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Married... with Children: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"I work in a shoe store, I make less than minimum wage, and yet I'm [[Anything But That|not happy to be home]]."''
|'''Al Bundy'''}}
''[[Married... with Children]]'' is a [[Sitcom]] about consummate loser Al Bundy: Once a high school football hero dating the hottest girl in school, now a balding, starving, destitute shoe salesman—married to the same girl who's now a useless, bickering TV junkie. He's still driving the same [[The Alleged Car|piece of junk car]] he bought in high school, and is cursed with a moronic daughter who [[Really Gets Around]], a sane, yet [[Casanova Wannabe|perverted]] son, and a dog that might as well be a throw rug.
The show premiered on April 5, 1987 as the very first program ever shown by the brand new FOX Network, and along with ''[[21 Jump Street (TV series)|21 Jump Street]]'' and ''The Tracey Ullman Show'' was one of the network's few hits before [[American Football|the NFL]] and [[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]] turned the network into a major player. It was a constant ratings success until it ended in June 1997; it's still Fox's longest-running live-action sitcom. This is the show in which [[Samantha Who|Christina Applegate]] and [[Futurama|Katey Sagal]] got their starts.
Inspired and popularized a character type: the [[Jaded Washout]], actually previously called the [[Al Bundy]].
{{tropenamer}}
* As noted above, this is the former trope namer for [[Jaded Washout]].
* [[Whoa, Bundy!]].
▲Inspired and popularized a character type: the [[Jaded Washout]], actually previously called the [[Al Bundy]]. Also [[Trope Namer]] for [[Whoa, Bundy!]].
{{tropelist}}
* [[A-Cup Angst]]: Al constantly mocks Marcy for being flat-chested. At some points, her flatness gets her mistaken for a boy, much to her consternation, anger, and disappointment... several times. In the Pirate episode, she has to show her breasts to the crew to prove she's a lass... twice. And they're still not sure of it afterwards. And then there was the episode where [[Running Gag|she was continually mistaken]] for [[Hilarious in Hindsight|Bruce Jenner]].
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* [[Actor Allusion]]: In one episode, Ted McGinley's Jefferson is mistaken for a character from ''[[The Love Boat]]''. He also once mistakenly referred to Al as [[Happy Days|Fonzie]].
* [[Actually Pretty Funny]]: Jefferson will occasionally laugh at Al's cracks at Marcy when she's not looking, though a quick [[Death Glare]] will shut him right up.
* [[Adaptation Decay]]: In-universe, Kelly got her own [[Show Within a Show]], and [[Executive Meddling]] completely gutted it to become more "[[Lighter and Softer|family]] [[
* [[The Alleged Car]]: Al's Dodge is quite literally one of a kind. All of the other types of its make and model have either been recalled, exploded, or simply dissolved in the rain. This is possibly due to the fact that Al's car is literally pieced together out of the parts of other broken-down, destroyed Dodges. That should give you an indication as to its actual performance. In one episode, it's revealed that its brown color is actually accumulated dirt. Underneath it's a shiny red [[Cool Car]].
* [[All Just a Dream]]:
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** One episode had Marcy wanting to leave her husband because he didn't make as much money as he used to when he wanted to pursue his dream job, making her seem like this as well.
** One of the episodes where Marcy got him a job, she told him she was tired of having him commenting about Oprah every time she gets home and that it was like being married to Peggy.
* [[Go Mad
* [[Gonk]]: This was the type of woman Bud usually ended up attracting, much to his chagrin. Peg's mother was also implied to be one of this, although we were spared the horror of actually seeing what she looked like.
* [[Gypsy Curse]]: The Bundy family has multiple ones upon them. The eternal darkness in Lower Uncton is one of them, Al's smelly feet are another one, and the general successlessness of every Bundy in history is said to be yet another one.
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** And whenever ''Bad To The Bone'' started playing.
* [[Like Brother and Sister]]: Rumors abounded that David Faustino and Christina Applegate were an item. Faustino denied this, saying that Applegate was more like a sister to him.
* [[Long Runners]]: 10 years (11 seasons) on the air made this FOX's longest-running live-action scripted program, and their fifth-longest running show overall (behind some [[The Simpsons (animation)|other]] [[
* [[Lovely Assistant]]: In an episode, where Al and Peggy compete in a game show:
{{quote|'''Host:''' Hello there, and welcome to ''How Do I Love Thee?''! The game show that dares to ask; [[Captain Obvious|"How do I love thee?"]]. For those of you who're [[Ted Baxter|totally ignorant of today's superstars]], I'm Bink Winkleman. ''[one person applauds]'' Thank you! And here's our own little piece of fluff that the network thrust upon me, The Lovely Zelda. ''[great applause]''}}
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* [[Obstructive Bureaucrat]]: When the noise Al makes building Lucky's doghouse bothers Marcy, she bribes a city building inspector to harass Al and make him jump through a bunch of hoops to finally get the doghouse approved, including having plumbing and handicap access installed. [[Hilarity Ensues]].
