Married... With Children
Married... with Children (1987-1997) was an American sitcom about a white trash family (the Bundys) living in Chicago. The show depicted Al Bundy, a formerly glorious football player turned shoe salesman; his wife Peggy, a tartish, uneducated, sex-hungry homemaker; and their two children: Kelly, their slutty, airheaded daughter (she attended high school at the start of the series), and Bud, their dweebish, unpopular and girl-crazy son (he attended junior high school at the start of the series). The show's theme song is Frank Sinatra's "Love and Marriage." Married... with Children first aired on April 5, 1987, on the FOX Network and aired its final episode on April 20, 1997. The show has been in heavy syndication ever since its first run.
The show first aired in 1987 to very negative press. It was a very low-brow comedy that centered entirely around toilet humor and sex farce. The characters were one-dimensional parodies of actual people. However, viewers quickly embraced the show because despite its obvious shortcomings it reflected a huge part of the populace that was not represented on television. The concept of an unhappily married couple whose life was, essentially, a complete failure had never been explored. Suddenly people were confronted with an arguing and unhappy, trashy married couple and their underachieving, smart-mouthed children. (It's interesting to note that the role of Peg Bundy was originally offered to Roseanne, who turned it down only to do a show of her own about a struggling, realistic lower class family.)
What was important about the show, and what likely allowed it to survive for as long as it did, is that inevitably the characters (including next-door neighbors and friends the D'Arcys) would come out supporting and defending each other. No matter how much they bickered and claimed to despise their familial ties, when one of them was put into a tough situation, the others would come out fighting on their side.
Eventually the show's humor (as well as the cast's acting) improved. Critics began to actually praise the show for taking on issues like racism, women's rights and sexual promiscuity in a way that was accessible to just about any viewer. By the time the show ended every cast member was immediately recognizable to the public as their Married... with Children persona. Although several worked on other projects during the run of the series, only Applegate had any major success (due largely in part to her consistent appearance in publications for teenagers.)
The series is remembered as FOX Network's first successful program, and was one of the only shows to survive the network's troubled first season. It also established FOX's reputation as a low-brow network, an image it continues to alternately support and fight to this day.
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 show 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 quarterback for Polk High School's football team, bound college on a n athletic scholarship, up until he met Peg. Afterwards, he broke his leg, lost his scholarship, his life fell apart, and he was stuck from then on working as a shoe salesman in a local mall. His misery with his life and his reminisces about his glory days ("Four touchdowns in one game!") is the main focus of the show's humor.
- Margaret "Peggy" Bundy—Al's wife and mother of the family. Al considers her first and foremost to be the cause of his misery. She is a lazy mother, having done very little to help raise the children (not that Al did much either), and often ignores the needs of her family. She often wastes the little money that Al makes from his job (she is very reluctant to get her own job), and she is more likely to spend it on clothing and purchases from home-shopping TV channels than on food.
- Kelly Bundy—The first child of the Bundy family. A promiscuous bimbo, she is the sterotypical "dumb blonde." Much of her humor comes from the stupidity that she displays. She often pokes fun at her younger brother, Bud.
- Bud Bundy—The second child of the family. Bud is a guy who believes himself to be sexy and intelligent, but often proves not to be. He is often rejected by women. He often insults Kelly for her unintelligence and promiscuity, though is ironically lecherous and frequently crafting grandiose sexual schemes.
- Buck—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, in order to allow the ten-year-old Briard that portrayed him to retire.
- 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.
- Seven—A child 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. See jumping the shark.
- Neighbors
- Marcy (Rhoades) D'Arcy—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 "chicken"-like legs. Her cousin Mandy (played by Amanda Bearse in a dual role) is a lesbian. Bearse is gay in real life.
- Steve Rhoades—Marcy's first husband. He is a banker who sees himself as a better person than the Bundy family, but over time becomes more like them.
- Jefferson D'Arcy—Marcy's second husband. Self centered and lazy, he is a male equivalent of Peggy. He is a close friend of Al, and often angers Marcy in his bonding with Al. 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—A friend of Al who works with him at the shoestore. He is a member of Al's NO MA'AM organization.
- Bob Rooney and Ike—Important members of NO MA'AM.
- Officer Dan—A friend of Al's who tries to balance his career as a police officer against his friendship with Al and his friends.
- The Wankers—Parents of Peggy. They are more often mentioned than on camera. Peggy's mother is never shown (though she is heard in several episodes) but her father, played by Tim Conway, is in a few episodes. Her mother is constantly referred to as being unbelievably obese, the object of many jokes.
- Bundy Icons
- NO MA'AM—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. Was also a church in one episode.
- Jiggly Room/Nudie Bar—This is a strip club run by Don Rickles). The group of NO MA'AM (with a far-fetched & confusing story about ice fishing, 'Al starts fishing, Jefferson hunts deer for bait, Dan skis deer to camp, Ike sets up camp, Bob scuba dives for best fish, Griff sends smoke signals') go to Washington D.C. to return it despite the fact that the person who played the main character retired. It is banned, but when Al saves the speaker of the house from a mugging, he asks to cancel Blossom, "I think that's where he got the hat."
Cast
