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Published Jul 7, 2026, 9:02 AM EDT
Cathal Gunning has been writing about movies, television, culture, and politics online and in print since 2017. He worked as a Senior Editor in Adbusters Media Foundation from 2018-2019 and wrote for WhatCulture in early 2020. He has been a Senior Features Writer for ScreenRant since 2020.
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While Roseanne had plenty of memorable episodes that focused on real-life issues, the sitcom that spawned The Conners outdid itself with one outing 32 years ago. Although the success of The Simpsons makes it by far the most famous family sitcom from the '90s, this sometimes means that the adult animated comedy overshadows its contemporaries. After all, it is undeniably impressive that The Simpsons is both the longest-running sitcom in American TV history and the longest-running animated comedy of all time, but no other show could compete with these records.
Thus, it is easy for viewers to forget that '90s family sitcoms like Married… With Children, King of the Hill, Everybody Loves Raymond, and The Fresh Prince of Bel Air all helped shape the zeitgeist of the decade, too. While The Simpsons is still releasing new episodes in 2026, one of its greatest early competitors, Roseanne, managed to last for nine seasons in its original run, only to then spawn a one-season revival in 2017 that led to a seven-season spinoff called The Conners.
Named after its title character, Roseanne Barr’s perpetually overworked Roseanne Conner, Roseanne told the story of a working-class middle-American family struggling to live from paycheck to paycheck. While both earlier and later family sitcoms like Full House and Modern Family often ignored issues of class and money outright, Roseanne tackled generational poverty, debt, unemployment, and disability, as well as addressing other major social issues like addiction, alcoholism, and parental abuse with unexpected depth and dexterity.
Roseanne Season 7 Episode 9 Tackled Racism
Image courtesy of Everett CollectionThis might make Roseanne seem like a thoroughly tough watch, but the show predated the era of dark family “dramas” that masquerade as comedies, such as Hulu’s hit The Bear, Succession, or Shameless. No, Roseanne remained a straightforward sitcom complete with a laugh track, which made the show’s ability to gracefully address major, serious social issues all the more impressive. This trend arguably peaked with season 8, episode 11, “December Bride,” a Christmas special that famously featured the first same-sex wedding depicted on network TV.
However, a season earlier, Roseanne had managed to touch on an equally important and contentious issue with season 7, episode 9, “White Men Can’t Kiss.” In this outing, Roseanne and Dan’s young son, DJ, refused to kiss his Black classmate, Geena, in his school play because, according to DJ, “She looks so different.” This prompted his parents to question their unspoken prejudices, as the pair considered themselves to be open-minded parents and had assumed they were raising anti-racist children.
Although The Conners forgot about DJ during the spinoff’s run, his role in “White Men Can’t Kiss” proves that he played a pivotal part in Roseanne’s original lineup. The gormless but good-natured DJ was a foil for his parents, as he was rebellious throughout the original show, but only inasmuch as his firebrand of a mother also didn’t take well to arbitrary authority. DJ was also obstinate and stubborn, but this was clearly copied from his stoic father Dan’s unyielding attitude.
Roseanne’s “White Men Can’t Kiss” Was Important For Network Sitcoms
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Since Roseanne had already made it clear that DJ’s personality was a mirror of his two parents, “White Men Can’t Kiss” made it uncomfortably obvious that Dan and Roseanne were responsible for his racist outlook. This was a daring choice at a time when '90s network sitcoms were often accused of ignoring race, specifically by subscribing to a “Color blind” or “Post-race” outlook wherein every character was treated the same and any racial differences were either ignored or avoided via careful casting.
Friends is infamously remembered for this, as the show’s main and supporting cast were almost universally white despite how diverse its New York City setting was in reality. However, Seinfeld had the same issue, while family sitcoms like Married… With Children, Home Improvement, and Everybody Loves Raymond were arguably even worse offenders. Since they were set in the suburbs, these shows often simply avoided mentioning any Black characters or limited them to minor supporting roles.
In contrast, much like Roseanne didn’t shy away from addressing parental abuse in one of the show’s best episodes, the series didn’t give itself a free pass to avoid difficult conversations around race, either. In season 6, episode 11, “The Driver’s Seat," DJ went on an impulsive joyride in Roseanne’s car, resulting in his mother beating him when she heard about the incident.
Roseanne’s decision to beat her son defined this episode’s story, with her eventually apologizing to DJ in one of the show’s most moving moments. In that episode, Roseanne conceded that her abusive father’s reliance on corporal punishment had impacted her parenting, much like she was forced to admit that her and Dan’s shared failure to educate their children about race had resulted in DJ’s irrational issues with his classmate.
Roseanne’s Spinoff The Conners Paid Off This Episode 23 Years Later
Unlike “The Driver’s Seat,” “White Men Can’t Kiss” doesn’t wrap up its story with a comparatively uplifting moment of hugging and learning. Not only does DJ continue to refuse to take part in the school play, but Roseanne is unnerved by her own racism when she almost locks a Black man out of The Lunchbox only to discover that he is the angry father of DJ’s classmate, there to confront her about the play.
Roseanne’s season 10 revival revealed that this sad story did have a belated happy ending thanks to the show’s time jump. DJ eventually married his Black classmate Geena offscreen, and they have a child together in The Conners. Although DJ’s role in The Conners is relatively minimal, this still made for an unexpected and hopeful end to the episode’s surprisingly heavy story.
“White Men Can’t Kiss” was always a strong episode, but the outing is even more impressive on a re-watch in 2026. Considering the fact that even more recent hit sitcoms like The Big Bang Theory almost never addressed race, the daring of the sitcom’s writing is to be commended. This is all the more noticable since Roseanne and The Big Bang Theory even have a lot of cast members in common.
Related
The Conners Effectively Confirms Its Official Roseanne Replacement, And It Makes A Lot Of Sense
Roseanne will always be an important part of its story, but The Conners has no choice but to replace him, and frankly, ABC's choice makes sense.
Often, issues of race were only mentioned in passing by '90s sitcoms, or never addressed at all. When they were the subject of a storyline, it was typically only so the show could reassure viewers that such social problems as outdated or irrelevant. As such, The Conners and Roseanne deserve credit for taking race seriously in an era when this was a rare approach in the genre.
Release Date 1988 - 2018-00-00
Showrunner Bruce Helford
Directors Andrew D. Weyman, Gail Mancuso, John Pasquin, John Whitesell, Philip Charles MacKenzie
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Roseanne Barr
Roseanne Conner
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English (US) ·