** On the other hand, Al got the last laugh when he used all the leftover cement he'd had to buy for the doghouse foundation and dumps it all over Marcy's Mercedes.
* [[Older Hero vs. Younger Villain]]: One Season 8 episode features Al coming to the defense of an old classmate of his against Ray-Ray, a young gang leader who's making her life miserable.
* [[Old Maid]]: Miss Hathaway.
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* [[Put on a Bus]]: The second and third times Katey Sagal became pregnant, her character was written out of the show until she was ready to return to work (to avoid a repeat of the sad [[Real Life Writes the Plot]] incident). This trope also applied to Steve (who was written off as leaving Marcy so he can be a park ranger) when David Garrison left the show to return to theater.
* [[Real Song Theme Tune]]: [[Frank Sinatra]]'s "Love and Marriage".
** Sadly, on Hulu and on the DVD box sets from Season 3 onwards, the theme song was replaced by generic orchestra music because the rights-holder for the song's (which is [[
** On one episode of [[Jeopardy!]], the Final Jeopardy catagory was ''Sitcom Theme Songs''. The answer "Current Sitcom whose theme is sung by Frank Sinatra" stumped all three contestants.
* [[Reality Subtext]]: One episode in the final season guest starred Marcy's identical gay cousin "Mandy". The actress who played both characters (Amanda Bearse) is a lesbian in real life.
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* [[Retired Badass]]: ''Jefferson'', of all people. One episode involved him rappelling down into Fidel Castro's office and holding him at knifepoint - only it turned out he and Fidel were old friends from Jefferson's CIA days.
* [[Risky Business Dance]]: In "Breaking up is Easy to Do, Part 2".
* [[Sadist Show]]: Before such shows as ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'', ''[[Family Guy]]'', and ''[[South Park]]'', this show made fun of (at-the-time) taboo subject matter (particularly sex, feminism, homosexuality, juvenile delinquency, and political correctness), had extraordinarily raunchy jokes and [[Double Entendre]]s, and showed viewers that not all family sitcoms can be like ''[[Full House]]'' or ''[[The Brady Bunch]]'' (though this becomes a case of [[Seinfeld Is Unfunny]] when you realize that even though ''Married...With Children'' was the first successful FOX sitcom and the one that ushered in the era of dysfunctional family comedies, it's ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' that seems to be getting all the credit). Heck, even the original title of the show was supposed to be ''Not the Cosbys'' (since, at the time, ''[[The Cosby Show]]'' was popular for bringing family values back to TV—something that the show creators didn't like).
* [[Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up]]: Al, of course. [[Future Loser|How the mighty have fallen...]]
* [[Screwed by the Network]]: Where to start?
** First, there was the censors wanting to retitle an episode called "A Period Piece" (which focused on Peg, Kelly, and Marcy getting their periods simultaneously while Al, Bud, and Steve go fishing) into "The Camping Show", even though the show titles for "Married...With Children" were not shown onscreen (and not known at all until "Married...With Children" fan websites and cable guide summaries sprung up in the 1990s).
** Then, there was the whole Terry Rakolta incident, which caused an episode that wasn't even that raunchy, but still had heavy sexual references ("I'll See You in Court") to be barred from viewing until FX aired the episode a decade later and the episode was released on DVD.
** Perhaps the most egregious of all was how the series ended. You know that last episode where Kelly {{spoiler|almost gets married to the man who held her family hostage}}? Well, despite looking like the perfect plot for the final episode of a dysfunctional family sitcom, it wasn't scheduled to be that way. After FOX spent all of Season 10 moving "Married...With Children" to different timeslots (and made worse by the fact that ''[[The Simpsons (animation)|The Simpsons]]'' and ''[[In Living Color]]'' were gaining in popularity), the show suffered in the ratings so much that FOX decided to shut the show down after its 11th season. According to the "E! True Hollywood Story" about "Married...With Children", the actors had a lot of different ideas for what the last episode should have been. Ed O'Neill thought that the Bundys should win the lottery right before a tornado ripped through the neighborhood and killed them. Christina Applegate built on this, saying that the Bundy house should have then landed on Marcy, a la ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]''. Ted McGinley suggested the Bundys and Marcy dying or getting hurt in some horrible fashion and Jefferson ending up relaxing on the beach with bikini-clad babes all around him.
