Apple podcasts!




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2 years ago

television – 714 Delaware St. Podcast
S5 E7: Caretaking and Memory-Making




In our latest, we catch up with The Conners episodes “Stuck in the Middle and Stuck in the Past” and “New Pipes and Old Secrets,” both of which address issues of aging, memory, and child-parent dynamics. First of all, we have some fun with Ben, Darlene and Becky’s feud, including imagining David’s dynamic with Ben (should Johnny Galecki EVER return). We also revel in the show’s newfound willingness to refer to Roseanne openly and deal with her absence directly – an issue that comes up both in the plot about Dan’s loneliness and anxiety and Jackie’s efforts to find a caretaker for Bev. Most of all, we’re interested in the issues dredged up by Bev’s plotline – in particular new revelations about her abusive marriage and wounds that have yet to heal. Have we mentioned our love for amazing national treasure Estelle Parsons?



Join us for these discussions, plus enthusiasm for Poker Face and Party Down, the opposite of enthusiasm for berets, and Maura and Katherine’s memories of visiting Wisconsin Dells, midwestern Xanadu, as children. Listen and subscribe on Apple podcasts!
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2 years ago

television – 714 Delaware St. Podcast
S5 E6: Tales from the Lobo




In our latest episode, we discuss The Conners “Two More Years and a Stolen Rose,” which takes us all the way back to season 1 Roseanne with a reference to “Dan’s Birthday Bash,” an episode in which Dan’s birthday devolves into two fights — one with a snow-plowing brute named Bobo (Eric Allen Kramer) and the other with an even scarier adversary: Roseanne herself. In “Two More Years,” Dan meets up with a wealthy former classmate (William H. Macy) at the memorial for his beloved high school English teacher and has to face facts about his life — plus another close encounter with the one and only Bobo! While side-eye-ing the somewhat convoluted plot (they are just NOW, at 60-something years old, receiving letters they wrote to themselves in high school??) and previously-unheard-of character Smitty, we cheer the revival of our much-beloved Lobo Lounge, the dive bar that has lived in our hearts all these years. We analyze the connections between these two episodes from over 30 years apart and what they tell us about Dan Conner, his evolution, and the anxieties he seems to return to again and again.



Join us for this rousing discussion plus a bit on Becky and Darlene’s living situation, our disappointment in Wednesday, the throwback trend of “case-of-the-week” TV, and more.
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2 years ago

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!