In 1990 I referred to my husband as my HUSBAND. At that point we had been together 5 years. We ended up being together a total of 33 1/2 continuous years until he died from the complications of a stroke August 11, 2018. I miss you Otis.
(HUgs) and my sincerest condolences I know how you feel, My Ralphy and I were together for 30 years. and I lost him to end stage COPD on Jan 11th 2020. I miss you Snuggle Bear 😪
"Married...With Children" was more subversive than people today realize. I even did the homework and found that it had more women writing for the show and producing it than "The Simpsons" and even "Golden Girls".
Chad Denton Yeah it was always a deconstruction of the typical perfect white-bread upper-middle class families that plagued 80’s sitcoms at the time. In fact its working title was “Not the Huxtables”.
People tend to forget that the show's most problematic and unPC jokes were like double edged swords. Every sexist joke was also a joke about how idiotic Al was. That's why plus-sized women were often the biggest fans of the show. The show was basically about how we are all trash, every last one of us. This can really be a better way to embrace inclusiveness than excessively wholesome depictions of society.
My theory is that these clubs were so bizarre because portraying a night out in the 80s accurately would involve literal _mountains_ of cocaine, and TV just wasn't ready for that yet
I don't know why Al is an icon of heterosexuality. He never wants to have sex and frequently implies he dislikes it. He really can't stand women and has an adoring bromance with Marcy's pretty boy second husband Jefferson. He would probably look at gay men and say, "yep, totally get it" and in fact be a bit jealous.
You could argue maybe he just wasn't attracted to Peg any longer but he also didn't seem to have too much in the way of sex drive towards other women either. The only person he actually seemed attracted to was Jefferson.
Are you telling me that Queen comment, with the guys outfit in question, was NOT a Freddi Mercury "I want to break free" reference? Seems to fitting to be coincidence.
I think the joke was, the guy looks like Freddie Mercury, from the band "Queen". Notice how he said said Queen singular not Queens or even drag queens.
@@MattBaume there ar two parts to it, the first is like margaret says but the other part is in places with retirement communities in the us(think florida) it used to be(and maybe still is) a thing where men could make money dancing with widows who miss their dance-hall days but are not interested in new relationships or aren't into competing for an ever-narrowing pool of eligible companions
Ruth Etting... Doris played her opposite James Cagney in "Ten Cents a Dance". Wonderful song... Wonderful movie... very good soundtrack... Ruth was a great singer.
To be fair, Blanche and Al are of two different generations. Blanche is a retired senior citizen, and Al is a middle-aged working man. But yeah, even for an early babyboomer like Al, it was impressive how accepting he was. Also, let's not forget the one episode when Marcy's lesbian cousin comes and visits, and Al has an _amazing_ friendship with her! I've never seen Al express such mutual respect and comradery to any other woman.
Straight guy: You should be happy with that husband of yours and treat him right Gay guy: okay your right , you should tell your wife you love her Straight guy: mind your own business IDK but that is just so hilarious
I remember watching this episode when I was about ten years old, after Al said his “homo” line in the end, I walked to the living room where my sister and her high school friends were. I asked what “homo” meant. They were trying their best to explain to me the definition without being too obvious about it. What they didn’t understand is that I already knew (because of my peers at school and television) that gay men had relationships to one another; I simply did not know that the term “homo” was associated with being gay in any way. I was ten and had no problem with it at all. I just found it really funny that they were trying to beat around the bush on a topic that I was already familiar with.
In 1989 I had to write a paper for an English class and for some reason I wrote about why same-sex marriage should be legal. I got a B for the paper, but when this episode of MWC aired a few months later I somehow thought I was part of the vanguard of something. Ah, the hubris of youth 😀 I imagined that we would have same-sex marriage rights by the late 90’s if not sooner. How foolish I was.
Chad, Don I’m probably that Alternative I wasn’t happy we got marriage equality at first I was pissed it took so long I was angry that we didn’t have it sooner Now I’m trying to be more optimistic and less cynical nihilistic view point
@@killerfoxraspberryplays8903 Good for you!I used to act somewhat cynical and nilistic too but now like you I'm doing my absolute best to shred that and be more optimistic!Fuck negativity!
I remember watching this episode as a kid and it had never occurred to me that two men could be married, I was very young at the time. Funny that 24 years later I was getting married to my husband six states away from home because it would still be a year before it was recognized nationally. Good for the writers and cast of the show for realizing it was such a normal thing!
This brought back a weird memory of an episode of "The Love Boat" which I found offensive even at the young age of ten (I was pretty sure I was gay even then). Two men board the boat and are staying in the honeymoon suite, garnering lots of weird looks from the crew. The upshot is that one of the men had been left standing at the altar by his bride and so had decided to go on what had been booked as his honeymoon cruise with his best man. The male members of the crew, though, think they're a couple and try to distance themselves from them and, of course, there's plenty of innuendo and double entendre. I just remember how much this episode bothered me at the time as the (supposedly) male couple were looked upon by the crew as if they had some kind of disease. We've really come a long way since 1978.
The actors playing the gay couple on this show played a gay couple-with a daughter-on the Tracey Ullman Show, another Fox program. I’m surprised that didn’t come up.
Was about to reply the same thing. As a kid, I thought they were supposed to be the same characters, assuming that it was Fox sitcom synergy to cross over the characters of the actors, but such is not the case.
Matt, thanks for another great video. As a father of two LGBTQ+ teens and as a human being, I appreciate the work that goes into your videos and the value they have to help map out the ongoing narrative around societies perception of homosexuality and gender identity, in a way that an outsider can understand. You should be proud of yourself.
great vid! the guy's look at 4:48 is strikingly similar to Freddie Mercury's drag in Queen's "I Want to Break Free" video, banned in the U.S. from 1984-1991 because of the crossdressing.
More likely standards and practices on MTV refused to run it for fear of public reaction. Very rarely is media in America "banned" like it can be even in other Western countries, but that's mainly because the private entities that have moved into that power vacuum are all too happy to self-censor. And while that self-censorship is more flexible in theory, in practice it just results in dozens of independent S&P boards most of which are more conservative and cautious than society needs them to be, instead of just one that's in the same situation.
@0 MTV and apparently various radio stations banned it. MTV doesn't exactly have the best history. I don't know their entire playlist, but it has been said that MTV featured no videos that featured black artists before Michael Jackson's Billie Jean. An often cited story is that MTV initially refused to play Billie Jean as well due to Jackson's race; the channel only agreed to air the video after the president of CBS Records threatened to pull all CBS artists from the channel if they didn't. (The video was a hit, and MTV was suddenly willing to start giving air time to other black artists.)
I’m not too surprised that MWC pulled this off. Despite often being pretty lowbrow, the show is all about parodying traditional family values and poking fun at our concepts of masculinity. Al may be the heterosexual, man’s man poster boy; but a lot of the jokes come from his downfall at the hand of his own hubris.
You're right, and I think there is an interesting point here. A talented host could probably do a great video essay on the progression of social critique in a direct line from Archie Bunker to Al Bundy.
