sitcoms – Page 4 – 714 Delaware St. Podcast

S4 E8: Don’t Go Chasin’ Waterbeds

In our new episode, we discuss The Conners “Three Exes, Role Playing and A Waterbed” and “Spills, Pills and The Midnight Lasagna” — but first, we have to get down to business re: our sadness over the recent passing of so many icons of television, music and film, particularly Betty White and Ronnie Spector (little-known fact: Ronnie sang the theme song to Roseanne Barr’s short-lived cartoon show Little Rosey!). We also dig into all the great stuff we’ve been watching over the holidays, namely Yellowjackets and The Beatles: Get Back. We’re head over heels for these shows and we’ll shout it from the rooftops!

But we’re also enjoying The Conners, especially these two zippy episodes that seem, frankly, inspired by our podcast, from the waterbed storyline and very familiar comforter (The Conners, WHY ARE YOU STEALING OUR MEMORIES) to Darlene’s decision to call it quits with the man we have taken to calling Fake Fred Savage. As usual, we enjoy dissecting Darlene’s relationship woes, praising Jay R. Ferguson’s hair, and sinking our teeth into some excellent storylines involving Jackie and Neville and Mark’s Saved by the Bell-esque obsession with pills (he’s so excited…he’s so…scared!). Flop down on your Big Sur waterbed and sail away with us! Listen and subscribe on Apple podcasts.

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S4 E7: Holiday Tidings & Heavy Furniture

We’re dropping one final episode before the holidays! Join us for a discussion of The Conners episode “Yard Sale, Phone Fail, And a College Betrayal” in which Dan finds it hard to part with his and Roseanne’s old bedroom set from Montgomery Ward. We saw fit to pair this with a hidden gem from Roseanne season 1, “Canoga Time,” a fun and cozy episode in which Dan and Roseanne try to part with some of their beloved old kitsch in service of a rummage sale. We consider the connections between these two episodes and the meaning that kitsch objects and furniture seem to hold in both Roseanne and The Conners, and we also have fun diving into these episodes’ b-plots — from Jackie and Booker (George Clooney!) to Darlene and her new beau who, according to Katherine, has the personality of “a styrofoam cup.”

As usual, we can’t help to branch out to other topics, and begin with an in-depth discussion of the Hallmark/Lifetime/Netflix holiday movie-making machine, including takes on new films Love Hard and Single All the Way as well as favorites Snowglobe with Christina Milian (2007), The Christmas Setup with Fran Drescher (2020), and the elusive Shannen Doherty pumpkin fable Growing the Big One (2010). Happy holidays to our listeners!

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S4 E6: Mothers and Daughters and Birth Control Pills

In our latest, we discuss The Conners episode “Let’s All Push Our Hands Together for the Stew Train and The Conners’ Furniture” (ugh, that title!) in tandem with one of Roseanne‘s most memorable Very Special Episodes, “A Bitter Pill to Swallow,” in which Becky asks Roseanne to help her get birth control pills. We take a close look at Darlene and Harris’s fraught relationship and how they might be able to mend it after years of choosing control and defiance over mutual understanding and compassion. We compare Darlene’s parenting with Roseanne and Dan’s strategies (with Jackie’s help) in navigating Becky’s choice to have a sexual relationship with Mark and, above all, take responsibility for her life and health. We also can’t help but tie the conversation around birth control and women’s choices in these episodes to the threats currently facing abortion rights in this country. Join us as we dig deep into these mother-daughter dynamics and issues of women’s agency, plus discussion of Designing Women, Murder, She Wrote, and our dislike of fake Fred Savages.

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S4 E5: A Vest, A Young Guest, and Darlene is a Pest

In this episode, we discuss two very different recent episodes of The Conners. The first is “Peter Pan, The Backup Plan, Adventures in Babysitting, and a River Runs Through It,” a sort of non-Halloween episode that attempts to catch us up on storylines from Darlene’s spiritual quest (Darlene, you’re still doing it wrong) to Becky’s new life as a college student, Emilio’s new girlfriend, Harris’s romance with Aldo (whose children are portrayed as nerd-serial-killer hybrids), and Dan’s somewhat odd obsession with virtual reality. The second and our favorite, “Young Love, Old Love, and Take This Job and Shove It,” introduces one of the first in-depth storylines focusing on the now-teenage Mark, who develops a reciprocated crush on a young, Moonstruck-quoting goth lad named Logan. Join us as we plunge into these storylines as well as such compelling topics as vests and the women who love them (us), Kieran Culkin, The Babysitters’ Club, Saved by the Bell, and Katherine’s obsession with Cher’s aerobics phase.

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S4 E4: Lanford Bridal

It’s the big day for Dan and Louise — the first official wedding on The Conners in the episode “The Wedding of Dan and Louise”! We analyze this episode’s frenzied path to the altar and discuss its relationship with the two most momentous Roseanne original series wedding episodes, “Altar Egos” (Jackie + Fred’s) and “The Wedding” (David + Darlene). As usual, there’s a whole lot happening on the The Conners — Louise is getting cold feet, Darlene and Ben are sniping at each other, Becky and Mikey are doing it in the bathroom, Brian Austin Green is being a charming idiot, and Harris is dating a man we’re pretty sure is Kato Kaelin. We wish for a little more time for reflection for Dan and Louise, whose vows are interrupted by the slowest-moving tornado in history, and for some more Louise-centric scenes, while appreciating some consistent character dynamics and relationship reverberations from the original series through the present-day Conners. Meander with us through all this and additional discussion of Halloween, The L Word: Generation Q, the new Child’s Play series, and the homoerotic camp masterpiece Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy’s Revenge. Listen and subscribe on Apple podcasts!

