Back in the 90s...a hero in Chicago...

Michael Jordan? Well, yes. But I'm actually talking about this man:



Al Bundy. The man on Jeopardy Lane who once led his beloved Polk High football team to victory scoring a record four touchdowns in a single game.

(That's right. Another thread about a TV show that's finished.)

Married...with Children wasn't exactly the most clever show on television. You could say the way it utilised its humour and characters was clever, but there's nothing high brow about such memorables quotes as "Hooters, hooters, yum yum yum; hooters, hooters, on a girl that's dumb." But for the viewer who can appreciate the style of humour and plots Married employed, it didn't matter. Christina Applegate in skimpy clothes didn't hurt either.

Despite the initial poor reception, the show became a hit for the FOX network and was one of the shows that really helped the network early on. And while it didn't inspire them, it perhaps helped pave the way for other dysfunctional family comedies on the FOX network; two years later The Simpsons made its debut as a half hour series and Family Guy followed years later circa 1998/1999.

Unfortunately, the show never got to do a finale as it was cancelled in its 11th season. Not the most dignified end but in some ways appropriate. Sappy endings and cuteness weren't what made Married great. Its outrageous characters did.

Perhaps it's because the characters were as colourful as they were the cast hasn't easily been able to shake them. It's taken a while for Christina Applegate to escape the dumb blonde character of Kelly Bunny. David Faustino hasn't done much since but he'll probably always be remembered as Bud Bundy. Ed O'Neill has become synonymous with Al Bundy, even if his more recent work hardly resembles the character. Or maybe it's simply the byproduct of playing the same characters for 11 years.

Anyway, this is the point of the program where I yield the floor and see if there's any other fans of the show, or whether I'm just rambling. I realise both could be true.

I have always been a fan of the Bundy family. I was watching that thing even before I was 10. Not the best of influences to go by, but still sarcastic as hell and a great laugh.

This has been the best American series shown in Europe, for certain. It had 'classic' written all over it, even back then.

The shoe salesman jokes, the under-sized kid vying for some luvin', the 10-second-sex hungry wife, the dumb blonde of a daughter, and the pretentious female neighbour with her lap dog of a husband...


Hehe, thansk for the memories, there...

I loved this show. The Bundy football pose was the stuff of legend. The movie they did was cool too, where they went to England... I vaguely remember it.

I always watched every episode of Married with Children....Al Bundy was a legend....a true pioneer for me

'No Ma'am' needs to be implemented again

This guy is my idol.

'No Ma'am' needs to be implemented again

"NO MA'AM!" How could I have missed such an important element of the show in my ramblings?

maried with children:
its a clasic i just wish i would be able to see it on slovenian chanels .
i was always laughing when Al got an idea hove the get money but it always back fired.But i newer liked the translation of maried with children in slovenian,the translation was: Family to die for

Al Bundy said:

Hooters, hooters

that was like a slogan for mariyed with children

I always watch this show. It's incredibly awesome and hilarious I've been watching Married with children since I was a kid, in spanish & english.

How can you not love Married with Children??

I used to watch a few episodes of that show. The intro song was catchy, but as for the show, it was almost as depressing as Roseanne, but then again I watched Roseanne a lot back in the days for some odd reason.

I loved that show back in the day. Al Bundy was my role model.

This and Family Matters were two shows I couldnt miss.

haha i'm surprised someone digged this show up.

this was one of my favorite shows growing up.

my favorite episode was Al's high school reunion. the thrilling climax was AL going up against the big dude from his rival school. i didn't think he was going to make it past the line. that sequence was hilarious

the legend of Al Bundy lives on for me because of my oldest brother. He's always reminiscing about the good old times, his glory days on the gridiron. He's not a shoesalesman like Al but he's been pretty much forced into the role of being the "family guy" since he got married and had a kid

This and Family Matters were two shows I couldnt miss.

That show was awesome. When Urkel turned into "Stevan" or whatever name he was in the transformer machine, that was cool. I used to act like Urkel for shits and giggles

Glad to see I'm not alone on this one.

A couple of other important aspects of the show...Marcy and Steve, and then later Jefferson. I know a lot of people will disagree but I actually preferred Jefferson, the same way I preferred the later characters in M*A*S*H. You'd think they'd run out of ways for Al to call Marcy a chicken and still be funny and some would say they did. Not me, however.

And of course, the musings of Buck the Dog. Folks over at JTS aren't necessarily appreciative of it but I always thought it was hilarious:

Bud: Well Buck, it's just you and me.
Buck: Uh oh. I've seen pornos that start out like this.

I prefered Jefferson too. He was more confident and cocky than Steve, and he gave Al a perfect sidekick. I always liked it when Kelly would bring home some boyfriend in a leather jacket with piercings everywhere, and Al would throw him out and come back in smiling and brushing his hands lol.

Also, Al's jabs at Marcy Darcy were always brillliant.

I loved the "man's toilet" episode, that was my fave episode

I always felt Christinna Apelgate was the best actor in that series. Imo,its harder to play a "dumb" role than a regular person.

yep, Jefferson was a lot better than Steve....he's a lot like a regularl guy than Steve was IMHO....

A big bump here and for some outdated news, but I was looking up the creators of Married...with Children to see what other shows they'd been involved with and noticed that one of them, Ron Leavitt, passed away back in February.

i wanna know how the hell i missed this thread the first time, this show kicked ass and if not for what happened to Katey Sagal then the show would have stayed good imo and not gone that unfortunate road with six.

A few more memorable moments:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y_ADNZYN35c[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-qRJM5750A&feature=related[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8GFq6usPg6U&feature=related[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kS7VcfTu97E&feature=related[/youtube]

if not for what happened to Katey Sagal

One of my all time favourite shows, and I don't know what happened with that. Were you referring to the little kid Seven when you wrote six?

Katey Sagal was pregnant when they were shooting the sixth season so it was written into the show, however she suffered a miscarriage so the storyline was revealed to be a nightmare Al was having.