In 1987, the family sitcom was turned upside-down. No longer would pretty, slim, sweet TV moms rule the roost, because Roseanne Barr’s “domestic goddess,” with a penchant for verbal sucker punches and extra large pizzas, gave Carol Brady, Shirley Partridge, and June Cleaver the size 8 boot. Barr was a standup pioneer, and unlike her predecessors Phyllis Diller and Joan Rivers, didn’t emit an ounce of self-deprecation. She had other stuff to yell about: patriarchy, children, Republicans, rednecks, and anyone she found annoying, which was just about everyone. Her sitcom reign was one of the longest ever for a former standup, and her braying attacks and painfully sharp witticisms have only become more biting and more interesting with age. Now a “Neo-Amazonian Pirate Queen,” Barr champions “all that does not suck.” Lead on, Pirate Queen, lead on.
Fri., May 8, 8 p.m., 2015