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S4 E2: Thank You for Being a Conner!

In this episode, we kick off The Conners fourth season with a recap of the gimmicky live episode “Trucking Live in Front of a Fully Vaccinated Studio Audience.” We ask the important questions, like, Why are the Conners obsessed with the word “trucking,” and does it have to do with Jackie’s big-rig experience? Why is Ben such a threatening hipster werewolf? Why is Brian Austin Green so charming? Does Louise REALLY want a fancy wedding cake? Why does Darlene care about the opinion of a psychic — and has the world gone mad? Needless to say, we’re not too thrilled about Darlene’s sudden interest in religion and spirituality, prompted by nothing more than the fact that Ben is an asshole and a psychic told her she had no “light.” We consider the Conners’ history with religion, and where the show might be going with this storyline. Join us for these debates plus forays into topics such as David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, Netflix’s Fear Street series, minor league baseball, and dim-witted assistant managers. Listen and subscribe on Apple podcasts!

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S4 E1: “Rosey” Knows Best

We’re back! We’ve missed you, dear listeners, and we’re excited to embark on the FOURTH season of 714 Delaware St.! On this first episode, we take a deep dive into some Roseanne episodes from the series’ later run, when the show was somewhat preoccupied with referencing the “golden age” television sitcoms that Roseanne Barr and her contemporaries grew up on, like Father Knows Best, Leave it to Beaver, and Gilligan’s Island. We were inspired in part by the new dark comedy Kevin Can F*ck Himself, which similarly engages with the traditional family sitcom, and the biases and retrograde perspective baked into its formula. Throughout its run, Roseanne made a point of reveling in its own deviations from this formula while at the same time emphasizing its place in family sitcom history. This is especially evident in the episodes “All About Rosey: The Clip Show,” in which Roseanne meets a group of sitcom moms from the past; “Sherwood Schwartz: A Loving Tribute,” which revolves around a funny-but-bizarre Gilligan’s Island spoof; and The Fifties Show, which reimagines Roseanne as a Father Knows Best-style wholesome sitcom, with black-and-white format, cigarette commercials and all. We hope you’ll enjoy this academic and nostalgic trip into some truly weird Roseanne before we move on to the new season of The Conners – listen & subscribe!

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S3 E9: The Anxiety Years

In our latest episode, we do our best to catch up with The Conners by discussing “Panic Attacks, Hardware Store and Big Mouth Billy Bass” and “A Stomach Ache, A Heartbreak and a Grave Mistake.” We delve into the show’s realistic depiction of Darlene’s anxiety (featuring Dr. Fred Savage to the rescue!) as well as our own anxiety (Zoom-related and not), imposter syndrome and its relationship to class and gender. We also analyze Ben’s frustrating white-dude hubris, his relationship with Dan, and Jay R. Ferguson’s talent (he DID graduate from Evening Shade University). We also revel in the second episode’s Roseanne-centric plotline, featuring our beloved Patton Oswalt and a fun subplot involving Becky, Harris, Fatal Attraction, and coffee-table books. Join us for all this plus some extra nonsense about massages, furniture-store props, and fake maple syrup.

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S3 E8: A Marvelous Night for a Moondance

In our latest episode, we catch up on The Conners with recaps of “Promotions, Podcasts and Magic Tea” and “Who Are Bosses, Boats and Eckhart Tolle?” We’re happy Darlene’s got a promotion (though a bit confounded by her managerial style) and even happier that the increasingly hairy Ben is following in our podcasting footsteps. But did he really have to “quit” Instacart? Plus, Jackie and Neville trip on “tea,” Jackie preps for Jeopardy! and Dan’s boat envy threatens to ruin his relationship with his longtime friend and business partner, Chuck. We ask the important questions, like, when did Wellman’s get a union? Why isn’t Dan straight-up stoked about cruising Lake Michigan with his BFF (and beer)? Did Dwight and Jackie have a tryst? What exactly IS “herbal tea”? Is this the sink, are we shrinking?!

Join us for all things Conners plus a discussion of our fondest hair removal memories, Van Morrison’s reactionary ways, Meet Joe Black, the most boring episode of The X-Files and our love for Bills Pullman and Hader.

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Special Summer Episode: Mall Madness

Greetings, friends! We hope you’ll enjoy our special summer episode “Mall Madness,” in which we discuss the classic Roseanne season 1 episode “Mall Story.” The Conners, Jackie and Crystal are heading to the mall for a big sale—Dan needs shoes, Becky needs a dress, Crystal needs “taaaahhhhls,” and Jackie needs to admire the pecs on some storefront fitness guru. Laugh along with us at this silly episode’s absurd dialogue, and remember the days when you could not only leave your house and be near other humans, but you could spend hours wandering around one of America’s suburban retail meccas in your coolest jean jacket! Join us as we grab an Orange Julius, try on some synthetic party clothes at DEB, pick up some cassingles at Sam Goody, and check out the dirty novelties in the back of Spencer’s Gifts. Yep, we’re here to talk malls, malls, and nothing but malls, including other mall episodes of such programs as Designing Women, The Nanny, Stranger Things, and Daria, and our own favorite mall memories.

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