Thirty-eight years ago, Roseanne debuted on ABC with the episode “Life and Stuff.”
Airing on Oct. 18. 1988 on ABC, the sitcom introduced fans to the Illinois-based working-class Conner family: Dan (John Goodman), Roseanne (Roseanne Barr), Becky (Lecy Goranson), Darlene (Sara Gilbert), DJ (Sal Barone in the pilot, then Michael Fishman), and Aunt Jackie (Laurie Metcalf).
Reviews were good from the start. In October 1988, The Los Angeles Times described the then-new sitcom as “a rip-roaring romp in which boisterous Roseanne and Dan are often as hilarious and likable as they are loud.”
In the opener, viewers are introduced to the Conners’ chaotic home and sharp-tongued banter as Roseanne nags her unemployed construction worker husband to fix the kitchen sink while she juggles line work at a plastics factory with parental duties such as an impromptu teacher conference. The episode culminates with an end-of-day argument about sharing household responsibilities, with Roseanne and Dan delivering what would be the first of many “corn” jokes during the first season of the sitcom.
“You want me to fix dinner? I’ll fix dinner. I’m fixing dinner!” Dan shouts as he pulls a big can from the pantry.
“Oh, but honey, you just fixed dinner three years ago!” Roseanne replies, before adding, “Oh, we can’t have a big can of corn for dinner!”
The corn theme played out throughout the first season of Roseanne, with the word or a physical piece of corn intentionally hidden in nearly every episode. In the pilot episode’s first minutes alone, Becky Conner is told “Don’t touch that creamed corn!” as she gathers cans for a food drive. In addition, an arrangement of dried corn cobs hangs as décor by the kitchen pantry.
Decades later, fans still post to social media to speculate about the running corn gag on Roseanne, with some assuming it’s a nod to the Midwest corn belt. In a Reddit thread, others speculate that corn was Goodman’s favorite food.
In a 2015 interview with Retro Lady land, Fishman was asked why corn was mentioned in “almost every episode” of Roseanne’s first season.
“Not sure if it really is every episode, but I know they fight over Dan making dinner in the pilot and he picks up cream corn,” Fishman said. “It just became a standard inside joke for us.”
But it was Barr who finally explained why the show was so “corny.”
“Everyone always asks this question: What was the obsession with corn during the first season?” she shared in a fan Q&A. “Yeah, we have a lot of corn jokes and the corn is always kind of visible in every kitchen shot. Basically that was just a statement on how we needed to make everything cornball to be on TV. It was kind of like an artistic rebellion statement.”
While it was most prominent in Season 1, the “corn” theme actually continued throughout Roseanne’s 10-season run, with jokes about corn dog batter, candy corn and boxes of corn flakes visible on the kitchen table.
Roseanne aired from 1988 to 1997 on ABC and was revived for a one-season reboot in 2018.
Related: ‘Roseanne’ Child Star Says Show Was ‘Rightfully Canceled’ 8 Years Ago