was conceived as the antithesis to the idealized por-
trayal of a middle-class family in most 1980’s sitcoms,
especiallyThe Cosby Show.Married... with Children
differentiated itself from such other sitcoms by
pushing the limits of what was desirable or permissi-
ble on television. It employed cruder humor with a
pointed undercurrent of satire. As the first FOX sit-
com,Married... with Childrenmade FOX a competi-
tor to the Big Three television networks, and its tone
became a major aspect of the fledgling network’s at-
tempt to develop a coherent brand identity. Thus,
the edgy rejection of idealizing American institu-
tions evident in the sitcom became a trademark of
the FOX network itself. The show became FOX’s
longest-running live-action sitcom, running for a to-
tal of eleven seasons.
Married... with Childrenwas conventional in one
respect: It focused on the home life of a single Chi-
cago family. The father, Al Bundy (Ed O’Neill), out-
wardly displayed discontent with his tragically dissat-
isfying life as a shoe salesman; his wife, Peggy (Katey
Sagal), refused the role of the typical housewife but
also refused to work; his daughter, Kelly (Christina
Applegate), was portrayed as stupid and promiscu-
ous; and his son, Bud (David Faustino), was defined
largely by his inexperience with women, as well as his
propensity for exploiting his sister’s lack of intelli-
gence. The Bundys’ dog, Buck, was also a significant
character, whose thoughts were heard in voice-over.
Also typical of many of the sitcoms thatMarried...
with Childrenskewered, the Bundys’ next-door neigh-
bors were recurring characters. Marcy (Amanda
Bearse) was the breadwinner for her household and
was frequently Al’s nemesis. Her first husband, Steve
(David Garrison) hatched get-rich-quick schemes.
When Garrison left the show, his character was re-
placed by a second husband, Jefferson (Ted Mc-
Ginley), who was portrayed as a male bimbo and tro-
phy husband.Married... with Childrenmade near
caricatures of its central characters and poked fun at
familial expectations and social roles; it defied the
family ideal by treating family as a curse.
Indeed, most episodes focused on the “Bundy
Curse,” the endless stream of bad luck that thwarted
Al at every turn and prevented him from ever living a
satisfying life. The humor of the show rested on Al’s
inability to succeed, and Al was often forced to be
content with his family and his dismal yet comfort-
able life. Al humorously avoided sex with Peggy,
overused the toilet, attended strip clubs (Peggy did
the same), sent his son to strip clubs, and was known
by the trademark move of putting his hand in the
waistband of his pants as he sat in front of his televi-
sion. Still, there were moments of redemption for
the character, when he convinced his family to work
together (often for one pessimistic cause), when he
would grudgingly admit to loving his wife, or when
he defended his daughter by beating up her boy-
friends. Even with some traditional sitcom charac-
teristics, the show was successful primarily because
of its explicit attack on the saccharine idealization of
the family perpetrated by other sitcoms, as well as
its embrace of vulgar humor that other sitcoms
avoided. Both the coarse humor and the gleeful
embrace of ugliness in its portrayal of family values
connected to a different side of viewers from that
addressed by the competing networks. The show’s
exaggerated stereotypes and crude yet honest char-
acters set it—and FOX—apart.
Impact Married... with Childrenput the FOX net-
work into the running with other prime-time televi-
sion networks by providing a new type of sitcom that
focused on the humor of pessimism. Indeed, per-
haps its greatest function was to give voice to Ameri-
can pessimism at a time when the other networks
were largely in agreement with President Ronald
Reagan that it was “Morning in America.” The show
made dysfunction acceptable, precisely because the
dysfunction it portrayed was recognizable to a gener-
ation that could not see itself in the sitcoms of the
Big Three networks. The series thereby opened new
doors for sitcoms that strayed from traditional famil-
ial roles.
Further Reading
Jacik, Anton.The Official “Married... with Children”
Trivia Book.Charleston, S.C.: BookSurge, 2004.
Lasswell, Mark.TV Guide: 50 Years of Television.New
York: Crown, 2002.
Jean ProkottSee also Cheers;Cosby Show, The;Designing Women;
Facts of Life, The;Family Ties; FOX network;Golden
Girls, The; Sitcoms; Television;Wonder Years, The.The Eighties in America Married... with Children 623