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

Connect to Facebook/Twitter, recommend via email and much more.

---

Roughly 10 years after "Married with Children" debuted on Fox and gave Americans the Bundys as the anti-Huxtables--the polor opposite of the perfect Cosby Show clan--star Ed O'Neill was on vacation when he was surprised to learn from tourists that the show had been cancelled.

He was probably just as surprised that "Married with Children" lasted as long as it did. After all, before "Baywatch," this was the longest-running TV show never to win an Emmy. Protesters wanted the show off the air, and sheer dumbness seemed to take over as the show got older. And while money was reported to be at the root of the dispute, the estate of Frank Sinatra, who'd given permission for his version of "Love and Marriage" to be used for the show's theme song, decided to withhold that permission for later DVD releases. You have to wonder if it wasn't just the show itself.

There's nothing heartwarming or endearing about this blue-collar Chicago family, whose last name was not-so-coincidentally the same as serial killer Ted Bundy. And forget realism. These characters couldn't have been played more over-the-top if they each had jet-packs strapped to their backs. Al Bundy ( O'Neill) was a sniveling shoe salesmen with legendary armpit odor and lecherous tendencies. Lazy as the day is long, he saw himself as The Breadwinner and felt no need to do anything else around the house except sit on the couch in front of the TV with his hand down his pants. His wife, the equally lazy, big-hair, Lycra-pants wearing wife, was practically the same--but without the job. Peg (Katey Sagal) didn't "do" housework, didn't cook, and didn't tend to her brood. What she did do was sit around all day in her stretch pants and tight faux-leopard tops and spike heels, doing her nails, eating chocolates, watching television, and gossiping with next-door neighbor Marcy Rhoades D'Arcy (Amanda Bearse).

Fruit doesn't fall far from the tree, and Kelly (Christina Applegate) was the trampy teen who was a chip off mom's block. With an IQ lower than a limbo bar and a libido that could rival sailors, she had one thing on her mind . . . and yet she still didn't have much of a life, which left her hanging out at the house far more than anyone wanted. Rounding out the family was ultra-nerd Bud (David Faustino), who fancied himself a hip ladies' man and couldn't have been more off-base than someone who's never gotten to first, let alone home.

The Fox Network chose this anti-family show to launch its sitcom programming back in April of 1987, and if the math doesn't factor out right to hit four seasons by 1989-90, Fox made its own seasons. Early on, it was the most successful show of the new network, but it was also super-controversial. A Michigan housewife led a letter-writing movement urging audiences to boycott the show, but that made viewers even more curious. You want wholesome? Tune into Cosby-who is frequently mentioned on this show as the ideal parent, compared to the "real" parenting the Bundys do. Or watch "The Wonder Years," which aired around the same time. Christina Applegate became a pin-up icon, and that drew yet another audience of testosterone-driven boys to the show. The show is significant in sitcom history because of its anti-family attitudes that paved the way for less outrageous "bad parenting" in such shows as "Roseanne."

"Married with Children" remained a virtual underground success, lasting ten years, but in addition to never winning an Emmy, it never cracked the Nielsen Top-30, and never drew wide audiences. It was trash TV before Jerry Springer got the idea to do a faux talk show with America's trailer population as willing combatants.

The same shallow gags about Al's armpits, Peg's sex drive, Kelly's trampiness, and Bud's imagined studliness get pretty old by season six, but this year was enlivened somewhat by episodes that showcased Bud and Kelly and also by a three-part family "vacation" to England that finds them the target of a town of assassins trying to end a curse. Fans of the show will want to buy this season just for those episodes. In the "Kelly Does Hollywood" episodes (yep, they were going for a take-off on "Debbie Does Dallas," which tells you a lot about the show's humor orientation), look for Jon Lovitz to make an appearance as an NBS honcho and Matt Le Blanc as a young leather-jacketed man opposed to motorcycle helmet laws. It's an early prototype of the character he played in "Friends," and that alone makes it interesting. But the cable-access show that Kelly puts together, "Vital Social Issues 'n Stuff with Kelly," is pretty funny, with its segments on the bad perm of the week, slut of the week, and an in-house band who can only muster three or four bars at a time.