Yeah that's what a lot of people don't get...Al isn't supposed to be some kind of beloved role model. He's a clown. He's someone to be laughed at and mocked because his own decisions and hubris inevitably doom him. It's even strongly implied to be a straight-up magical curse in some episodes: Bundys can never truly be happy. And if they are, they're screwed.
The show wasn't criticized by "progressives." They got it. It's a show where Al says things like, men do manly things because we are men. And manly usually means acting stupidly. Nobody criticized the show for being pro marriage or pro traditional values. _In 1989, a Michigan housewife named Terry Rakolta started petitioning Fox advertisers to pull out of the network because of the "consistently offensive" and "anti-family"_ There's also this kind of "guy joke." Who can figure women out, right? Life would be so much simpler if you were gay. Except for the sex part. I'm not trying to take anything away from the show (which I liked), but this was quite safe.
Boy this brought back memories; memories of a time when marriage equality seemed so beyond our reach. I used to attend a gay men's "rap group" when I was at UCLA back in the late 80's and we would occasionally talk about legalized same sex marriage. Many of the men in the group were adamantly against gay marriage, arguing that we'd simply be "aping" heterosexuals, yet I still wanted it. I didn't think I'd ever see same sex marriage become legal in my lifetime; man, things have changed.
I was very young when this show was on the air, probably a bit TOO young to be watching it I was born in 1983 and this show came out in 1986..don't think I was watching it when I was 3, but I did watch it A LOT with my dad. I do remember that episode, but I don't know if I saw it on its original air-date or if was a re-run. My mom wasn't very pleased with it. This was a show that came on TV after my family was getting home from church...so we'd come home from church and watch a show about a very dysfunctional family that talked about sex, drank alcohol and used offensive language at time. My mom was pretty embarrassed and did not want me, my brother or my dad watching and especially didn't want us admitting to other people that we watched it. If my parents had any clue that I was going to end up coming out to them when I was 15, they probably wouldn't have let me watch this. Once I came out, EVERYTHING in my life changed. I was not allowed to use the internet unless they were home and able to "monitor" me. I was no longer allowed to have friday night sleep-overs, I was no longer allowed to go to friend's houses overnight. They wouldn't allow me to watch anything that had a gay character (not even Will & Grace). I guess its no wonder why I built up such a resentment on telling them personal things. i've been married damn near 3 years...they don't even know...
My mother also had the Moral Outrage to just about everything on Fox. We weren't allowed to watch Married With Children or The Simpsons. Nor were we allowed to watch MTV back when the M actually stood for something. Congratulations on your nuptials. You deserve it!!
I'm *so* sorry for the difficulties you've experienced. Aaaaand I'm *DELIGHTED* that you're in a loving relationship with your spouse. All the very best!! 💕🌈💜✌🏼✊🏼☮️☮️💕💕☮️☮️
I remember this and Al’s attitude made total sense to me. The harsh terminology also made sense and was what made it funny, it showed his ignorance while his heart (or stomach) was in the right place.
A bit odd that you didn't mention Marcy's kesbian twin. That was an awesome episode! She get's along great with Al, which annoys Peg. Then she flirts with Peg and Peg starts to like her ^^
Al and Marcy's cousin or whatever it was got on like a house on fire. I think most people haven't watched the show that far, about season 10. Al also wasn't sure whether he was bi in several episodes around that time.
Yes they loved the 50's so much back then that they would even build time machines in jalopies to travel there, you know to save some guy's mom from sleeping with her son and whatnot. Happened all the time.
She wasn't a writer but an episode director for the show. A lot of MWC writers also wrote for The Golden Girls. They could write one liners and insult humor with the best
Yep, Divine was originally supposed to play one of Peggy's Wanker county relatives when they passed away, instead a season 2 episode is dedicated to their memory.
I love this trip through pop culture. I always wondered where my progressive ideals came from as I grew up in a very southern strategy Republican household (in NY state); broken down "projects" were N---'s heavens, and afros were N---'s wool. You can just imagine what gays were called - when their existence was recognized at all. My older brother followed my parents down that dark road, and I never knew how I escaped it. It would seem, that those couple of years between us made a big difference in picking up these messages.
I really must be a dingus. When he said "Peach Bowser Cosplay" my first thought was "Odd place for a Sha-Na-Na reference but props for the deep cut." >.>;
Thank you for this episode! I love this show so much. It's so dumb but funny, which is what I need from time to time. I love how it totally parodied the nuclear family, especially how it has been depicted until its time.
5 ปีที่แล้ว +25
Another GREAT episode! That was such a great episode of Married with Children. 😊👍
I don't know if he worked on this episode but one of the writers on "MWC" was Christian McLaughlin who is openly gay and has written a couple of gay themed novels as well as writing episodes of "Desperate Housewives", "Drawn Together" and CBS soap operas.
Thanks for covering this. I remember this episode at that Roc episode you mentioned. Both definitely had an impact on me. I don't recall much of the Roc episode other than the eventual acceptance and ceremony, but I do remember the camera pulling away just as the two guys went to kiss, probably due to censorship BS. Would be interesting to see that episode in full again.
I really enjoyed this one! I had no idea this episode of married with children even existed. Thanks for covering this. I love it when you do these types of videos. They are informative and entertaining. Keep up the good work! Best, Marvin 😀
Unsurprisingly, the queerest episode of MwC aired on ContraPoints’ birthday, which later became the day same-sex marriage went into effect in Northern Ireland
4:40 ‐ I think the "queen" was dressing like Freddie from Queen's music video for "I Want To Break Free" ...hence the joke about calling "them" queen 😂 and apart from wearing leather trousers instead of a leather skirt that guy really is nailing the look!
I had to pause this for a minute.. I am having a flashback to my teens. I lived in one of those really closeminded areas, and I am remembering how Al's reaction to [Dan] kind of shaped my ... or kind of solidified... my acceptance of different people. I had never really met any gay people, but I am always a "fair is fair" kind of person, and found other kid's jokes about them unfair. This was the first show that kind of showed me what... well, it affirmed what I felt. I was straight, unthreatened by the way people are. I could have my interests and they could have theirs. And that goes for anyone. Being near someone of a different background doesn't mean you change or they change. Where I was from, anyone of any difference was bullied mercilessly. Kids were dropping out of my middle school by the hundreds from bullying. (the kids that went to this school were all literally related and tolerated no one.) Anyways, I totally didn't realize what an impact that episode had and I had totally forgotten about it until now. Also, I'm interested in your book. thanks for the video and memory.
Married with Children was one of those shows that was as close to the way Gen X felt about subjects like this as you could reasonably expect to find on TV. Which wasn't perfect, but the general attitude of young people at the time seemed to be that homosexuality wasn't a big deal, but just like everything else that was mildly different it was the butt of a lot of jokes. To be honest, there's a lot that you see in media in the 90s that sort of went back in the bottle in the 2000s when America re-prudished itself. An example is the sheer amount of female-lead shows like Buffy, Xena and Charmed died off in favor of girl-as-object shows like The Vampire Diaries, and we had some great poc-lead shows in the 90s (Living Single, Moesha, Sinbad, Martin, In Living Color, etc) that basically were nowhere to be found after the new millennium. Gay representation seemed to really dwindle with everything else. I'm glad we're really talking about this stuff now, and I'm glad we're making some progress but more definitely needs to be done while we've still got the wind in our sails and the country's still talking about it. Maybe we can do a better job of representing everyone going forward.
