It was one of Fox's first primetime shows, and, until it was overtaken by The Simpsons, its longest running series.
Married.....With Children took the concept of the domestic sitcom and flipped it on its head. It was never a top 20 show with any sort of consistency, but reruns continue to air on cable to this day. At last check, Viacom had the cable rights, with the show airing on Logo & CMT.
Children was built around Al Bundy (Ed O'Neill), a former Chicago high school football star turned shoe salesman, husband, and father of two. Al's wife, Peg (Katey Sagal), was a rarity in sitcoms. A housewife adverse to housework, instead swiping money from her husband to go shopping, a trait passed down to daughter Kelly (Christina Applegate), a stereotypical dumb blonde. Bud (David Faustino) was more like his dad, right down to having his sister's back (and she his) in times of need.
Married....With Children was the symbol of Fox's attitude in the late 80's & early-to-mid 90's, such that a Michigan housewife, Terry Rakolta, offended by the show, organized a boycott. The Parents Television Council, predictably, weighed in, declaring the show the worst on television two seasons in a row. Those media nannies wouldn't know freedom of expression if it came up and bit them in the neck.
The series also attracted a variety of guest stars, including pro wrestler King Kong Bundy (written into the show as a relative), NFL great-turned-actor Bubba Smith ("Police Academy", ex-Blue Thunder), musicians such as Peter Noone of Herman's Hermits fame, and comedian Sam Kinison. Robert Englund even showed up as an iteration of the Devil for an episode.
Everyone has their favorite parts of the show. My folks caught up with the reruns in the 90's, looking for something to watch, and found it entertaining. Well, it had to be, to last 11 years. A 3rd season episode that never aired on Fox surfaced on FX in 2002, well after the series ended. I think what people really liked was Al beating up some of Kelly's prospective suitors or causing havoc at the theatre or nudie bar.
This video compilation illustrates the physical abuse Al heaped on people. They never learned that Al lived by an excerpt from Tennessee Ernie Ford's seminal hit, "Sixteen Tons". If the left don't get you, the right one will.
Sagal & O'Neill have stayed busy post-Children. Sagal landed three more hit series with Futurama (also for Fox), 8 Simple Rules (John Ritter's final series), and Sons of Anarchy. O'Neill is wrapping up another elongated sitcom hit with ABC's Modern Family after giving crime drama two tries (Big Apple and Dick Wolf's 2003 remake of Dragnet). Christina Applegate has had a couple more series as well, but Faustino has all but disappeared.
Rating: B-.
getTV is also airing Married...With Children on weeknights.
ReplyDeleteWell, it's owned by Sony, so that makes sense.
ReplyDeleteMy dad was a big fan of the show - especially the character of Al Bundy! He used to point to the screen and say, "That's my MAN!!".
ReplyDeleteHe was indeed like a latter day Archie Bunker - irascible, gauche, and a lousy provider but not necessarily wrong in his observations. I caught a collection of his best insults on YT - and I DIED laughing! So sad that kind of comedy has been missing from entertainment.
A show like MWC would not likely make it to air now, not as it was anyway. I can only imagine if we got a short set in the MWC universe - and see where Al is and what he thinks of this PC garbage we have to deal with.
Al, to me, represented the stereotype of the grown-up dumb jock. He wasn't that smart, a trait passed down to Kelly, unfortunately. The Bundys would be Jerry Springer's kind of people.
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