BY JOHN KIESEWETTER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
PASADENA, Calif. -- When you hear the name "Roseanne," what comes to mind?
Headlines of temper tantrums, fired producers and threats to quit her old ABC sitcom?
Reports of petty, childish faxes to perceived enemies?
Tabloid tales of flashing tattoos on her tail end?
So it's safe to say the phrase "parenting expert" never popped into your mind?
Well, that's one of the reasons she returns to TV this fall, hosting a daytime talk show, The Roseanne Show, premiering Sept. 14 on WLWT (Channel 5).
But at a lunch on the opening day of the Summer Press Tour for TV critics, the surprisingly sedate comic couldn't say much more about her new show.
"It's very, very important to me to do a show on raising children as normal people in kind of a crazy world, teaching children about responsibility," says Roseanne, 45, the mother of five (ages 4 to 27).
"One thing I think is really cool about me -- and what's different about me than all other (daytime talk hosts) on television -- is I have children who are grown, children who I let live through their teen-age years," she says.
"(They) actually have grown into remarkable human beings, who are very functional and moral," she says about Brandi, 27, whom she gave up for adoption in 1971, and Jessica, 23, Jennifer, 22, and Jake, 20, from her first marriage.
Beyond that, however, Roseanne was amazingly ambiguous about the new show announced 14 months ago.
She refuses to say where Roseanne fits on the daytime TV spectrum among serious Oprah Winfrey, sleazy Jerry Springer and Rosie O'Donnell's variety. She offers no hints about her set or studio. Two months before her debut, she sounds like she doesn't have a clue.
"We're going to do multiple topics, and a lot of comedy," she says. "We'll be a little bit like Oprah, and a little bit like Rosie.
The vague session reminded me of last year's meeting with Keenen Ivory Wayans weeks before the debut of his talk show, which crashed and burned in seven months. It was so totally different from the confident, caustic Roseanne we met 10 years ago, when she introduced us to blue-collar housewife Roseanne Conner.
You remember Roseanne Conner, the woman who refused to tie her son's shoelaces ("Wear loafers") or hunt for a school book ("I sold it").
What a difference a decade makes. Has she mellowed?
"Everyday, hopefully, you progress as a human being, so hopefully I learned something in 10 years," she explains.
So why does she need a daily one-hour talk show? Why not more movies or theater?
"As a stand-up comic, (a talk show) is the best thing that you could possibly do, because it's immediate. When you think of something, you're able to say it right then. There's some jazz to it," she says.
On a talk show, "I'm able to be myself, and I haven't done that yet. So that's what's really exciting, not playing a character."
Enquirer TV critic John Kiesewetter is reporting this month from the Summer Press Tour.