*** The last one is [[Your Mileage May Vary|probably the only case where being screwed by the network is a good thing]].
* [[Self-Made Man]]: Stymie Bundy. Al credits Stymie's success to the fact Stymie never got married.
* [[Sex as Rite-
* [[Shotgun Wedding]]: The circumstances under which Al and Peggy tied the knot, as Peggy was pregnant with Kelly at the time. Peggy's father brings the shotgun to the couple's ceremony to renew their wedding vows to make sure Al doesn't back out of that as well.
* [[Shot in the Ass]]: Al suffered from this when Kelly was practicing archery.
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* [[Speed Sex]]: Al is constantly mocked for his performance in bed. On of Peg's many insults: "I used to call you The Minute Man. Now I long for those days."
* [[Spinning Paper]]
* [[Spin-Off]]: Season 5 had a few episodes created specifically to set up the short-lived spinoff ''Top of the Heap'', whose cast included [[Retroactive Recognition|Matt LeBlanc and Joey Lauren Adams]]. They also tried to revive it in 1992 under the name ''Vinnie & Bobby'', but it only lasted 7 episodes.
** ...which was still better than some other spin-offs they tried to make, but failed. ''Radio Free Trumaine'' was a series pitched to FOX based on the Season 9 episode of the same name, which would have centered on Budd at college with Steve as the antagonistic Dean and a new female lead as Budd's love interest. ''Enemies'' (so named because it would have been sort of a parody of ''[[Friends]]'') was an idea pitched for a spin-off featuring Kelly's social circle. Neither idea made it past the development stage.
* [[Spiritual Successor]]: In many ways, ''Married...'' was one of these to ''It's Your Move'', a [[Too Good to Last]] NBC sitcom from 1984 which had the same creators (Ron Leavitt and Michael G. Moye) and a similarly cynical brand of humor, and starred future ''Married...'' cast member David Garrison along with a then-unknown [[Retroactive Recognition|Jason Bateman]].
** ''[[Unhappily Ever After]]'', in turn, can be seen as somewhat of a Spiritual Successor (with a fair amount of [[Follow the Leader]] thrown in) to ''Married...'' itself. It, too, was co-created by Ron Leavitt.
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{{quote|'''Marcy:''' ''You'' dispensed job advice to her? You, who thinks a W-2 is a bingo number?
'''Jefferson:''' I know it's not a bingo number! It's... that stuff you spray on squeaky hinges, right? }}
* [[Unconvincing Instant Ecstasy]]{{context}}
* [[Unfortunate Names]]: "I'm now Marcy D'ARCY?!"
* [[Ungrateful Bastard]]: Al's whole family, though Peg is the truly big one.
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{{quote|'''Al:''' So you think I'm a loser? Just because I have a stinking job that I hate, a family that doesn't respect me? A whole city that curses the day I was born? Well that may mean loser to you, but let me tell you somethin'. Every morning when I wake up, I know it's not going to get any better until I go back to sleep again. So I get up, have my watered-down Tang and still-frozen Pop-Tart, get in my car with no upholstery, no gas, and six more payments to fight traffic just for the privilege of putting cheap shoes on the cloven hooves of people like you. I'll never play football like I thought I would. I'll never know the touch of a beautiful woman. And I'll never again know the joy of driving without a ''bag'' on my head! But I'm not a loser. Because despite it all, me and every other guy who will never be what he wanted to be are still out there, being what we ''don't'' want to be 40 hours a week for life. And the fact that I haven't put a gun in my mouth you ''pudding'' of a woman, makes me a ''winner''!}}
* [[World of Snark]]: Even Kelly has her moments, despite not seeming to be smart enough for making up snappy insults.
* [[Written
* [[Vitriolic Best Buds]]: Al and Marcy seem to have it going on. Throughout the series there are moments where they seem to genuinely get along despite the number of insults they trade back and forth. They know what it's like to have deadbeat spouses while at the same time working to earn a living for ungrateful money pits of individuals who demand everything and do nothing.
* [[You Are Number Six]]: Seven.
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{{reflist}}
{{Best in TV: The Greatest TV Shows of Our Time}}
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
[[Category:The Eighties]]
[[Category:American Series]]
[[Category:Dom Com]]
[[Category:TV Series]]
[[Category:Sitcom]]
[[Category:Live-Action TV]]
[[Category:Live-Action TV of the 1980s]]
[[Category:Live-Action TV of the 1990s]]
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