The actress who played Marcy is the first lesbian that I ever became aware of. I saw her on a talk show when I was really young, and I didn’t even know what the word lesbian meant.
It was on a show called "The Rerun Show" that recycled old scripts and added one or two jokes. It was a terrible idea that only lasted a month but it's SO WEIRD.
Hard to not tell that if you have seen both shows. Her voice is very unique. What would be a fun fact to tell is that Futurama had a scene that references Married with Children.
There was a scene in the Kids in the Hall movie where a character realizes that he's gay. So, he runs through the street telling everyone that he's gay, andcthey all join him in a sort of parade down the street. And by the the end of his song, everyone's holding him up while he shouts, "I'm Gay". And then everyone says, "Who cares?!" And they drop him and walk off.
Was MWC made by the FOX network? During the same time period, Sam MacMurray and Dan Castellanetta played a gay couple in recurring sketches on The Tracy Ullmann Show.
Was hoping someone noticed that - I assume because Fox was still struggling in those days, they used the same actors in very similar roles for cost reasons. On Tracy's show, Castellanetta played the father of a teenage Ullmann character, who referred to her parents as "my Dad and my William."
Congratulations on an excellent analysis. I can remember what Al said to the husband at the dance hall. "You've got a man at home who can bake a potato like nobody's business." Interesting that you mention the show 'Roc' featuring a gay commitment ceremony because if my memory is correct that show was on Fox too. Fox network shows really were trendsetters in a lot of ways.
I also want to speak up for Al a bit too. I had a friend who decried having someone like that portray a father because it was an attack on the family. I disagreed and said that while outwardly Al might not be a perfect role model, inwardly he was. Even though his family constantly disrespected him and insulted him, he still went to work every day at a job he hated to put food on their table and a roof over their heads. A lot of guys would have taken off years before, but Al stuck it out and fulfilled the responsibility he agreed to when he took those marriage vows.
Have you ever covered the character of Jody on a TV show from the 70s called soap? It was probably one of the first positive representations of LGBT that I can remember.
I'd like to do one about Jody but it's COMPLICATED. He seemed to have more girlfriends than boyfriends but I don't think the show ever used the word "bisexual." And the sex-change storyline in the first season is really hard to grasp by today's standards.
It might be interesting to explore the representation at that time, contrasting him with other characters such as Klinger and Jack Tripper. We only had CBS when I was growing up so I was familiar with MASH, but then ABC and a few other stations became available, and I remember being very surprised when someone on TV came right out and said they were gay. I was aware of what that meant at the time, and it really resonated with me because it was the first time I saw someone who wasn't just pretending for their own motives, or used solely to be the butt of jokes.
@@MattBaume and was protested by gay folks at the time! But that was how straight people, frankly, a lot of Gay folks understood Homosexuality - wanting to be the other gender. Also, later on Jody is before a judge trying to gain custody of his child. Quite a speech and WAY ahead of its time. Do Jody as a two parter, at least.
YES! i was waiting for you to do this one! i was also surprised at how accepting they wrote al bundy, i wonder why he wasn't so bothered by it (in the context of the time and who Al was.) Also, if you watch that scene with Al and Dan's character sitting next to one another, you can hear a woman in the audience say "Oh Al, No!" which is a little sad to hear, the straights were really quite scared of homosexuals back then, when there was nothing to fear at all.
Glad you covered this one. While the show was unquestionably, however cheerfully, trashy (and not at all above cracking a homophobic gag), its treatment of minorities granted them visibility without the pious condescension that was de rigueur at the time, and I've always appreciated this episode's lowbrow take on sexual politics compared to the "lets have a gay character to teach everyone about acceptance" mode that was the standard of the day.
Jer Fairall it's interesting that you mention that because I think you're right. There were a lot of shows that very obviously brought in certain characters or introduced storylines to start a conversation about why it's okay and therefore aimed to teach the audience a lesson. While that isn't a bad thing, what MWC excelled at in contrast was showing us that things should be accepted without talking about it and giving the audience a feeling that we're here for a moral lesson. They didn't tell us why we're supposed to care about LGBTQ+ people, they showed us THAT we're supposed to care about them. They didn't talk about why periods and the many side effects are natural and common, they just showed us that that's what happens. They didn't tell us why female masturbation is normal, they just told us that Peggy does it regularly and just completely normalized it that way. And I think that is a very underappreciated thing about this show because it was known as the kind of show that didn't try to teach you a lesson (because many people were and are annoyed by those kinds of shows), all it did was try to be funny. Yet underneath it all, it was very progressive.
As a heterosexual male who is comfortable with his sexuality and worked with the community as an ally, I appreciate your take on these videos. Loved your All In The Family review. Keep up the great work.
Still one of my favorite episodes. Right up there with the time the family went on vacation and were almost murdered by a serial killer. I say this sincerely and without sarcasm, because both episodes were brilliant and subversive.
That was the whole joke of that episode where she falls in love with an alien named Alkizar and acts like her character on the show. It also backhands the typical fans/canned audience of the show (also on Fox) with the two rats. That was a weird, weird show to have been watching as a 10 year old.
I recall that Sam M. and Dan C. also played a gay married couple who were the two dads of a character named Francesca? played by Tracey Ullman on the original Tracey Ullman Show on FOX in the late 1980's. Francesca was a recurring character along with her two fathers David and William. It would be fun to see your take on these sketches.
Dan Castellaneta and Sam McMurray played a gay couple raising their teenage daughter Francesca on "The Tracey Ullman Show" for years. "The Tracey Ullman Show" aired back-to-back with "Married... with Children." This was a crossover of sorts. "The Tracey Ullman Show" is the show you really should feature as it really broke new ground. They even took on gay housing discrimination in the 80s and Tracey even played a character that had transitioned from female to male and didn't do it simply for cheap laughs. It was quite touching. Her psychiatrist friend couldn't handle the change. The subject hadn't been done before in such a way on television. That show was really ahead of its time.
Wasn't Divine slotted to join the cast just before passing? I wonder how the world would be different if they had been the one who broke into the mainstream first instead of RuPaul.
Thank you for this episode, MWC has always been a favorite of mine. It's a great equal opportunity offender. Now that it's all on Hulu and re-watching it it's hard to imagine a show getting away with so much today, and how it even got away with it then. Worth noting is Ed O'Neill did a lengthy interview for the TV Academy (it's here on TH-cam) and he talks about his relationship with Amanda and some of his toxic behavior and how he's changed. Around the 11 minute mark. She didn't invite him (and some others) to her wedding. Really interesting.
I loved married with children as a kid because it was so realistic, often portraying the family a little toxic and all of them had egoistic streaks. It just felt real and not so overproduced. So glad to find out there were cool about this years after!!!
