Married... with Children

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Template:Infobox television Married… with Children was a long-running American sitcom about a dysfunctional family living in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. It ran on the Fox Network from April 5, 1987 to May 5, 1997, and was created by Michael G. Moye and Ron Leavitt.

Contents 1 Overview 2 Characters 2.1 The Bundy Family 2.1.1 Al Bundy 2.1.2 Margaret "Peggy" Bundy 2.1.3 Kelly Bundy 2.1.4 Budrick "Bud" Bundy 2.1.5 Buck 2.1.6 Lucky 2.1.7 Seven 2.1.8 Peggy's Mother 2.2 The Neighbors 2.2.1 Marcy Rhoades-D'Arcy 2.2.2 Steve Rhoades 2.2.3 Jefferson D'Arcy 2.3 Recurring Characters 3 Bundy Icons 4 Controversy & Missing Episodes 4.1 The Rakolta Boycott 5 Remakes 6 DVD Releases 7 Trivia 8 See also 9 External links

Overview

The show follows the lives of Al Bundy, a formerly glorious high school football player turned hard-luck shoe salesman; his wife Peggy, a tartish, uneducated housewife known for her large red hairdo and tacky clothes; and their two children: Kelly, their attractive, promiscuous, and dim-witted daughter, and Bud, their dweebish, unpopular and girl-crazy son. Their neighbors are the upwardly-mobile Steve and Marcy Rhoades (Steve later runs out on Marcy, and she marries boy-toy Jefferson D'Arcy after getting drunk one night). Most storylines involve the ever-scheming Al being foiled by his cartoonish dim wit and bad luck.

Married... with Children premiered in 1987 as one of the first four shows to appear on the fledgling Fox Network, and went on to become one of the longest-running sitcoms in American television history.

Characters

The Bundy Family

Al Bundy

Main article: Al Bundy

The father of the Bundy Family, Al (Ed O'Neill) is literally cursed to fail in everything he does. Once a promising fullback for fictional Polk High School (his proudest moment in life was scoring four touchdowns in a single game), he was on his way to college on a scholarship—until he got his girlfriend pregnant, married her, broke his leg, and ended up a shoe salesman at Gary's Shoes in the New Market Mall. Al spends most of his time trying to recapture old glory, but is usually foiled in spectacular fashion by his bad luck and poor judgement just as things seem to be going his way. He considers his family to be the root cause of his failures, and his resentment of them (and fear of having sex with his wife) provides for much of the humor in the show. Al prefers the escapism of television over his dysfunctional family and life of drudgery, and is often seen in his trademark couch-potato pose--seated on the couch with one hand stuck under the waistband of his pants.

Margaret "Peggy" Bundy

Peggy (Katey Sagal) is Al's wife and mother of the family. She is originally from fictional Wanker County, Wisconsin, "where everyone is relative" (according to Al in episode 507), and Wanker is her maiden name as well. Al considers her first and foremost to be the cause of his misery. She is a lazy mother, doing very little to help raise the children (not that Al does much either), and often ignores the needs of her family. She wastes the little money that Al makes from his job (and is very reluctant to get her own job--she works at a department store selling clocks for a very short time, but quits after deciding that she hates working), and is more likely to spend it on clothing and purchases from home-shopping TV channels than on food. When she does buy food, it's usually Bon Bons to eat while she watches her favorite talk show hosts, Phil Donahue and Oprah Winfrey. Peggy is constantly trying to have sex with Al, and her attempts and his refusals are one of the running gags in the show. At one point she states, "I don't like you. I just want to have sex with you."

Kelly Bundy

Kelly (Christina Applegate) is the oldest child in the Bundy family. "Pumpkin," as Al often calls her, is a promiscuous bimbo and stereotypical "dumb blonde." Smart when she was little, she became stupid after an incident in which she banged her head. Much of her humor comes from the stupidity that she displays. For example, she asked her brother to help her with her book report on Robinson Crusoe and ends up reviewing Gilligan's Island instead (while yelling at her brother for tricking her, she says 'I had a meeting with the principal. A three hour meeting. A three hour meeting'). She is in love with boys, hair bleach, and the telephone. She often pokes fun at her younger brother, Bud, for being a pubescent horndog. Due to her stupidity, it was a shock to her entire family when she earned her high school diploma in 1990. She then worked as a model and as a waitress.

