Darlene Connor, "Brain-Dead" Poet

Roseanne Barr is a racist, but if you can bear to rewatch the show that made her famous, you get to remember its feminism and one of its brilliant young stars: Sara Gilbert.

If anyone had a poet vibe on the 1980s–1990s sitcom Roseanne, it was Darlene Connor, played impeccably by Sara Gilbert (via Cheat Sheet)

By now, we’ve all absorbed the idea of comfort television. You know, the phenomenon of watching a show you’ve seen a million times instead of starting a new one, something you can leave on in the background. You know it so well that you know where they are and what they’re doing just by listening. It’s, well, comforting.

Not just any show is fit for the moniker of “comfort television.” I mean, sure, there’s probably someone out there who’s watching Breaking Bad or The Sopranos for comfort, but comfort shows typically deal with lighter fare. The stakes are lower, and the plot points are mostly quotidian. NBC even owns a TV channel called Cozi, which is devoted to the fuzzy, 4:3 warmth of easy-to-watch shows like Little House on the Prairie, Frasier, and Roseanne.

There are several shows I leave on in the background for comfort, and lately, Roseanne has been one of them. As a child raised in the midwest in the 1980s, Roseanne feels like home to me.