The thing about MWC was that no one was safe from their jokes. Personally, being gay and a closeted kid back then, I appreciated the sexy dudes that MWC often had.
"He was a homo." What constantly surprises me more than that line, in today's more accepting society (especially young people), is the phrase, "That's so gay" being used as a derogatory term so often and so freely.
The men playing the gay couple were, at the time, regulars on the Tracey Ullman Show (from whence launched the Simpsons), where they played the gay fathers of her character, "Francesca." At the time, there was a fad resurgence of Swing Dancing. Ullman's "Kaye" joined in, in one episode, The "Taxi Dancing" sign is, likely, a Swing era reference. The club in this episode might be a cost saving re-use of a standing set.
Al has 99 personality problems, though homophobia is not one of them. He comments in another episode about how "gay" used to just mean "happy", though he does it in a very central, and matter-of-fact, way. I commend a lot of MWC's queer greatness, on cam, and behind the scenes, to the funny, wise, and talented Amanda Bearse. #Gay90s
I loved when I rewatched the series a few years ago and when mistaken for being gay with Steve, Al didn't react with disgust, just thought he could do better than him.
I like your take here Matt - MWC was genuinely subversive and the creators Ron Leavitt (Jewish) and Michael G. Moye (African-American) could not be accused of homophobia - those cats hated everybody! Joking aside, (Leavitt won an NAACP award for The Bad News Bears, while Moye staunchly fought the network on censorship. Watch them being interviewed, they are far too intelligent to be that crude. That's why the 'Queen' joke, to me, is not derogatory, it's an obvious Freddie Mercury in his Tom of Finland phase reference and Al seems respectful, almost wistful. Enjoying your channel! Your Muppets video was great.
Scrolled through the comments and couldn't find a mention but Dan Castellaneta and Sam McMurray also played a gay couple on "The Tracey Ullman Show" in a series of sketches featuring Tracey Ullman as a 14-year-old girl named Francesca. They were still hung up on the pastel-wearing and lisping stereotypes, though, but the sketches focused more on Francesca's adolescent plights (first job, first date, etc.)
In 1990 I referred to my husband as my HUSBAND. At that point we had been together 5 years. We ended up being together a total of 33 1/2 continuous years until he died from the complications of a stroke August 11, 2018. I miss you Otis.
Hugs to you and Otis.
@barbraseville8984 Thank You!
I'm so sorry. (HUG) May Otis's memory be a blessing. 💖
(HUgs) and my sincerest condolences
I know how you feel, My Ralphy and I were together for 30 years. and I lost him to end stage COPD on Jan 11th 2020. I miss you Snuggle Bear 😪
@@GothGuy885 (HUG) May Ralphy's memory be a blessing. 💖
"Married...With Children" was more subversive than people today realize. I even did the homework and found that it had more women writing for the show and producing it than "The Simpsons" and even "Golden Girls".
Chad Denton
Yeah it was always a deconstruction of the typical perfect white-bread upper-middle class families that plagued 80’s sitcoms at the time. In fact its working title was “Not the Huxtables”.
People tend to forget that the show's most problematic and unPC jokes were like double edged swords. Every sexist joke was also a joke about how idiotic Al was. That's why plus-sized women were often the biggest fans of the show. The show was basically about how we are all trash, every last one of us. This can really be a better way to embrace inclusiveness than excessively wholesome depictions of society.
MWC and Golden Girls also had some of the same writers, most notably Richard Vaczy and Tracy Gamble
Sad thing is that Bud and Kelly had to grow up, unlike The Simpsons.
James Michalek ya ... I didn’t even recognize bud in some of the later episodes
My theory is that these clubs were so bizarre because portraying a night out in the 80s accurately would involve literal _mountains_ of cocaine, and TV just wasn't ready for that yet
You mean a night out these days _doesn't_ involve mountains of cocaine?
@@dergluckliche4973 no, we've switched to weed and xanax.
God knows that is the Truth! Hahaha!
I don't know why Al is an icon of heterosexuality. He never wants to have sex and frequently implies he dislikes it. He really can't stand women and has an adoring bromance with Marcy's pretty boy second husband Jefferson. He would probably look at gay men and say, "yep, totally get it" and in fact be a bit jealous.
moonlily1 He always struck me as a sexual
You could argue maybe he just wasn't attracted to Peg any longer but he also didn't seem to have too much in the way of sex drive towards other women either. The only person he actually seemed attracted to was Jefferson.
Is American Masculinity ever rational anyway?
@@Green4CloveR It can be, sure.
Maybe he is like a MGTOW and would prefer a sex robot over a human woman.
I cant help it, I laughed at the line "so that's 3 guys who won't touch my wife so what's the problem"
It's an awesome line. Nothing wrong with laughing at it.
Who's the third guy? The other gay husband?
@@2degucitas yes
Are you telling me that Queen comment, with the guys outfit in question, was NOT a Freddi Mercury "I want to break free" reference? Seems to fitting to be coincidence.
Allis_O LOL, I just seen the movie Bohemian Rhapsody... It totally looks like Freddie Mercury.
Haha... Queen!
That was my thought, too.
*too
@@JulsLittleBeirutAnarchy *I've just seen
I think the joke was, the guy looks like Freddie Mercury, from the band "Queen". Notice how he said said Queen singular not Queens or even drag queens.
Yes that’s what I thought too. Still a pretty progressive show for that time!
Yes, but it was a double entendre. It obviously was also talking about the term queen in gay culture.
Yeh but I think Matt knew that and swerved on purpose
@@lloydrodriguez9969Triple entendre, even: the crown is the most obvious of all the queen references!
"Ten cents a dance" was a famous song sung by Ruth Edding, Ella Fitzgerald, Doris Day and many others.
That makes the neon sign in that scene even stranger!
Ten cent dance halls. WWl. Naval sailors without time to meet women to date could go and have a wonderful time dancing with the ladies
@@MattBaume there ar two parts to it, the first is like margaret says but the other part is in places with retirement communities in the us(think florida) it used to be(and maybe still is) a thing where men could make money dancing with widows who miss their dance-hall days but are not interested in new relationships or aren't into competing for an ever-narrowing pool of eligible companions
Ruth Etting... Doris played her opposite James Cagney in "Ten Cents a Dance". Wonderful song... Wonderful movie... very good soundtrack... Ruth was a great singer.
To be fair to that Queen-joke, the end of the scene makes it clear that the joke is on the bigots.
To be fair, Blanche and Al are of two different generations. Blanche is a retired senior citizen, and Al is a middle-aged working man.
But yeah, even for an early babyboomer like Al, it was impressive how accepting he was.
Also, let's not forget the one episode when Marcy's lesbian cousin comes and visits, and Al has an _amazing_ friendship with her! I've never seen Al express such mutual respect and comradery to any other woman.
I loved that episode.
@@unclegoose3864
By far one of my favorites of the whole sitcom.
Yup and peggy gets jealous. Then at one point Marcy's cousin Mandy I think it was tells Peggy that she could really go for her. Peggy is flattered.