Budrick "Bud" Bundy

Bud (David Faustino) is the second child of the family. He believes himself to be attractive and sexy, but often proves not to be. He is often rejected by women. It is unclear when he lost his virginity, as the audience is led to believe that he may have bedded women as far back as age 14, but as late as the fourth season mentions of his virginity were still commonplace between characters. Later on, he often manages to have one-night-stands, including one with his cousin's fiancee, played by Joey Lauren Adams. He tries to get girls with the help of his various alter-egos, including Grandmaster B -a rapper who is perpetually ridiculed by the rest of the family, e.g. Bed Wetter B or Burgermeister B More Examples. (David Faustino has actually been featured in a few rap albums, and he manages a night club). Another alter-ego is 'Cool Bud', Bud's sexual, sauve side that Bud eventually 'merges' with, prompting him to become more 'cool'. He often ridicules Kelly as a promiscuous dimwit, though he is often lecherous and scheming, often with the result of sexual humiliation. Despite his dysfunctional family background, Bud is the best-educated Bundy. He makes honor roll throughout high school, and manages to get himself into college. He is also Kelly's agent, receiving 75% of everything she makes.

Buck

Buck (voiced by Cheech Marin and later writer Kevin Curran) is the family dog. He is often "heard" by the audience through voice-overs that tell what is going through his mind at the moment. He is just as disgusted with the family as the rest of them are. He died at one point in the series to allow the ten-year-old Briard that portrayed him to retire, although he was immediately reincarnated as Lucky.

Lucky

The spaniel that the family gets after Buck dies. He is the reincarnation of Buck, but no one in the family ever finds this out. Lucky's Mind is voiced by Kim Weiskopf (Writer of the show, Full House, and Baywatch).

Seven

A child (Shane Sweet) who is adopted by the family at one point in the series. He was a very unpopular character, so he was dropped from the show without explanation in the storyline. This fact was parodied on the show itself in a season 8 episode, where Seven's face was shown on a milk carton with the words "Have you seen me?". See jumping the shark; Chuck Cunningham syndrome.

Peggy's Mother

Heard only in frightening voiceovers by Kathleen Freeman and ground-shaking gags, she comes to live with the Bundys in later seasons. There are vague and hilarious references to her gigantic weight. Set to be played by Divine, but he had died before production.

The Neighbors

Marcy Rhoades-D'Arcy

Marcy (Amanda Bearse) is Peggy's best friend and the family's next-door neighbor. She considers herself to be above the ways of the Bundy family but often sinks to their level. She dislikes Al and often argues with him. Al's most frequent target is Marcy's tiny chest and her chicken-like stance when she is annoyed. One of the running gags in the series has Marcy often mistaken for a young boy. Her cousin Mandy (played by Amanda Bearse in a dual role) is a lesbian. Despite wanting to appear as a prude, Marcy is shown to be a very sexual person, and it is revealed throughout the show that she has a sordid sexual history.

Steve Rhoades

Steve Rhoades (David Garrison) is Marcy's first husband. He is a banker who was actually at a lower position than Marcy at the city bank but was not fazed by it. When Marcy moved up to a high position at another bank, he received her job. Steve sees himself as a better person than the Bundy family but over time becomes more like them, and indeed it is generally Al to whom Steve turns when in need of male bonding. Steve was written out of the show in the middle of the fourth season. Garrison had decided he no longer wanted to be tied down to a weekly television series, preferring to avoid being typecast into one role and to be able to devote more time to his first love: stage acting. He reached an agreement with Fox to buy out the remainder of his contract. In preparation for his departure, in the final episode shot (though confusingly, not the final episode aired) in which he was a regular, we see Steve becoming disenchanted with his and Marcy's yuppie lifestyle and taking an increasing interest in nature and in becoming an outdoorsman (a real-life interest of Garrison's). He then disappears, with it being explained that he has left Marcy to become a forest ranger at Yosemite National Park. During later seasons, Garrison would reprise the Steve Rhoades character on four occasions, returning to guest star in individual episodes as he eventually returns to professional life to become the Dean of the college Bud is attending.

