Trivia: Brash and brassy comedian Roseanne is a one-of-a-kind talent who during her career has undergone many substantial changes that have transformed her from trailer-trash queen to one of the most powerful women in Hollywood. Around age 18, Roseanne Barr moved to a Colorado hippie commune where she met Bill Pentland. They married in 1973 and moved to Denver, where they struggled to support their three subsequent children. By the mid-'70s, Roseanne was working as both a cocktail waitress and a window dresser to help feed her family. Impressed by her quick, caustic wit and funny insights into women, men, and domestic life, friends and patrons suggested she take her stories on-stage at a local comedy club. It was on-stage where she honed her famous characterization of the dumpy, domineering, and earthy "Domestic Goddess." Within a few years, Roseanne had become one of the most popular standup acts in Denver, and in 1983 she headed for Hollywood to further her career. She quickly landed a gig at The Comedy Store and then appeared on the ABC television special Funny. During rehearsal, she was spotted by a talent scout from The Tonight Show, who promptly booked her for an appearance. It was a great success. In 1988, her innovative and distinguished television sitcom, Roseanne, debuted on ABC and centered on the struggles of an overweight, domineering mother and her raucous, working-class family that is often on the brink of financial and personal crisis but always manages to somehow hang together. Roseanne and her brood were real people facing real problems that weren't always neatly solved in 30 minutes. The shows were often simultaneously poignant and hilarious; until its last two seasons, Roseanne topped the ratings, and won numerous awards and honors. During the course of the show, the many changes in Roseanne's personal life were reflected on the air. When she underwent breast-reduction surgery, her character did too. When she married Tom Arnold in 1990, he became a part of her show and she proudly billed herself as Roseanne Arnold. When the marriage broke up, he disappeared and she began billing herself only as Roseanne. She eventually married her bodyguard Ben Thomas and at the age of 43 had herself impregnated via in vitro fertilization. Her character, Roseanne Conner, also got pregnant. Even the plastic surgeries she has had on her face have received some treatment on the show, in this case via the opening credits, wherein her photographs from the past nine seasons reflect her change from the frowzy to the almost glamorous. Her series ended in May 1997. Though best known for her television work and live performances, Roseanne has also made periodic stabs at a movie career; she made her debut as a vengeful housewife opposite Meryl Streep in the comedy She-Devil (1989). The film received decidedly mixed reviews, and Roseanne's subsequent film appearances have been in cameos or small supporting roles. Over her career, Roseanne has received numerous awards, including an Emmy, several People's Choice Awards, Golden Globes, and an American Comedy Award. She was the fourth woman ever to become the star attraction at a Friar's Club celebrity roast. Back in the late '80s through the early '90s, Roseanne's tumultuous personal life, her often public and ill-timed abrasive nature coupled with her phenomenal popularity made her a favorite target of tabloid newspapers. Never one to shy away from such issues, she tells her own story in two books, the best-selling My Life As a Woman (1989) and My Lives (1994). She has also been frequently skewered by critics and wags who have difficulty accepting the fact that through sheer force of will, she has been able to overcome all obstacles to become a powerful and successful woman.

Trivia: Specializing in playing fanatical or neurotic women, character actress Estelle Parsons has found success on stage, screen, and television, particularly in the latter venue where she is best remembered for playing Roseanne Arnold's screechy, lunatic mother on Roseanne (1988-1997). In show business, Parsons started out as a production assistant and then a staff writer on NBC's Today show, where she was eventually promoted to feature producer.Parsons launched her acting career on-stage in the late '50s. She went on to appear on and off-Broadway and in stock theater, specializing in satirical reviews. The actress made her film debut with a small role in Ladybug, Ladybug (1963). Four years later, she won an Oscar for her portrayal as Blanche in Bonnie and Clyde (1967). She earned a second Oscar nomination for playing a religious fanatic in Rachel, Rachel the following year. Parsons has appeared in many made-for-television movies, notably The UFO Incident (1977), in which she played a woman convinced that she and her husband (played by James Earl Jones) had been abducted by aliens. But for her long stint as a semi-regular on Roseanne, Parsons prefers the stage; her film and television appearances remain sporadic.