Straight guy: You should be happy with that husband of yours and treat him right
Gay guy: okay your right , you should tell your wife you love her
Straight guy: mind your own business
IDK but that is just so hilarious
As a fan of the show, this is seriously one of the funniest episodes in the series.
You're bereaving comment is so YESTERDAY, and filled with a complacency of ignorance and stupidity.
Best of luck.
I remember watching this episode when I was about ten years old, after Al said his “homo” line in the end, I walked to the living room where my sister and her high school friends were. I asked what “homo” meant. They were trying their best to explain to me the definition without being too obvious about it. What they didn’t understand is that I already knew (because of my peers at school and television) that gay men had relationships to one another; I simply did not know that the term “homo” was associated with being gay in any way. I was ten and had no problem with it at all. I just found it really funny that they were trying to beat around the bush on a topic that I was already familiar with.
In 1989 I had to write a paper for an English class and for some reason I wrote about why same-sex marriage should be legal. I got a B for the paper, but when this episode of MWC aired a few months later I somehow thought I was part of the vanguard of something. Ah, the hubris of youth 😀
I imagined that we would have same-sex marriage rights by the late 90’s if not sooner. How foolish I was.
It still happened awfully quickly!
Not foolish, just overly optimistic...a better trait than most alternatives.
Nah, just that rad illuminati conspiracy again.
Chad, Don I’m probably that
Alternative I wasn’t happy we got marriage equality at first
I was pissed it took so long I was angry that we didn’t have it sooner
Now I’m trying to be more optimistic and less cynical nihilistic view point
@@killerfoxraspberryplays8903 Good for you!I used to act somewhat cynical and nilistic too but now like you I'm doing my absolute best to shred that and be more optimistic!Fuck negativity!
I remember watching this episode as a kid and it had never occurred to me that two men could be married, I was very young at the time. Funny that 24 years later I was getting married to my husband six states away from home because it would still be a year before it was recognized nationally. Good for the writers and cast of the show for realizing it was such a normal thing!
This brought back a weird memory of an episode of "The Love Boat" which I found offensive even at the young age of ten (I was pretty sure I was gay even then). Two men board the boat and are staying in the honeymoon suite, garnering lots of weird looks from the crew. The upshot is that one of the men had been left standing at the altar by his bride and so had decided to go on what had been booked as his honeymoon cruise with his best man. The male members of the crew, though, think they're a couple and try to distance themselves from them and, of course, there's plenty of innuendo and double entendre. I just remember how much this episode bothered me at the time as the (supposedly) male couple were looked upon by the crew as if they had some kind of disease. We've really come a long way since 1978.
That's offensive even if you're not gay. What a shitty wait staff.
Pretty sad and ironic for the "love" boat
The actors playing the gay couple on this show played a gay couple-with a daughter-on the Tracey Ullman Show, another Fox program. I’m surprised that didn’t come up.
thank you.
he's probably too young to remember
I remember them from the Tracy Ullman show! The first time I watch the episode as soon as Al open the door I knew he was looking for his husband LOL!
yeah they came from the Tracy Ullman show and so did The Simpsons
Was about to reply the same thing. As a kid, I thought they were supposed to be the same characters, assuming that it was Fox sitcom synergy to cross over the characters of the actors, but such is not the case.
Matt, thanks for another great video. As a father of two LGBTQ+ teens and as a human being, I appreciate the work that goes into your videos and the value they have to help map out the ongoing narrative around societies perception of homosexuality and gender identity, in a way that an outsider can understand. You should be proud of yourself.
Aw thank you so much! I really appreciate it.
1:20. Doing nothing to earn it!? Don't you remember: he scored four touchdowns in one game at Polk High!
Awesome episode as usual!
And against his rival, Hightower from the 'Police Academy' series, no less.
AND was all-city
great vid! the guy's look at 4:48 is strikingly similar to Freddie Mercury's drag in Queen's "I Want to Break Free" video, banned in the U.S. from 1984-1991 because of the crossdressing.
Yes it's an amazing likeness!
@@MattBaume THAT's why he said they 'call them Queens' it's a pun!
More likely standards and practices on MTV refused to run it for fear of public reaction. Very rarely is media in America "banned" like it can be even in other Western countries, but that's mainly because the private entities that have moved into that power vacuum are all too happy to self-censor. And while that self-censorship is more flexible in theory, in practice it just results in dozens of independent S&P boards most of which are more conservative and cautious than society needs them to be, instead of just one that's in the same situation.
@0 MTV and apparently various radio stations banned it. MTV doesn't exactly have the best history. I don't know their entire playlist, but it has been said that MTV featured no videos that featured black artists before Michael Jackson's Billie Jean. An often cited story is that MTV initially refused to play Billie Jean as well due to Jackson's race; the channel only agreed to air the video after the president of CBS Records threatened to pull all CBS artists from the channel if they didn't. (The video was a hit, and MTV was suddenly willing to start giving air time to other black artists.)
I'm so glad it came to mind for someone else
I’m not too surprised that MWC pulled this off. Despite often being pretty lowbrow, the show is all about parodying traditional family values and poking fun at our concepts of masculinity. Al may be the heterosexual, man’s man poster boy; but a lot of the jokes come from his downfall at the hand of his own hubris.
You're right, and I think there is an interesting point here. A talented host could probably do a great video essay on the progression of social critique in a direct line from Archie Bunker to Al Bundy.
Plus Peggy and Kelly were TOTAL gay icons ;)
Yeah that's what a lot of people don't get...Al isn't supposed to be some kind of beloved role model. He's a clown.
He's someone to be laughed at and mocked because his own decisions and hubris inevitably doom him.
It's even strongly implied to be a straight-up magical curse in some episodes: Bundys can never truly be happy. And if they are, they're screwed.
Ed Appleby iôjm
The show wasn't criticized by "progressives." They got it. It's a show where Al says things like, men do manly things because we are men. And manly usually means acting stupidly.
Nobody criticized the show for being pro marriage or pro traditional values. _In 1989, a Michigan housewife named Terry Rakolta started petitioning Fox advertisers to pull out of the network because of the "consistently offensive" and "anti-family"_
There's also this kind of "guy joke." Who can figure women out, right? Life would be so much simpler if you were gay. Except for the sex part. I'm not trying to take anything away from the show (which I liked), but this was quite safe.
Also of note, Ed O'Neill recently was in a same sex marriage on a TH-cam show called Weird City. Damn good series, Jordan Peele always does God work
I hear Leela’s voice 👀👀👀
Yeah. Katy Segal
didn't expect you. Im a sub
Or more accurately 👁️
I hear Gema Teller Marrow
I guess that's why they did that married with Children Parody episode of Futurama
Boy this brought back memories; memories of a time when marriage equality seemed so beyond our reach. I used to attend a gay men's "rap group" when I was at UCLA back in the late 80's and we would occasionally talk about legalized same sex marriage. Many of the men in the group were adamantly against gay marriage, arguing that we'd simply be "aping" heterosexuals, yet I still wanted it. I didn't think I'd ever see same sex marriage become legal in my lifetime; man, things have changed.