Jefferson D'Arcy

Jefferson D'Arcy (Ted McGinley) is Marcy's second husband, a prettyboy who marries her for money. Self-centered and lazy, he is a male equivalent of Peggy. Marcy met Jefferson (originally a bartender) at his bar after a bankers' convention, where she got drunk and found herself married to him the next morning. He is a close friend of Al and often angers Marcy in his bonding with Al. He claims that he was a CIA agent in the past (code-named Bullwinkle), and it is later revealed that he has a commission as a 1st Lieutenant in the National Guard. His ties to the CIA are never conclusively proven, although it is strongly hinted they are real; it is proven he has some powerful friends in Washington when he is able to get an audience with Congress on short notice, and members of the United States Secret Service recognize him as an old colleague and speak to him in code. He claims that his last mission for the CIA was a failed attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro. He was wanted for running an investment scam wherein he sold useless plots of Lake Chicamicamico; the lake area was in fact a nuclear waste dump, and Al had actually bought shares for his retirement. Ted McGinley had appeared previously as Peggy's husband in an alternate universe, in an episode which parodied Capra's It's A Wonderful Life.

Recurring Characters

• Griff (Harold Sylvester) – A friend of Al and co-worker at the shoe store. He is also a member of Al's NO MA'AM organization.
• Bob Rooney (E.E. Bell) – One of Al's friends from the neighborhood and treasurer of NO MA'AM. He works as a butcher, has a wife named Louise who is a friend of Peggy, and played on the same football team as Al, at Polk High. He is always called by both first and last name, and it is even spelled as one word on his bowling shirt. Producer Tim Weiskopff had a theory that "in every neighborhood in the midwest of the U.S. there is one guy all the people in the neighborhood refer to with both his names" (e.g. "Charlie Brown").
• Ike (Tom McCleister) – Another friend of Al and member of NO MA'AM.
• Officer Dan – A friend of Al's who tries to balance his career as a police officer with his often-compromising friendship with Al and his friends.
• Miranda Veracruz de la Joya Cardenal (Teresa Parente) – Hispanic local news reporter typically assigned to cover the pathetic news stories in which the Bundys inevitably involve themselves. She often laments the sad state of her career on-air.
• The Wankers – The parents of Peggy, living in Wanker County ("The home of the gassy beaver"). They are more often mentioned than seen on camera. Peggy's mother is never shown (though she is heard in several episodes, voiced by Kathleen Freeman), but her father Tim Conway appears in a few episodes. Mrs. Wanker's unbelievable obesity is the subject of many jokes, including one in which Al goes blind after accidentally walking in on her bathing.
• Gary (Janet Carroll) – The female owner of Gary's Shoes and employer of Al. Gary's first appearance in the series came after Al turned her women's shoe store into a men's, assuming Gary was male and therefore wouldn't mind. Gary is fantastically rich (she would have been in the Forbes 400, but only reached #401 becuase of the shoe store--her only failing business venture). Over the course of the series she makes several more appearances, always to the chagrin of Al, and in one episode even becomes the Sugar Momma of Bud, much to the chagrin of those who still thought she was a man.
• Luke Ventura (Ritch Shydner) – A co-worker at the shoe store early in the series. He was a sly womanizer who was always seducing beautiful women and stealing Al's sales. Peg hated him while Al tolerated him. He disappears from the show after the first season, but is mentioned again in the 9th season episode "Pump Fiction," when Al learns from the shoe industry publication "Shoe News" that Luke is being given an award.
• Aaron Mitchell (Hill Harper) – Another co-worker of Al's at the shoe store. A young football star at Polk High, he is on the verge of marrying a wonderful woman and going to college, achieveing everything that Al ever wanted. Al chooses to live his life vicariously through Aaron, until his misguided attempts to help accidentally drive the boy to a shrewish woman named "Meg" (a young copy of Peg) and the same dismal fate which had befallen Al. Aaron appeared only in the 8th season.

