Married... with Children: Difference between revisions

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''Married... with Children'' is a [[Sit Com]] 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)|Twenty One Jump Street]]'' and ''The Tracey Ullman Show'' was one of the network's few hits before [[American Football|the NFL]] and [[The Simpsons]] turned the network into a major player. It was a constant ratings success until it ended in June of 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.

{{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 Bruce Jenner]].

** Oddly enough, after Luke, the original shoestore sidekick left, almost all of Al's subsequent shoe store employees were black. The sole exception was Mr. Zippy, a chimp who began working at the shoe store in the very last episode aired, and dressed exactly like Al.

* [[Black Comedy Rape]]:

** It was generally subverted when it was [[Gender Flip|Gender Flipped]], though. On the rare occasions when Al was the one who either ripped up Peggy's magazine, pointed at her and then their bedroom, or simply flung her over his shoulder and carried her upstairs, she was almost always happy to comply. One time when it was played straight was when Peggy brought up a bunch of benches for the annual Labor Day family barbecue, she was totally exhausted and didn't want to do anything. Unfortunately, seeing her do housework and manual labor just happened to be Al's major fetish...

* [[Black Dude Dies First]]: He doesn't actually die, but Griff invokes this trope when he refuses to take point for Al and Jefferson during a garbage strike:

'''Griff:''' Jim Brown in ''[[The Dirty Dozen]]''? [[Laurence Fishburne]] in ''[[Apocalypse Now]]''? Bubba in ''[[Forrest Gump]]''? Any black man on ''[[Star Trek]]''? We go in, test the waters, get killed, and you white guys go home to your families.<br />

'''Al:''' See? We both lose! }}

* [[Blue and Orange Morality]]: The Bundys can pretty much cheat, lie, steal, mock anything and anyone, but marriage is ''forever''.

* [[Bottle Episode]]: A handful of episodes took place in one scene with limited actors and actresses. Some examples: the last episode of Season 1 (in which Al and Peg try to go to the closing night of their favorite burger joint, but are stuck at home trying to help their kids solve their social problems), the first episode of Season 5 (in which the Bundys get stuck in a traffic jam during their Labor Day vacation), and part one of the series finale.

* [[Captivity Harmonica]]: When Buck runs away and ends up in the pound, it's very prison-ish, complete with harmonica-playing pooch.

* [[The Cast Showoff]]: Most of the main actors got to demonstrate this at one point or another. Katey Segal got a few singing numbers, Ed O'Neill was able to show off his football skills, David Faustino did some rapping, and Christina Applegate and David Garrison both got to use their dance training.

* [[Caught With Your Pants Down]]: Poor Bud...

* [[Channel Hop]]: In-universe -- ''Psycho Dad'' going from PBS to ''The New Adventures of Psycho Dad'' on Fox finally gave him a reason to watch the network.

* [[Characterization Marches On]]: Early episodes show Peggy doing housework (even though it was established that she does a lousy job at it -- especially [[Lethal Chef|the cooking]] part), Al initiating sex, and Kelly being of average intelligence (yet still getting poor grades in school).

* [[The Chew Toy]]: Al, of course.

* [[Children Are a Waste]]: The show is based entirely on this trope; as Al's motto says, "a man's home is his coffin."

* [[Classically-Trained Extra]]: Ed O'Neill and David Garrison were both trained as dramatic actors.

* [[Dumbass Has a Point]]: If any character figured out something that eluded the rest of the cast, it was usually Kelly.

* [[Dysfunctional Family]]

** Dan Tullis appeared off-and-on as a generic cop character, who was later established to be Officer Dan.

* [[Eighties Hair]]: Peg and Kelly in earlier seasons.

* [[Faux Horrific]]: Peg redecorating the bathroom.

* [[Feeling Oppressed By Their Existence]]: Al and NO MA'AM often speak this way about their wives or women in general; in turn, Marcy sometimes says the same about men. In the end of a given episode, both sides are typically undermined by [[Hypocritical Humor]].

** Also, 555-SHOE, 555-RIND, 555-PINF, 555-RGNE, on the episode Al opened a shoe-hotline.

* [[Flanderization]]: Nearly all the characters eventually, though this actually increased the show's quality.

** In another episode, Kelly accidentally created a hair tonic named "Bleen", which worked but had the side-effect of having the male users want to have sex with their wives. The divorced Griff complained that the tonic made him pay the overdue alimony.

* [[No Accounting for Taste]], on ''both'' ends of the main couple. She's a lazy, Bon-Bon eating money sponge, he's a misanthrope with a dead-end job. Together, they raise kids!

