I would love if early in series Jackie would marry Gary . I realize that show is suppose to revolve around Roseanne with Jackie - supporting character , but maybe they could just kill Gary off later or something . It would be nice to see young , still sane happy Jackie , happily married ..... just my 2 cents :)
shareWell, to get really technical: she met Gary in Season 3. That means she had three more seasons afterwards until she ultimately settled down and married Fred. I don't think those three seasons would've been THAT altered, if Jackie were to had been married to Gary during it—at least partially (as you mentioned, he could have been killed off shortly after, or they simply divorce).
What I'm trying to say is: Jackie was always interesting, whether she was partnered or not. When her character became a caricature, it just happened to be when she married Fred. But by that time, ALL the characters had become caricatures, so we can't blame it on Jackie being married.
None of the characters were recognizable as the seasons went on. I think they should have ended it with season five, and that's kinda pushing it. Roseanne kept changing appearances with her many plastic surgeries, Becky became a non-entity with the recasting of the part (no slant against Sarah Chalke, she just had nothing to do). Mark for some reason became more prominent then Becky in the later seasons. Jackie went slapstick psycho, she was the Kramer of the show all of a sudden.
I'd say John Goodman and Sara Gilbert were the strongest from beginning to end.
Even Boss was barely in some eps, and they addressed this with DJ's photo project, where he only had one of Dan in his chair, but two of the postman, because he was delivering AND picking up mail. Sure, he had his occasional focus, but even with his s9 film schedule aside, he becomes less prominent in later seasons.
Sara's Darlene came in to her own when Lecy left, but was always the more interesting of the two girls, imo.
and yeah Sarah/Becky2 was a total Cousin Oliver that contributed nothing Lecy couldn't have done had she chose a California college instead. I think she went to Vassar, which is in NY state.
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#HowardWasRight
I had no issue with them recasting Becky, but I think they missed a great opportunity to show the differences between the two daughters, to address them. Becky, the one with such promise basically does what Roseanne does with her life by marrying young. And Darlene, the black sheep of the family whose creativity and individualism is exactly what Roseanne aspired to be.
Darlene was more interesting and developed the way she did because, I believe, of Gilbert's involvement. I think she was given a lot of freedom into shaping that character. If someone had invested that much into Becky I think it would have made for a more interesting family dynamic. But the two just shot insults at each other every so often like they did when they were kids. I think the writers didn't know what to do with Becky so, like they did with Jackie, focused on Mark and made him a bumbling idiot. Before he was just a punk kid, then suddenly he turned into a blue collared Gomer Pyle.
But Jackie was the worst offense in terms of changes. Yes, she was a screwed up single 30's something with a checkered dating life. But she seemed human, you could relate to her. By season six she was just wacky as hell. There are small moments in the later seasons that work, but whereas the first four seasons entire episodes work, it wasn't enough to have just moments.
She met Gary in season 2, not 3.
shareI like the idea. I liked Gary. It was sad to see him go and she was devastated when he met someone else. So it was bad for her at the end of it all.
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