I was very young when this show was on the air, probably a bit TOO young to be watching it I was born in 1983 and this show came out in 1986..don't think I was watching it when I was 3, but I did watch it A LOT with my dad. I do remember that episode, but I don't know if I saw it on its original air-date or if was a re-run. My mom wasn't very pleased with it. This was a show that came on TV after my family was getting home from church...so we'd come home from church and watch a show about a very dysfunctional family that talked about sex, drank alcohol and used offensive language at time. My mom was pretty embarrassed and did not want me, my brother or my dad watching and especially didn't want us admitting to other people that we watched it. If my parents had any clue that I was going to end up coming out to them when I was 15, they probably wouldn't have let me watch this. Once I came out, EVERYTHING in my life changed. I was not allowed to use the internet unless they were home and able to "monitor" me. I was no longer allowed to have friday night sleep-overs, I was no longer allowed to go to friend's houses overnight. They wouldn't allow me to watch anything that had a gay character (not even Will & Grace). I guess its no wonder why I built up such a resentment on telling them personal things. i've been married damn near 3 years...they don't even know...
My mother also had the Moral Outrage to just about everything on Fox. We weren't allowed to watch Married With Children or The Simpsons. Nor were we allowed to watch MTV back when the M actually stood for something.
Congratulations on your nuptials. You deserve it!!
I'm *so* sorry for the difficulties you've experienced. Aaaaand I'm *DELIGHTED* that you're in a loving relationship with your spouse. All the very best!! 💕🌈💜✌🏼✊🏼☮️☮️💕💕☮️☮️
@ElektricSkeptic ditto
I remember this and Al’s attitude made total sense to me. The harsh terminology also made sense and was what made it funny, it showed his ignorance while his heart (or stomach) was in the right place.
A bit odd that you didn't mention Marcy's kesbian twin. That was an awesome episode! She get's along great with Al, which annoys Peg. Then she flirts with Peg and Peg starts to like her ^^
Al and Marcy's cousin or whatever it was got on like a house on fire. I think most people haven't watched the show that far, about season 10. Al also wasn't sure whether he was bi in several episodes around that time.
From my understanding the 80s had some sort of interest in like 50s nostalgia, so that might explain the weird dance hall
Yes, the roughly 30 year cycle of nostalgia,
@@jonsnor4313 I'd heard it as the 20 year nostalgia cycle but idk that works too
I lived through the 80's and am gay and don't remember any clubs like those:)) It was all disco and Madonna, Madonna, Madonna!
Yes they loved the 50's so much back then that they would even build time machines in jalopies to travel there, you know to save some guy's mom from sleeping with her son and whatnot. Happened all the time.
50s nostalgia was mostly the 70s/early 80s. Late 80s was 60s nostalgia.
Marcy was a star on the show and a writer for the show.. shes gay so it's no wonder the show portrayed it a fashionable manner👍
She wasn't a writer but an episode director for the show. A lot of MWC writers also wrote for The Golden Girls. They could write one liners and insult humor with the best
Was it really that surprising when they spent the entire run of the show trying to get Divine to guest star (until he died)?
This is news to me
FaeQueenCory That would have been FANTASTIC!!!
Yep, Divine was originally supposed to play one of Peggy's Wanker county relatives when they passed away, instead a season 2 episode is dedicated to their memory.
@@shaland.mcgrinder3960 I heard Divine had the script in their dressing room when their body was found :( So sad
@
FaeQueenCory Why do you find that surprising?
Another great episode! My thanks to the patrons who help support this content!
Aww thank you! And yes a HUGE thanks to all the patrons.
I really appreciate what you're doing here
Married With Children was ahead of its time!
I love this trip through pop culture. I always wondered where my progressive ideals came from as I grew up in a very southern strategy Republican household (in NY state); broken down "projects" were N---'s heavens, and afros were N---'s wool. You can just imagine what gays were called - when their existence was recognized at all.
My older brother followed my parents down that dark road, and I never knew how I escaped it. It would seem, that those couple of years between us made a big difference in picking up these messages.
I find Al’s reaction to be utterly in character. If it doesn’t harm him, he doesn’t give a fuck.
I love how Katey Sagal used to be a backing singer for Bette Midler.
I didn't know that! That's kinda brilliant :-)
Matt referencing Bowsette has been a life-changing experience. I can die happy now.
(it's at 4:51, ya dingus)
I really must be a dingus. When he said "Peach Bowser Cosplay" my first thought was "Odd place for a Sha-Na-Na reference but props for the deep cut." >.>;
Thank you for this episode! I love this show so much. It's so dumb but funny, which is what I need from time to time. I love how it totally parodied the nuclear family, especially how it has been depicted until its time.
Another GREAT episode! That was such a great episode of Married with Children. 😊👍
Omg how dare you say Al hasnt done anything to earn respect! That man scored four touchdowns in one game at Polk High School!
I don't know if he worked on this episode but one of the writers on "MWC" was Christian McLaughlin who is openly gay and has written a couple of gay themed novels as well as writing episodes of "Desperate Housewives", "Drawn Together" and CBS soap operas.
Ohhh that could explain it!
Amanda bearse who played Marcy and is a lesbian like Matt said was also a writer on the show
So didn't bat an eye because he is from Chicago and scored 4 touchdowns in a single game!!!
The episode of Married With Children with The Village People is pretty great as well.
did u hear the Village People are 'rebooting' will all-new characters??
@@Sarah_Gravydog316 Really?
@@Sarah_Gravydog316 Really?
"Anything but YMCA!" LOL
Side note, Jefferson dressed as the leather cop guy was a surprising turn on for me as someone who isn't into leather 😋
Thanks for covering this. I remember this episode at that Roc episode you mentioned. Both definitely had an impact on me. I don't recall much of the Roc episode other than the eventual acceptance and ceremony, but I do remember the camera pulling away just as the two guys went to kiss, probably due to censorship BS. Would be interesting to see that episode in full again.
I really enjoyed this one! I had no idea this episode of married with children even existed. Thanks for covering this. I love it when you do these types of videos. They are informative and entertaining. Keep up the good work! Best, Marvin 😀
Unsurprisingly, the queerest episode of MwC aired on ContraPoints’ birthday, which later became the day same-sex marriage went into effect in Northern Ireland
I remember this episode... my mother was outraged and I was banned from watching MWC.
I was watching a Married With Children marathon on Logo of all channels last week, maybe this episode is the reason why? LOL
Lol this comment is 2 yrs old. Same thing happened to me like 2 wks ago.
4:40 ‐ I think the "queen" was dressing like Freddie from Queen's music video for "I Want To Break Free" ...hence the joke about calling "them" queen 😂 and apart from wearing leather trousers instead of a leather skirt that guy really is nailing the look!
