I sorta have to disagree with the underestimation of how important the show was during its initial run. There weren't a lot of shows on TV during the 80s & early 90s featuring a working class, blue collar family in which the mother character was not only the central character, but was also this brash, ballsy loud mouth who said exactly what was on her mind. It wasn't some runway or bikini model, or some other hottie playing the role in which she was gorgeous while the hubby was an overweight, blue collar working man. What I mean is that a lot of sitcoms often feature generally "normal" guys who're married to women who you'd think, just simply based on appearance, would be way out of their league and that wasn't the case here. She was as chubby, as blue collar as "common" as he was and all of that was a rarity. Sort of picture a female Archie Bunker, just without most of the racism, and that's pretty much Roseanne. The show also featured recurring characters who were gay in prominent ways which, again, was very much a rarity during those days; jokes were made because of their homosexuality, as you'd imagine, but, again, it was a very different time in some instances in which bigotry to a certain degree was tolerated. Also, and let's be honest, at some point in our lives, I'd be willing to bet that just about everyone here has laughed and will laugh again at jokes regarding the LGBT community, African Americans, Hispanics, overweight people, etc. that aren't exactly PC. The show was edgy and some of it would be over the line today, but nothing they ever did or said on the show was remotely close to the crap Roseanne was tweeting.

I hadn't watched any of the new episodes that'd been airing but I'm not surprised they were drawing like 20 million viewers. A lot of those viewers have identified themselves as people who're essentially tired of Political Correctness and they like a show with a central character who feels the same way on the show and in real life. I mean, it's far easier to lash out at someone and call them the offspring of the Muslim Brotherhood and the Planet of the Apes than it is to grow, learn and evolve as a person.