Bundy Icons

• NO MA'AM – An acronym for the National Organization of Men Against Amazonian Masterhood. This is the middle aged men's club that meets in Al's garage to discuss matters of serious importance to men such as beer and girls. In 1995, "Reverend Al", the guys turn it into a church so they won't have to pay beer taxes.
• Polk High – The high school that Al Bundy went to where (as he always loved to rejoice about) he scored 4 touchdowns in one football game. Kelly and Bud also attended Polk High. In 1995 the football field was named "Al Bundy Field" in his honor, although the scoreboard comemmorating this was immediately destroyed.
• Jiggly Room/Nudie Bar – This is a strip club run by Iqbal, where members of NO MA'AM go to unwind and spend any money that their wives have not already spent.
• Big Uns – This is a girlie magazine that Al and his friends read. Also used before having sex with the wives. Al to Jefferson: "Take two of these and call me in the morning," looks at Marcy and adds, "better make that four."
• Girlie Girl Beer – Official beer of NO MA'AM. After the beer's normal mascot has been replaced with Yoko Ono, NO MA'AM declares it no longer their official beer. However, they then spend all night getting drunk testing out alternate beers. Thus, come morning, they forget they hated the beer, and declare it their official beer once again.
• Psycho Dad – Al's favorite TV show until Marcy's women's group got it cancelled. It was a Western about a psychotic cowboy who had similar values to Al and his NO MA'AM friends. As depicted in the show's opening lyrics, Psycho Dad "is quick with a gun, loves his son, and killed his wife because she weighed a ton."
• Peas In A Pod – Another TV show Al enjoyed. This one was only featured in one episode, and was removed from the air after the network received a complaint from "a Michigan housewife." The show was actually an exact parody of the family, due to Kelly telling the producers all about her life. The show depicts 'Hal' often muttering "My life sucks", and his daughter bringing home 4 members of a football team.
• Weenie Tots – Al's favorite fast-dissolving miniature corndog-like snack, with many disclaimers on the package including "This Is Not a Food" and "No Nutritional Value".
• The Mighty Dodge – The Bundy family car, a 1972 Dodge Dart, which dates back to Al's high school days and has logged over a million miles of travel. Its old, brown, rustic colour makes it instantly recognizable as the Bundys' car, though after a car wash in episode 917, it turns out that under all that dirt, it was really red. Despite its poor condition (ex. constant engine troubles), Al has been shown to be very reluctant to part with it.
• Gary's Shoes and Accessories For Today's Woman – The shoe store where Al has been working since high school. He was planning on working there only for a brief summer period during high school until Peg's pregnancy with Kelly changed all that. Al is often shown being rude to customers in the store, and placing his head in his hands all day long if there are no customers, reflecting on his miserable life. When he finds it too humiliating to sell women's shoes, he starts to only order men's, thinking Gary wouldn't mind. He gets into a lot of trouble as it turns out Gary is really a woman.
• The toilet flush – One of Al's favourite activities is to sit in the bathroom for a long time. Whenever there is a sound of the toilet flushing in the Bundy house, viewers know that Al is coming out of the bathroom with a newspaper under his arm and George Thoroughgood's song "Bad To The Bone" as background music. He loves the toilet so much that one day he buys his very own Ferguson toilet, just like the one his father had. After having built his own restroom and garage apartment, he has to tear it down again after the pregnant women take it over.
• Isis – Bud's blow-up doll and the object of several jokes.
• Bundy Motto/Credo– Essentially, an ever-changing slogan that tries to describe Al's philosophy on certain subjects or situations. "We ain't got it." Also, as Al told to Bud: "Lie when your wife is waking. Lie when your belly's aching. Lie when you know she's faking. Lie, sell shoes, and lie." Alternative version: "Hooters, hooters, yum, yum, yum. Hooters, hooters, on a girl that's dumb".
• Whoa Bundy! – family cheer, used whenever the Bundy family was about to embark on a venture together, often a scheme against the D'Arcys or other groups. Led by Al, "Can I get a Whoa Bundy?," it involves all of the Bundys placing their hands on top of one another in a circle and raising them into the air, yelling "Whooooa Bundy!"
• Thank Your Father, Kids –Sarcastic line said by Peggy to her children after Al royally screws something up. Interestingly, it was used previously (and sincerely) by Beverly D'Angelo's "Ellen Griswold" character in National Lampoon's European Vacation.