I had to pause this for a minute.. I am having a flashback to my teens. I lived in one of those really closeminded areas, and I am remembering how Al's reaction to [Dan] kind of shaped my ... or kind of solidified... my acceptance of different people. I had never really met any gay people, but I am always a "fair is fair" kind of person, and found other kid's jokes about them unfair. This was the first show that kind of showed me what... well, it affirmed what I felt. I was straight, unthreatened by the way people are. I could have my interests and they could have theirs. And that goes for anyone. Being near someone of a different background doesn't mean you change or they change. Where I was from, anyone of any difference was bullied mercilessly. Kids were dropping out of my middle school by the hundreds from bullying. (the kids that went to this school were all literally related and tolerated no one.) Anyways, I totally didn't realize what an impact that episode had and I had totally forgotten about it until now. Also, I'm interested in your book. thanks for the video and memory.
bluedragon807 almost every one was related ?
Alabama intensifying
Last I researched Married with Children had loads of Women and PoC for the writers and staff and Michael G. Moye is also a PoC.
Yes, and they all had a good sense of humor and weren’t upright, woke screeching idiots like today.
@@amostlyreasonableguy well said
That show manged to be very politically incorrect while also progressive af
I think Al Bundy was one of THE most "comfortable-in-his-sexuality" TV men, ever. It's part of what made him so iconic.
"Well then we've got three guys that won't touch my wife, what's the problem?" That cracked me up so hard.
Married with Children was one of those shows that was as close to the way Gen X felt about subjects like this as you could reasonably expect to find on TV. Which wasn't perfect, but the general attitude of young people at the time seemed to be that homosexuality wasn't a big deal, but just like everything else that was mildly different it was the butt of a lot of jokes. To be honest, there's a lot that you see in media in the 90s that sort of went back in the bottle in the 2000s when America re-prudished itself. An example is the sheer amount of female-lead shows like Buffy, Xena and Charmed died off in favor of girl-as-object shows like The Vampire Diaries, and we had some great poc-lead shows in the 90s (Living Single, Moesha, Sinbad, Martin, In Living Color, etc) that basically were nowhere to be found after the new millennium. Gay representation seemed to really dwindle with everything else. I'm glad we're really talking about this stuff now, and I'm glad we're making some progress but more definitely needs to be done while we've still got the wind in our sails and the country's still talking about it. Maybe we can do a better job of representing everyone going forward.
You're a star, Matt. Thanks for these wonderful looks into our Gay past.
The actress who played Marcy is the first lesbian that I ever became aware of. I saw her on a talk show when I was really young, and I didn’t even know what the word lesbian meant.
the zoom in on the 'homo sapien' picture kills me every time
It was on a show called "The Rerun Show" that recycled old scripts and added one or two jokes. It was a terrible idea that only lasted a month but it's SO WEIRD.
Fun fact; Peg is also the voice of Leela in Futurama.
I'm sure most of us already know, she has a very distinctive voice.
Hard to not tell that if you have seen both shows. Her voice is very unique.
What would be a fun fact to tell is that Futurama had a scene that references Married with Children.
There was a scene in the Kids in the Hall movie where a character realizes that he's gay. So, he runs through the street telling everyone that he's gay, andcthey all join him in a sort of parade down the street. And by the the end of his song, everyone's holding him up while he shouts, "I'm Gay". And then everyone says, "Who cares?!" And they drop him and walk off.
I'm surprised there wasn't a Weird City reference
I thought it was coming for sure when he talked about Modern Family, but nah.
That was a great episode
Weird City episode 1 was wonderful. Have you seen the rest of the series?
Was MWC made by the FOX network?
During the same time period, Sam MacMurray and Dan Castellanetta played a gay couple in recurring sketches on The Tracy Ullmann Show.
Was hoping someone noticed that - I assume because Fox was still struggling in those days, they used the same actors in very similar roles for cost reasons. On Tracy's show, Castellanetta played the father of a teenage Ullmann character, who referred to her parents as "my Dad and my William."
Was hoping someone would mention this, this was basically a guest appearance on MWC by the two characters from the Tracy Ulman shoe
Hmm, I learned something new today.
Congratulations on an excellent analysis. I can remember what Al said to the husband at the dance hall. "You've got a man at home who can bake a potato like nobody's business." Interesting that you mention the show 'Roc' featuring a gay commitment ceremony because if my memory is correct that show was on Fox too. Fox network shows really were trendsetters in a lot of ways.
I also want to speak up for Al a bit too. I had a friend who decried having someone like that portray a father because it was an attack on the family. I disagreed and said that while outwardly Al might not be a perfect role model, inwardly he was. Even though his family constantly disrespected him and insulted him, he still went to work every day at a job he hated to put food on their table and a roof over their heads. A lot of guys would have taken off years before, but Al stuck it out and fulfilled the responsibility he agreed to when he took those marriage vows.
Have you ever covered the character of Jody on a TV show from the 70s called soap? It was probably one of the first positive representations of LGBT that I can remember.
Not only was it a positive representation, he was only "sane" person on the show. Everyone else had major problems.
I'd like to do one about Jody but it's COMPLICATED. He seemed to have more girlfriends than boyfriends but I don't think the show ever used the word "bisexual." And the sex-change storyline in the first season is really hard to grasp by today's standards.
It might be interesting to explore the representation at that time, contrasting him with other characters such as Klinger and Jack Tripper. We only had CBS when I was growing up so I was familiar with MASH, but then ABC and a few other stations became available, and I remember being very surprised when someone on TV came right out and said they were gay. I was aware of what that meant at the time, and it really resonated with me because it was the first time I saw someone who wasn't just pretending for their own motives, or used solely to be the butt of jokes.
@@MattBaume and was protested by gay folks at the time! But that was how straight people, frankly, a lot of Gay folks understood Homosexuality - wanting to be the other gender. Also, later on Jody is before a judge trying to gain custody of his child. Quite a speech and WAY ahead of its time. Do Jody as a two parter, at least.
YES! i was waiting for you to do this one! i was also surprised at how accepting they wrote al bundy, i wonder why he wasn't so bothered by it (in the context of the time and who Al was.) Also, if you watch that scene with Al and Dan's character sitting next to one another, you can hear a woman in the audience say "Oh Al, No!" which is a little sad to hear, the straights were really quite scared of homosexuals back then, when there was nothing to fear at all.
You could get married in Denmark since 1979. Not in a church though, but a civil union. We only added the church part in 2003 or so
Glad you covered this one.
While the show was unquestionably, however cheerfully, trashy (and not at all above cracking a homophobic gag), its treatment of minorities granted them visibility without the pious condescension that was de rigueur at the time, and I've always appreciated this episode's lowbrow take on sexual politics compared to the "lets have a gay character to teach everyone about acceptance" mode that was the standard of the day.
Jer Fairall it's interesting that you mention that because I think you're right. There were a lot of shows that very obviously brought in certain characters or introduced storylines to start a conversation about why it's okay and therefore aimed to teach the audience a lesson. While that isn't a bad thing, what MWC excelled at in contrast was showing us that things should be accepted without talking about it and giving the audience a feeling that we're here for a moral lesson. They didn't tell us why we're supposed to care about LGBTQ+ people, they showed us THAT we're supposed to care about them. They didn't talk about why periods and the many side effects are natural and common, they just showed us that that's what happens. They didn't tell us why female masturbation is normal, they just told us that Peggy does it regularly and just completely normalized it that way. And I think that is a very underappreciated thing about this show because it was known as the kind of show that didn't try to teach you a lesson (because many people were and are annoyed by those kinds of shows), all it did was try to be funny. Yet underneath it all, it was very progressive.
