And — of course, this is 2018 — some was the doing of Mr. Trump, who can make a political football of anything (including football). The Nielsen-fixated ex-reality star took the show’s success as a personal victory, telling supporters in Ohio that the ratings “were unbelievable … And it was about us.”

Was it? Roseanne Barr the performer is pro-Trump; so is Roseanne the character. But “Roseanne” the show was less pro-Trump than pro-Roseanne, working to assure the audience that, whether you thought she was right or wrong, she meant well.

Her argument with Jackie, for instance, mostly sidestepped questions of racism, or xenophobia, or Mr. Trump’s dog-whistle nostalgia for “the old days.” Instead, she said that Mr. Trump (though not mentioned by name on the show) “talked about jobs.”

Was that the only reason she voted for him? I don’t know. But I 100 percent believe that’s what she would say her motivation was. People sell themselves, all the time, on the most charitable interpretations of their actions.

But the following week’s episode had an offhand line that suggested there was a kind of white-identity politics under the surface here. The Conners woke up in front of the TV, having slept through, Dan said, “all the shows about black and Asian families.” (The reference was to “black-ish” and “Fresh Off the Boat,” the only two such sitcoms on ABC.)

“They’re just like us,” Roseanne said. “There, now you’re all caught up.”

The line felt like a sarcastic slap. Ms. Barr defended it on Twitter as “a joke about class solidarity.” If so, it was a weird one because 1) both of the referenced shows are about more affluent families; 2) if Ms. Barr knows how to do one thing, it’s to make sure you know sarcasm when she delivers it; and 3) if the line were about class solidarity, it would be … not really a joke but simply a statement.