Controversy & Missing Episodes

One episode of Married... with Children was "lost" due to the efforts of a Michigan housewife, and another episode was edited because of the World Trade Center attacks.

The Rakolta Boycott

In 1989 Terry Rakolta, a homemaker from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, led a massive boycott against Married... with Children after viewing the episode "Her Cups Runneth Over - 3x06"[1]. Offended by the images of an old man wearing a garter and stockings, a homosexual man and a woman who bared her breasts, Rakolta began a letter-writing campaign to advertisers demanding they boycott the show.

After advertisers began dropping their support for the show and while Rakolta made several appearances on television talk shows, Fox executives played it safe and refused to air the episode titled "I'll See You In Court - 3x08"[2]. That particular episode would become known as the "Lost Episode." "I'll See You In Court - 3x08" was finally aired on FX on June 18, 2002. The episode was packaged with the rest of the third season in the January 2005 DVD release.

Ironically during the boycott, ratings for Married... with Children skyrocketed due to interest in the show caused by Rakolta's crusade to have the show canceled. The increased number of viewers kept Married... with Children on the air until 1997. According to sources on the set, the creators of the show, Ron Leavitt and Michael G. Moye, sent Rakolta a fruit basket every Christmas as a way of saying "thank you".

Rakolta herself has been referenced twice on the show. The first time in the episode titled "Rock and Roll Girl - 4x14"[3] when a newscaster mentioned the city Bloomfield Hills. The second time occurred in the episode titled "No Pot To Pease In - 9x09"[4] when a television show was made about the Bundy family. After the show was canceled, Marcy told the Bundys that "some woman in Michigan didn't like it".

Remakes

The American Warner Brothers comedy Unhappily Ever After (1995-1999) has a similar setting, and was also created by Ron Leavitt.

Married... with Children is one of a handful of US comedies that have been remade for Britain (compare the much longer List of British TV shows remade for the American market). The show made no great impact, perhaps because of the questionable use of wholesome family comedian Russ Abbott in the lead role, or perhaps because the original had already been shown, albeit in a late-evening slot. The German sitcom "Hilfe, meine Familie spinnt" ("Help, my family is crazy") showing the family Strunk [5] is a remake of 26 early episodes of "Married... with Children". The show first aired in 1992 and had twice as many viewers as the original show in Germany, but as the Bundys were aired in early evening and the Struncks in prime time, the remake didn't achieve the expected success.

In 2004, the Colombian TV network Caracol Televisión, with Columbia Pictures filial CPT Holdings, produced a 26-episode adaptation of Married... with Children, called Casados con hijos [6]. It features the Rochas (the Colombian version of the Bundys) living in Bogotá with their neighbours, the Pachóns (the D'Arcys), using copied sets and situations from the original series, but adapted to Colombian urban environment. Broadcast at a weekend primetime slot, it has received mixed response. In Latin America, Married... with Children is still viewed through syndication on cable network Sony Entertainment Television.

Another remake of the series appeared in Argentina, also named Casados con hijos, starring Guillermo Francella and Florencia Peña as Pepe and Moni Argento. Also featured are Luisana and Darío Lopilato in the roles of Paola and Coqui Argento, the teenage kids.

Since 2006, Russian channel TNT has been producing another version called Schastlivy Vmeste (Happy together) [7].

DVD Releases

The first season, consisting of 13 episodes, was released in October 2003 on Region 1 DVD. The second season, consisting of 22 episodes, was released in March 2004, also on Region 1 DVD. Both box sets were released by Columbia TriStar Home Entertainment.

The third season, released without the original theme song (a non-copyrighted instrumental version, with a vague similarity in melody, was used instead), hit store shelves in January 2005. It also contained the infamous "lost episode", "I'll See You in Court", which was never broadcast on Fox in the original series run. Sony has announced that all releases from the third season onward will have the non-copyrighted theme song instead of the original. The fourth season of the series was released on DVD on August 30, 2005, but has been highly criticized by fans for not including the full length original episodes; 7 of the episodes included on the set were from syndication, and have approximately 1 minute 20 seconds cut from each episode.