I love the subtle Queen reference, too.
I never caught it when I watched the episode.
As a heterosexual male who is comfortable with his sexuality and worked with the community as an ally, I appreciate your take on these videos. Loved your All In The Family review. Keep up the great work.
Fun Fact, the dub actor for Al in Latin America is the same actor for Homer Simpson. So here we see Homer and Homer.
Still one of my favorite episodes. Right up there with the time the family went on vacation and were almost murdered by a serial killer. I say this sincerely and without sarcasm, because both episodes were brilliant and subversive.
Caught this episode on Reddit and just wanted to say this was great! Have a good one!
1:48 is that leela from futurama?
Kodie Russell Yes, Katey Segal
That was the whole joke of that episode where she falls in love with an alien named Alkizar and acts like her character on the show.
It also backhands the typical fans/canned audience of the show (also on Fox) with the two rats.
That was a weird, weird show to have been watching as a 10 year old.
As well as Gemma from Sons of anarchy.
Yes! She has such a distinctive voice, and Leela's such a fun character it really makes me want to see her in non-sitcom roles.
@@MattBaume She is excellent in Sons of Anarchy.
I recall that Sam M. and Dan C. also played a gay married couple who were the two dads of a character named Francesca? played by Tracey Ullman on the original Tracey Ullman Show on FOX in the late 1980's. Francesca was a recurring character along with her two fathers David and William. It would be fun to see your take on these sketches.
Dan Castellaneta and Sam McMurray played a gay couple raising their teenage daughter Francesca on "The Tracey Ullman Show" for years. "The Tracey Ullman Show" aired back-to-back with "Married... with Children." This was a crossover of sorts. "The Tracey Ullman Show" is the show you really should feature as it really broke new ground. They even took on gay housing discrimination in the 80s and Tracey even played a character that had transitioned from female to male and didn't do it simply for cheap laughs. It was quite touching. Her psychiatrist friend couldn't handle the change. The subject hadn't been done before in such a way on television. That show was really ahead of its time.
I really enjoy your videos. It's not just the subjects and theme of the channel, but you make them well. Good script and delivery. Go you!
As a young lesbian kid I watched this show all the time and was absolutely in love with Marcy
One of my favorite episodes.
Wasn't Divine slotted to join the cast just before passing? I wonder how the world would be different if they had been the one who broke into the mainstream first instead of RuPaul.
Yes, Divine was going to play Peggy's Mother, who up to this point was only a voice. Divine passed away the night before taping was to start.
Thank you for this episode, MWC has always been a favorite of mine. It's a great equal opportunity offender. Now that it's all on Hulu and re-watching it it's hard to imagine a show getting away with so much today, and how it even got away with it then. Worth noting is Ed O'Neill did a lengthy interview for the TV Academy (it's here on TH-cam) and he talks about his relationship with Amanda and some of his toxic behavior and how he's changed. Around the 11 minute mark. She didn't invite him (and some others) to her wedding. Really interesting.
I remember watching this when it aired. I was probably 5 years old and I think it was my first exposure to homosexuality on TV.
Land ho? I'm a sea ho! What happens below deck, stays blow deck.
I loved married with children as a kid because it was so realistic, often portraying the family a little toxic and all of them had egoistic streaks. It just felt real and not so overproduced. So glad to find out there were cool about this years after!!!
The thing about MWC was that no one was safe from their jokes.
Personally, being gay and a closeted kid back then, I appreciated the sexy dudes that MWC often had.
Peggy and the gals take Marcy to the club ❤ "Oh, Zorrooooo. Come to Mama!"
"He was a homo." What constantly surprises me more than that line, in today's more accepting society (especially young people), is the phrase, "That's so gay" being used as a derogatory term so often and so freely.
Brother your channel just keeps getting better. I will be looking for that book.
The men playing the gay couple were, at the time, regulars on the Tracey Ullman Show (from whence launched the Simpsons), where they played the gay fathers of her character, "Francesca." At the time, there was a fad resurgence of Swing Dancing. Ullman's "Kaye" joined in, in one episode, The "Taxi Dancing" sign is, likely, a Swing era reference. The club in this episode might be a cost saving re-use of a standing set.
Al has 99 personality problems, though homophobia is not one of them. He comments in another episode about how "gay" used to just mean "happy", though he does it in a very central, and matter-of-fact, way. I commend a lot of MWC's queer greatness, on cam, and behind the scenes, to the funny, wise, and talented Amanda Bearse. #Gay90s
God I love this show!! Culture cruise is EVERYTHING!!
Wooooo yay thank you! :D You can get a Culture Cruise temporary tattoo if you back the Patreon!
Great video. This reminds me of the episode of "Night Court" where Dan finds out a old friend of his is a trans woman.
Yup I've got that one on my list to cover eventually!
@@MattBaume Awesome.
I wonder if that's the episode on Mr. Plinkett's infamous Night Court tape.
Wait, so the guy at 4:52 *isn't* supposed to be like, cosplaying Freddie Mercury's look in the I want to Break Free music video??
Married With Children is on the Logo network nearly every time I turn to it... thank you for kind of explaining why!
I remember watching this episode for the first time and being pleasantly surprised how accepting Al was of Pete.
3:11 Jokes on you, I always have weird dreams.
I loved this show! Good to see a video on it!
I loved that show. One of the best shows ever
I loved when I rewatched the series a few years ago and when mistaken for being gay with Steve, Al didn't react with disgust, just thought he could do better than him.
Married with Children was the All in the Family of it's time. Two of the greatest shows ever.
I like your take here Matt - MWC was genuinely subversive and the creators Ron Leavitt (Jewish) and Michael G. Moye (African-American) could not be accused of homophobia - those cats hated everybody! Joking aside, (Leavitt won an NAACP award for The Bad News Bears, while Moye staunchly fought the network on censorship. Watch them being interviewed, they are far too intelligent to be that crude. That's why the 'Queen' joke, to me, is not derogatory, it's an obvious Freddie Mercury in his Tom of Finland phase reference and Al seems respectful, almost wistful. Enjoying your channel! Your Muppets video was great.
I remember seeing this episode when I was a kid, and I loved it! One of the first positive portrayals of gay men I'd ever seen.
Good luck finding that ep of ROC. A really good and underrated show.
This is my new favorite channel
Scrolled through the comments and couldn't find a mention but Dan Castellaneta and Sam McMurray also played a gay couple on "The Tracey Ullman Show" in a series of sketches featuring Tracey Ullman as a 14-year-old girl named Francesca. They were still hung up on the pastel-wearing and lisping stereotypes, though, but the sketches focused more on Francesca's adolescent plights (first job, first date, etc.)