Married... With Children

Married... With Children "I work in a shoe store, and yet I'm not happy to come home." - Al Bundy Genre: Sitcom Release Date: April 5, 1987 - June 9, 1997 Network(s): FOX Created by: Michael G. Moye Ron Leavit Distributed by: Columbia Pictures Television (1988-1995) Columbia TriStar Television (1995-1997) Starring: Ed O'Neil Katey Sagal David Garrison Amanda Bearse Christina Applegate David Faustino Ted McGinely Seasons: 11 Episodes: 259

Married... With Children is a sitcom that aired from 1987 to 1997.

Plot

The series starred the Bundy family, Al, Peggy, Bud and Kelly, and their neighbors Steve and Marcy Rhodes. Steve would eventually leave Marcy and Marcy would marry Jefferson D'Arcy, making her Marcy D'Arcy. Al, the father, was completely unlucky after marriage, suffering from a low-income (putting it nicely) job as a shoe salesman, which in the MWC universe, is the lamest, lowest paying, most degrading job in the entire world. His low income is made even worse by his gold-digging wife, Peggy, who. rather than buying food, spent money on herself and left the family to starve. Al and Peggy have two children, Kelly, a promiscuous and very dim-witted daughter, and Bud, an intelligent but very unlucky-in-love son.

Why It Rocks

1. Al Bundy is one of the greatest television characters ever created!
2. Among the first shows to air on the then-new FOX network.
3. Very raunchy and politically incorrect humor.
4. In real-life, it caused one of the earliest known SJW fails/Streisand effects (before the term was coined). Terry Rakolta, a woman that lived in Michigan, saw the episode Her Cups Runneth Over, was offended and sought to have the show cancelled. At the time, not many people knew about the show but her crusade against the show caused many to watch it out of curiosity, thus causing the show to become extremely popular. Rather than getting it cancelled, her actions caused the show to last for over 10 years.
5. Well-written plots and episodes.
6. Likeable and memorable characters.
7. Created an entire genre of dysfunctional family sitcoms

Bad Qualities

1. Like any good show, there's bound to be episodes you may not like.
2. Season 7 brought forth the character of 7, the son of some of Peggy's inbred relatives. The character was heavily disliked and was eventually removed from the show without explanation.
3. Although Terry Rakolta failed to get Married... With Children removed from television, the controversy she created caused the episode I'll See You In Court, which was the tenth episode of the third season, to not air due to the episode's content. It finally aired on June 18, 2002, a little over 13 years after its intended air date, February 19, 1989.
4. The show had a very obnoxious and intrusive live audience. In later seasons, any major character that arrived to the scene was met with cheers, briefly pausing the scene.

Reception

A common description given towards Married... With Children is that it put the "fun in dysfunctional." It ranks as one of the best sitcoms ever made.

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