Laura Petrie

He goes, "Well, I'm a writer in New York City and I travel from the suburbs, and well, I could, I could write about that." He ultimately did that, but what he also did was before they ever filmed a single episode, he wrote 13 episodes of the show during the summer break when he was vacationing on Fire Island, and that was sort of unheard of.

Why would you write 13 episodes never having sold one? But he did, but in doing so, he sort of locked down the characterizations of what Rob Petrie was like, and what Laura Petrie was like, and Buddy, and Sally.

And, and it sort of became the Bible, if you will, because he so firmly grounded the descriptions of those characters that as other writers came along, the foundation was there for them to build on and know how to write for, for the characters.

But what I was gonna tell you was in Carl's original character descriptions, most people don't know that there was consideration for a second Petrie child, a baby to be introduced in that first season, and how, I guess, how that introduction of the baby character would have impacted storylines and impact with the older brother of Ritchie, and all those, all those sorts of things.

So that was discovered through my research at the National Comedy Center out in Jamestown, New York, because Carl's archives were all donated there, and I've done some extensive research there.

Well, I'm sure if it had kept going, eventually they would've had to have a baby or something.

Head of the Family.

Head of the Family.

There's no way I wanna sleep with a dog in my bed." Somebody just has to give and try not to be resentful the rest of their lives?

Yeah, or you do the, uh, "I'll sleep over here, you sleep over there." Twin beds like, uh, Rob and Laura Petrie-

Oh

... on the old time sitcoms, or separate bedrooms even.

But from her hardscrabble life, the former Roseanne Barr... well, former as of 1998, crafted a persona not previously seen in stand-up comedy.

The angry, caustic housewife who didn't take guff from the men in her life, most of whom were jerks anyway, she successfully transformed that persona into a hit sitcom and captured the resentments, frustrations, and even the occasional joys of being a less-than-perfect blue-collar wife and mother in a glamour-obsessed world.

For the most part, she managed to maintain that vision, even as her success propelled her into the financial stratosphere that she ridiculed and her off-camera antics became front-page fodder.

Years from now, when the turmoil and scandals are forgotten, yeah right, the incomparable Roseanne reruns will remain her true legacy.