15 Things You Never Knew About ‘Roseanne’

8. Phased Out

It must really suck to come into a show as the right hand man—or in this case woman—only to be shuffled off due to nepotism. “Crystal Anderson,” played by Natalie West, was supposed to be Roseanne’s co-worker and best friend. After Roseanne married Tom Arnold in real life and he became “Arnie” on the show, the writing about West’s fate was creeping onto the wall. Next came “Nancy” Arnie’s full-of-life love-interest played by Sandra Bernhard, and unfortunately for West, the set was getting crowded. With Laurie Metcalf on-board as Roseanne’s quirky sister “Jackie,” by season five West wasn’t even in the opening credits and was simply a recurring character. Shows that anything can happen in the TV biz, as the character Crystal was thought up long before Roseanne sold.