Corporate Hacks Have Turned ‘Roseanne’ and ‘A Different World’ Into AI-Upscaled Nightmares

There is something wrong with the version of Roseanne streaming on Peacock. It’s the same thing that’s wrong with the version of It’s a Different World on Netflix. Eyes float in sockets. Faces melt. The fine detail in the background of shots, especially anything with text, is strange and indecipherable. They’ve been upscaled from their original broadcast format using AI and uploaded in 4K. The hallucinatory results are a nightmare.

The problems with A Different World were first noticed by Scott Hanselman and detailed on his TikTok account. Futurism then covered the phenomenon, pulling a lot of horrifying shots from the beloved sitcom. If you’ve ever wanted to see the face of Bill Cosby melting while he plays chess in 4K, Netflix has you covered.

The instinct here is to blame the streaming service that hosts A Different World. I reached out to Netflix for comment but didn’t hear back. And while it’s true that the streamer is pumping a lot of slop into the world, they’re probably not behind the remaster. They don’t hold the rights to the show and have no financial incentive to change it and dump it onto the platform. Like all things on Netflix that it doesn’t own, one day, A Different World will leave.

No, the problem here is probably the people who own the show and license it out to streaming platforms. The problem is probably The Carsey-Werner Company. Carsey-Werner is a production company that makes sitcoms and holds the rights to a lot of favorites, including That 70’s Show, 3rd Rock From the Sun, and Roseanne.

All ten seasons of Roseanne are on Peacock, and they’ve also been hit by a grotesque AI upscaler. This show fared better than A Different World, but all the tells are there. Faces don’t look right and often shimmer, eyes move around in their sockets like they’re trying to escape the skull, and all text is gibberish. The latter problem is glaring in the seasons where Rosanne runs a diner called The Lanford Lunch Box. The tables and walls are covered in text-heavy menus that become strange glyphs and goop under the heavy hand of the upscaler.

The change to Roseanne is recent, and Carsey-Werner is quite proud of it. Variety announced the remaster at the end of February, and it went live on Monday. “The remastering initiative combined advanced AI with skilled creative artistry to honor the original content while meeting modern viewing and technical standards that transformed the original 4×3 standard definition prints into enhanced 16×9 masters,” Carsey-Werner told Variety. “Remastered magnifications included noise and grain reduction, color correction and stabilization, as well as improvements in audio/stereo sound.”

The Roseanne remaster does not “honor the original content.” The content has been made grotesque by the process. Something beautiful was destroyed. Even the video announcement the company used to advertise the remaster is riddled with AI artifacting. Watch it below and pay attention to Sharon Stone’s eyes and the text on DJ’s seat after he stands up.

Carsey-Werner did not return Gizmodo’s request for comment about the process it used for the remaster. According to Variety, it farmed out the job to a company called Performance Post, an outfit that specializes in roto-scoping, editing, and digital mastering.

I have some sympathy here. Watching an old show on a new TV is always a compromise. The original 480p or 360p resolution in a 4:3 frame at broadcast quality often looks blurry and strange on an enormous 4K television. But with a little love, it’s possible to make these shows look incredible without ruining them with an AI upscaler.

Cheers, a show that started airing in 1982, looks incredible on modern televisions. It’s still in its 4:3, and there’s some film noise in the video, but overall, it looks wonderful. The remaster of The X-Files is great, too. It was first done for the Blu-Ray set, and people went back to the original masters of the show, cleaned them up, and expanded the frame so that it looks good in 16:9 even though it aired in 4:3. Star Trek: The Next Generation got the same treatment.

But all that care and love takes time and money. It cost $70,000 per episode to remaster Star Trek: The Next Generation. The remasters of Cheers, The X-Files, and Star Trek were done with loving care by skilled archivists. It’s hard to imagine any company paying even $10,000 to remaster one episode of A Different World so it can air on Netflix. AI upscaling is, presumably, faster and cheaper.

The results also look like shit.

The only way to make sure the art you love will be around in the future is to preserve it yourself. Streaming services are slop chutes, and there’s no guarantee you’ll be seeing the best version of your favorite show or that it’ll be around next month to watch. You have to be your own archivist. Hold on to digital prints. Buy physical media.

But even that isn’t a guarantee. Hard drives fail. The VHS tape degrades with every playthrough. DVDs rot. All things move toward their end. That doesn’t mean we have to accept the resurrection of old shows with new technology that degrades, demeans, and destroys them.