Married . . . with Children [TV Series] (DVD)

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"Married . . . with Children" debuted on April 5, 1987, but for TV audiences it must have felt like an April Fool´s joke. Fox, the brand-new network that would later give us such freaky fare as "When Good Animals Go Bad," had just launched their version of "When Good Family Sitcoms Go Bad." The Bundys were the anti-Cosbys, as dysfunctional a family as television had ever seen, and it´s no coincidence that their name just happened to be the same as serial killer Ted Bundy. Adding insult to injury for some viewers was that the show aired on Sunday evenings, right after Bill Cosby and his model TV family. During the 1988-89 season, angry housewives actually launched a letter-writing campaign urging a boycott of the show, but the Bundys rolled on. Though they never made it as many seasons as some of the top comedies, in sheer number of episodes aired "Married . . . with Children" ranks sixth on the list, ahead of "Happy Days," "The Andy Griffith Show," "All in the Family," and, yes, "The Cosby Show." The Cosbys managed 201 episodes, while the Bundys generated 262. But while "The Cosby Show" was often rated the #1 show in full-year Nielsen surveys, "Married . . . with Children" never made it into the top 25 shows going head-to-head against that wholesome program. It had a dedicated audience, but a relatively small one. And at the risk of offending that dedicated audience, let me speculate why. For one thing, it´s played over-the-top, like bad dinner theater, exaggerated with raunchy flair. And just as the Bundys aren´t exactly the brightest bulbs in the marquee, the show itself can be as dumb and uncomplicated as some of the worst "Three´s Company" or "Gilligan´s Island" episodes. Even co-star Christina Applegate said she thought the show was so "trashy" that her initial response was to turn down the part, we learn on one of the Easter Egg clips that show the actors reminiscing. Yet, there are laugh-out-loud lines in just about every episode, and Applegate admits that when she actually watched the show, she cracked up.

The family patriarch, Al (Ed O´Neill), worked by day in women´s shoes, but by night? He carved a bigger butt-niche in the furniture facing the television than Archie Bunker did years earlier. Al sees himself as a larger-than-life breadwinner whose family doesn´t appreciate him. What´s to appreciate? his wife would sneer. Peggy (Katey Sagal) sports tight pants, flashy jewelry, big hair, and a bigger attitude. She and daughter Kelly (Applegate) are the oversexed ones in the family, while Al and son Bud (David Faustino) are the big talkers. The rest of the small cast is filled out by straight-laced newlywed neighbors Steve (David Garrison) and Marcy (Amanda Bearse) Rhoades. And compared to the Bundys, they look like regular Rhodes scholars.

With the convenience of DVDs, which allow you to watch episodes in rapid succession, what stands out now is the show´s reliance on the same old gags. Remember "The Ropers?" Mrs. Roper was the oversexed wife always complaining about her husband´s lack of bedroom prowess, while Mr. Roper had zero sexual appetite for his wife but vicarious interest in younger, more attractive females. That same premise is applied so often here that you begin to anticipate the wisecracks before the characters mouth them. The most successful episodes get past that tired sex-talk into some classic zaniness based more on situational comedy. Among the best are the Buck doggie sagas, and an episode where mother and daughter share eerily similar tattoo stories but radically different baseball skills. Then there´s the episode where not-so-lovey-dovey Al and Peg pretend to be their neighbors on a newlywed TV game show, and one where a mall Santa misses the mark and crash-lands in the Bundy´s Chicago backyard, forcing Al to placate the neighborhood kids with an inept performance as a beer-smelling St. Nick. That episode, by the way, predates "The Santa Clause" by seven years!

Here´s a rundown on the second-season:

#1—Buck Can Do It. After knocking up the entire dog neighborhood, Al´s seemingly lethargic couch-buddy´s head is on the chopping block. Make that a different set of bodily parts.
#2 & #3—Poppy´s By the Sea. Cheapskate Al takes the family to an $8 per night Florida fleabag which, unbeknownst to them, is the site of a tourist killing every five years. And guess what year this is?
#4—If I Were a Rich Man. After spending a night after-hours in Steve´s bank vault using the real stuff to play REALLY high-stakes poker, Al is suspected of pocketing a little of the green.