8. Roseanne Winning The Lottery (Season 9, Episode 2)
I never actually saw this season of Roseanne but having read the program synopsis and fan reactions to this (as well as it being featured on many other Shark Jumping lists) you cant really ignore it. Roseanne was an American sitcom based in the life of a hard working class family; a show which made Roseanne Barr and John Goodman household names. The premise of the show was very basic by todays standards; both parents working to bring home a very limited income to support their family of 3 4 kids, but this was revolutionary at the time, considered one of the first American sitcoms to address many taboo areas like gay rights, alcoholism, domestic violence and abortion, but also to have a strong female lead who was loved because of her personality not her looks. The show was a hit throughout most of its run; however when the last season rolled around it was decided that all the values that we had come to love would be thrown out of the window. The family won the state lottery giving them x amount of millions of dollars, needless to say you then see the family rolling with the A list of that day, splurging money left and right, having to deal with rich people problems and even breaking up the then-thought unbreakable and popular relationship of Roseanne and Dan (John Goodman). This was met with fan backlash, the show had been turned completely on its head and it was almost like you were watching a different program; on top of that towards the end it we find out that the whole series was the fictional work of the fictional character Roseanne Barr played in that series, (I thought Lost was complex enough!). That final moment seems to me as a means of saying we changed the show dynamic for the last season because we knew we could redeem ourselves with the oh it was all fake angle in the last episode, I think by that time most of the fans had switched off and didnt find that out until the age of YouTube.