Trivia: CCNY and Columbia University alumnus John Randolph was first seen on Broadway in the 1937 opus Revolt of the Beavers. Randolph served in the Air Force in World War II, then resumed what seemed at the time to be an increasingly successful, near-unstoppable acting career. But in 1951, Randolph found himself on a specious "Commie sympathizers" list. After appearing as a hostile witness before the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, Randolph was effectively blacklisted from movies, TV and radio commercials for the next twelve years. Fortunately, he could always rely upon the theatre to provide him an income, though it was touch-and-go for a while when a Broadway show in which he was appearing was picketed by anti-Red zealots. Throughout the 1950s, Randolph was featured in such major stage productions as Come Back Little Sheba, The Visit, Sound of Music and Case of Libel. In 1963, he was at long last permitted to guest-star on a network TV program, The Defenders. Appropriately, it was in an episode titled "Blacklist," which condemned the knee-jerk policy of banning artists because of their political views; ironically, Randolph was very nearly denied the part when the network complained that he hadn't been "cleared." Though he'd played a small part in 1948's The Naked City, Randolph's movie career began in earnest in 1965. In John Frankenheimer's Seconds, he was cast as aging businessman Arthur Hamilton, who through the magic of plastic surgery is given a fresh new identity (he emerges from the bandages as Rock Hudson)! Since his career renaissance, Hamilton hasn't stopped working before the cameras. He has been featured in films like Gaily Gaily (1969), Little Murders (1971), King Kong (1976), Heaven Can Wait (1978) Prizzi's Honor (1985; as Pop Prizzi); in TV movies like Wings of Kitty Hawk (1978; as Alexander Graham Bell) and The American Clock (1993); and as a regular in the TV series Angie (1979) Annie McGuire (1988) and Grand (1990). Though he'd probably rather you not mention it, Randolph is a dead ringer for former attorney general John Mitchell; accordingly, he played Mitchell in the TV miniseries Blind Ambition, and was heard but not seen in the same role in the 1976 theatrical feature All the President's Men. Despite the upsurge in his film and TV activities, Randolph has never abandoned the theatre: in 1986, he won a Tony Award for his work in Neil Simon's Broadway Bound. As if to slap the faces of those self-styled patriots who denied him work in the 1950s, Randolph has in recent years accepted the German Democratic Republic's Paul Robeson Award, and has served on the National Council for US-Soviet friendship. John Randolph has also served on the board of directors of all three major performing guilds: SAG, AFTRA and Equity. After taking on a variety of grandfatherly roles, including Jack Nicholson's father in Prizzi's Honor and Tom Hanks' grandfather in You've Got Mail), Randloph passed away at 88-years-old in April of 2004.

Trivia: Hailing from Texas, actress Anne Wedgeworth first appeared on Broadway in the 1958 production Make a Million. She began making film appearances playing slightly tarnished golddiggers and seductresses in the early '70s. One of Ms. Wedgeworth's best appearances in this vein was in Bang the Drum Slowly (1973), in which she portrays the fading "baseball groupie" who hopes to leech off dying ballplayer Robert De Niro. For her performance as Joyce Rissley in 1977's Citizen's Band (aka Handle with Care), Wedgeworth won the National Society of Film Critics award. Wedgeworth's TV credits include the same role on two separate '70s soap operas: she was Lahoma Vane Lucas on both Another World and its spin-off, Somerset. She also had recurring roles on the weekly series Three's Company (appearing in the 1979-80 season as neighbor Lana Shields) and 1982's Filthy Rich (as Bootsie). Ann Wedgeworth came full circle when she played a supporting role in another "dead baseball player" opus, the made-for-cable Cooperstown (1993).

Trivia: Actress Natalie West is probably most famous for the role of Crystal Anderson Conner on the sitcom Roseanne. The North Dakota native focused primarily on theater throughout her acting career, but made an exception for the recurring role of Crystal, as well as appearances in the films Life Sentence and The Poker House.

Trivia: Matriculating from Illinois State University, actress Laurie Metcalf was one of the charter members of Chicago's groundbreaking Steppenwolf Theatre troupe. She moved on to New York in the early '80s, winning a 1984 Theatre World Award and an Obie for her performance in Balm in Gilead. In films since 1985, the flexible Metcalf has been seen in director Susan Seidelman's Desperately Seeking Susan (1985) and Making Mr. Right (1987), and also in several other highly regarded productions, notably Uncle Buck (1989), JFK (1991), and Mistress (1992). Metcalf is best known to the TV-watching public for her Emmy-winning portrayal of Roseanne Conner's police-officer sister, Jackie Harris, on the long-running sitcom Roseanne. In 1997, following the demise of her television series, Metcalf turned in a deliciously over-the-top performance as the tightly wound aspiring reporter Debbie Salt in Scream 2. In the decades to come, Metcalfe would find success on shows like Norm and The Big Bang Theory, as well as movies like Stop-Loss Georgia Rule. Despite her hectic schedule, Laurie Metcalf still finds time for an occasional return-to-the-womb appearance at the Steppenwolf Theatre, usually in the company of fellow Steppenwolfians John Malkovich, Gary Sinise, and/or Glenne Headly.

Trivia: Ottawa-born Sarah Chalke first gained notoriety in 1993 when, at the beginning of the show's sixth season, she was cast on ABC's hit sitcom Roseanne as oldest daughter Becky, a role that had previously been filled by Alicia Goranson, who exited the show for college. Chalke continued to play Becky for two seasons until Goranson returned, but the two actresses took turns playing the character throughout the season. Goranson left again before the show's ninth and final season, and Chalke resumed the role full-time.Following the end of Roseanne, Chalke took on a role in the Canadian series Nothing Too Good for a Cowboy. While that show only lasted nine episodes, it would only be a couple more years before the actress found herself on another hit series. In 2001, she was cast as Elliot Reid, the female lead opposite Zach Braff on the cult hit NBC medical comedy Scrubs. The massively successful show would run until 2010, earning Chalke legions of fans.In addition to her series television work, Chalke has acted in a number of made-for-TV movies and small independent films over the years. In 2007 she had her first role in a high-profile Hollywood movie with a supporting turn alongside Jon Heder and Diane Keaton in the comedy Mama's Boy. She would also find continued success on the small screen, with starring roles on shows like Mad Love, a recurring gig on Cougar Town and guest spots on shows like Grey's Anatomy and Angie Tribeca.