Sony announced on 10 April 2006 that Season Five would be released on 20 June 2006.

Trivia

• Before the World Trade Center bombing, the syndicated version of the episode titled "Get Outta Dodge - 8x17"[8] featured a scene of two Arabs with a ticking bomb at the front door of Al Bundy's house offering to buy his Dodge for $40 and asking for directions to the Sears Tower. The scene was cut from the syndicated re-airings of the episode afterwards. However in a recent airing on the FX Network, the scene was still in place.

• Al's Dodge is the butt of frequent jokes. The car shown is actually a 1970 Plymouth Duster, which is the twin of the Dodge Demon. The Duster and Dart Sport/Demon are based on the Plymouth Valiant and are reknowned for their reliability and durability. One episode centered around Dodge executives visiting to photograph his car's odometer as it rolled over a million miles.

• The creators of the show named the "Bundy" family after their favorite wrestler King Kong Bundy, though some fans mistakenly believed that it was from serial killer Ted Bundy. King Kong Bundy once made an appearance on the show as Peg's hick inbred uncle Irwin. He also was on the show as his wrestling persona, since NO MA'AM were big fans of King Kong Bundy. The Rhoades were named after Dusty Rhodes.

• The producers originally wanted to cast comedian Sam Kinison as Al Bundy. However, they ultimately chose not to, due to the profane nature of Kinison's comedy routines. Kinison would later play Al's guardian angel in the memorable episode "It's A Bundyful Life," spoofing Frank Capra's "It's a Wonderful Life".

• The producers originally wanted Roseanne Barr for the part of Peggy Bundy, but she declined and the producers cast on Katey Sagal. She went on to make her own show, Roseanne, about a crass, lower-middle-class family the next year.

• The episodes "Top Of The Heap", "Radio Free Trumaine", and "Enemies" were meant to be spin-offs.
  • "Top Of The Heap" was the only episode of the three to get its own show. It was notable as an early sitcom starring Matt LeBlanc, later of Friends fame. The show was about an ex-boyfriend of Kelly Bundy (played by LeBlanc) and his father, an old friend of Al Bundy, always trying get rich quick schemes.
  • "Radio Free Trumaine" was to be about Bud Bundy's time in College with the campus radio station, with Steve Rhodes as the antagonistic Dean.
  • "Enemies" was a Friends clone, featuring Alan Thicke, based around Kelly Bundy's social circle.

• In the Futurama episode "A Bicyclops Built For Two", Katey Sagal briefly revived her "Peg Bundy voice" when her character, Turanga Leela, became romantically involved with an alien known as Alkazar who, after presenting a cultured demeanor when they first met, soon revealed a side to himself that was distinctly Al Bundy-esque. At one point, Leela's hairstyle and outfit are definite spoofs of Peg, and she proceeds to refer to Alkazar as "Al" and swap insults with him in true Bundy fashion, and in the nasal vocal pitch that Sagal affected when playing Peg.

• In the episode "Kelly Does Not Live Here Anymore," Jefferson mistakenly calls Al "Captain" (from the Love Boat) and "Fonzie" (from Happy Days) referring to shows that Ted McGinley had played characters on.

See also

Template:Wikiquotepar

• List of Married... with Children episodes
• Al Bundy

External links

• {{{2|{{{title|Married... with Children}}}}}} at The Internet Movie Database
• Bundyology, a fan's website
• Al Bundy Site, a fan's website (infos, making ofs, forum,..)
• E.E. Bell's (Bob Rooney) Homepage
• Casados con hijos, the Colombian remakebg:Женени с деца

da:Vore Værste År de:Eine schrecklich nette Familie es:Casado con hijos fr:Mariés, deux enfants he:נשואים פלוס lt:Vedęs ir turi vaikų nl:Married... with Children pl:Świat według Bundych pt:Married... with Children sk:Ženatý so záväzkami fi:Pulmuset sv:Våra värsta år