* [[Noodle Incident]]: On a Season 3 episode where Kelly has a slumber party and The Rhoades lose their house, Al forbids Kelly to have a slumber party because the last time she had it, she was tried as an adult at the age of eight and someone shaved Al's head in his sleep. There was no further information.

** However, when Al and the others later go to Washington to prevent the cancellation of Psycho Dad, Kelly and Bud have another party. Through radio reports we learn that the party engulfs most of the upper Midwest by the end of the episode, with the National Guard setting up "back-parties" to contain it.

* [[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.

** Al telling off the older woman he thinks the underage Bud is having an affair with. It's the wrong woman, but it's the right reaction.

** Throughout the show, especially in the early seasons, ''both'' parents basically had "oh, ''hell'' no" reactions to the kids doing something wrong.

* [[Parallel Porn Titles]]: A good half-dozen in the subplot to the episode "Dial 'B' for Virgin" where Al and Peg go to a video store. Al's favorite is "[[Forrest Gump|Forrest Hump]]".

* [[Performance Anxiety]]: Played with in one episode when Marcy is anxious about having to deliver bad news at a presentation to her bank executives. She sees a psychotherapist who conditions her to associate public speaking with sex. This not only relieves her performance anxiety, but causes her to have an orgasm during the presentation. She's soon [[Fetish Fuel|in demand]] throughout Chicago as a speaker delivering bad news.

* [[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.

** Also numerous references to other TV shows that were on at the time. In one episode, Al criticizes ''[[Friends]]'', only for Bud to find him watching it later; Al's excuse is that if you turn the sound off and watch with binoculars, you can tell that Rachel isn't wearing a bra.

** The creators of the show were all fans of [[Professional Wrestling]], and chose the surname "Bundy" as an homage to legendary [[Heel]] King Kong Bundy (who appeared on the show as one of Peggy's relatives).

*** He also appeared in the episode where Bud needs a picture of himself w/ King Kong to get into NO MA'AM.

*** The Rhodes were named after "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes.

** Stymie Bundy was named after [[The Little Rascals|a Little Rascal]]. Matthew "Stymie" Beard, to be exact. Al once called him "Uncle Buckwheat" (Billie "Buckwheat" Thomas) and Kelly once called him "Uncle Spanky" (George "Spanky" [[Mc Farland]]). The three of them were from the Roach talkie period.

** An episode of [[Futurama]] has Katey Sagal's character Leela devolve into a one eyed Peggy [[Expy]] about to be married to an alien named Alkezar (Who insists she call him "Al").

** Oddly enough, this is when the show also started [[Growing the Beard]].

* [[Torches and Pitchforks]]: When the family's new air conditioner shorts out the neighborhood power grid, Al expresses relief that at least no one knows that it's the Bundys' fault. Unfortunately, the neighbors all correctly guess that the Bundys are responsible and form an angry mob that tries to storm the Bundy house. Kelly even [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] it when she wonders where the neighbors got the torches and pitchforks so quickly, implying that they've been waiting for an excuse to go after the Bundys anyway.

* [[Ugly Guy, Hot Wife]]: Al and Peggy (though he'd disagree). Also [[Gender Flip|Gender Flipped]] by Jefferson and Marcy.

* [[Ultimate Job Security]]: The way Al insults the fat women who come into the shoe store would have gotten him fired many times over in [[Real Life]], but he manages to keep his job anyway. This troper figures it's because Gary (the store's owner) can't find anyone else desperate enough to work there...besides Griff, anyway.

* [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?]]: As Al is fond of pointing out, he once scored four touchdowns in a single game. And it was the championship game too.

* [[Where Da White Women At?]]: Briefly invoked when Al sits down and opens up a [[Porn Stash|Big 'Uns]] magazine, and Griff sits down next to him and opens a Black Big 'Uns. After reading for a moment, they trade magazines.

''(the other Bundys put their hands in a circle)''<br />

'''Everyone:''' Whoooooaa, BUNDY! }}

* [[Why Couldn't You Be Different?]]: Al occasionally laments that Bud never played football like he did. When he becomes a [[Parental Substitute]] to Aaron, a high school football player who takes a job at the shoe store, Al claims that he's like the son Al always wanted. Note that Al says this while Bud is [[I'm Standing Right Here|sitting next to him on the couch]].

* [[William Telling]]: Kelly becomes a skilled archer and accepts her opponent's challenge to shoot an apple on Bud's head. She balks at going through with it, not wanting to hurt Bud, but when her opponent accuses her of cowardice, she shoots the apple without warning, causing Bud to pass out and, upon reviving, regress to toddlerhood.