Trivia: Michael Fishman is best known for his first role as D.J. on the sitcom Roseanne. Taking on the part in 1988 when he was just seven, the Cuban-born actor stayed with the series until 1997, and subsequently experimented with only a few other acting projects, such as appearances on Seinfeld and Walker, Texas Ranger.

Trivia: Like her older half-sister Melissa (Little House on the Prairie), actress Sara Gilbert grew up on a television series, in this case, the long-running ABC sitcom Roseanne (1988-1997). She and her sister and her older half-brother, Jonathon Gilbert, are the third generation of a showbiz family. Her grandfather, Harry Crane, was a writer for The Honeymooners, her grandmother, Julia Crane, was a former Miss Brooklyn and a dancer, and her mother is a producer and talent manager. Gilbert made her professional debut in a television commercial at age six, and from there appeared in the television series Tales of the Apple Dumpling Gang (1982). She then played a small role in the made-for-TV movie Calamity Jane, which starred Jane Alexander. Gilbert's career slowed down after that and she did not appear on television until 1988 when she appeared in Runaway Ralph as part of the ABC Weekend Special. As Darlene Connor in Roseanne, Gilbert believably played a cynical, smart-mouthed, but sensitive foil for Roseanne. Gilbert showed versatility as a confused Daddy's girl who is victimized by a calculating Drew Barrymore in Poison Ivy (1989) and as a Southern child with a dark secret who is befriended by a gentle black man in the well-wrought Sudie and Simpson (1990). Gilbert has been twice nominated for an Emmy and has won three Youth in Film Awards. During the last couple seasons of Roseanne, Gilbert began attending Yale University where she studied art and photography. She has also been an avid supporter for various environmental causes through her affiliation with Earth Communications Office (ECO).She stayed away from acting for the most part until 2007 when she began making occasional appearances on the hit sitcom The Big Bang Theory often playing opposite her former Roseanne co-star Johnny Galecki. In 2010, she created the talk show The Talk, a knockoff of The View, and serves as an executive producer and co-host of the series.

Trivia: Actress Alicia Goranson probably remains most famous for her first professional acting role, playing Becky on the sitcom Roseanne. She started with the series in 1988 when she was 14 and stuck with the show until 1995, when she left to pursue an education at Vassar College, though she would sporadically reappear to play the character over the next few years, sharing the role with actress Sarah Chalke. Goranson would go on to appear in projects like 1999's Boys Don't Cry and the 2005 indie comedy Love, Ludlow.

Trivia: Balancing independent film and Hollywood, Stephen Dorff made his name as a versatile actor with a particular talent for playing assorted rebels and villains. The son of composer Steve Dorff, the younger Dorff opted for the acting side of show business instead. Entering the industry as a teenager, Dorff cut his acting teeth on TV in the late '80s with guest spots on several series, including Roseanne and Married With Children, and roles in TV movies, including I Know My First Name Is Steven (1989). Dorff jumped to feature films with the starring role as a socially conscious South African boxer in The Power of One (1992). Voted the National Association of Theater Owners' Male Star of Tomorrow in 1992, Dorff next earned attention with his lead performance as Beatle manqué Stu Sutcliffe in the British biopic Backbeat (1993). He also appeared in the genre thriller Judgment Night that same year, with Emilio Estevez and Cuba Gooding Jr. Despite his Hollywood beginnings, Dorff focused more on independent productions in the mid-'90s, including the media satire S.F.W. (1994). His nuanced performance as Warhol Factory transvestite superstar Candy Darling in Mary Harron's acclaimed I Shot Andy Warhol (1996), though, definitively revealed that Dorff could be more than a pretty, brooding face. Dorff further held his own opposite Jack Nicholson in neo-noir Blood and Wine (1997) and against Harvey Keitel in crime drama City of Industry (1997), but neither film made a box office impression. Dorff scored a summer popcorn hit, however, as Wesley Snipes' flamboyant vampire nemesis in the comic book adaptation Blade (1998). Displaying his range, Dorff starred opposite Susan Sarandon in the romance Earthly Possessions (1999) for HBO, and put two different spins on movie director characters in Phil Joanou's film à clef Entropy (1999) and John Waters' black comedy Cecil B. Demented (2000). Branching out into another medium, Dorff starred in Quantum Project (2000), the first film produced for the Internet. Dorff continued to do work in a series of independent films, but occasionally would appear in more mainstream fare such as fear dot com, Cold Creek Manor, and Alone in the Dark. He had his largest profile film in years in 2006 as part of the cast of Oliver Stone's 9/11 film World Trade Center. He maintained his footing in the independent film world by starring opposite Milla Jovovich and Aisha Taylor on that same year's .45.Over the next several years, Dorff would find an ongoing series of roles in an impressive variety of projects, like Michael Mann's Public Enemies, Sophia Coppola's Somewhere, and Tarsem Singh's Immortals.