Al Bundy was and is my hero, yes he was tempted by many gorgeous women but he always went home to Peggy, Luke Ventura was the exact opposite of Al but a friend from work who gets replaced by Al's best friend and black counterpart Griff, even though he's divorced, Marcy is the ultimate hypocrit, accusing Al of being a pig 🐷 when she herself is no better, and she divorce Steve and hooked up to Jefferson who was the male counterpart of Peg Except that he was also a scam artist so he wasn't completely lazy.
even with that gay joke in the earlier season, Al wasn't actually offended or tried to explain himself the way the other dude did, he just went "I could do better than that" and that just makes me smile
If you're interested and not already a subscriber check out Matt Baum's channel. His Culture Cruise looks at queer representation in popular culture throughout TV history. He devoted a whole video to this episode
Don't let this distract you from the fact that in 1966, Al Bundy scored four touchdowns in a single game while playing for the Polk High School Panthers in the 1966 city championship game versus Andrew Johnson High School, including the game-winning touchdown in the final seconds against his old nemesis, "Spare Tire" Dixon. (I'm not to the end yet, so I don't know if the copypasta was referenced, but figured I'd get it in before anybody else)
@@OneEyeShadow When I was in high school my friend was a freshmen, who played for varsity. Freshmen and sophmores (first year and second) usually play junior variety, juniors and seniors (3rd and final year) play varsity, the top team. Its is based on ability, but still very rare for a first year student to have said ability. I watched him score 4 TDs in one game. He went to play college, and I don't think he went pro. If so, probably just a 3rd stringer. But yeah for someone not to be a noticed as a college prospect, Al probably just got lucky, or the high school was very small, and played unimportant teams.
not just any game... it was the 1965 City Championship (not sure on the year) against his arch rival at Andrew Johnson High School where they were down by 3 touchdowns. With a loss almost certain, the coach quit the game... But Al wasn't having that, and then went on to score a RECORD BREAKING FOUR back-to-back touchdowns (a still unbeaten record).. And who can forget, that on his 4th touchdown, Al faked a pass, ran to the right, and then flew 75 yards up the middle to win the game.
@@Justin-vr5zn i believe it was 1966. and lets not forget how he broke the tackle of "spare tire" dixon at the goal line to punch in that game winning 4th touchdown. a moment so legendary it has made it into the pool for final grand prize questions of any sports trivia show worth its salt inside the greater chicago metropolitan area. R.I.P. bubba smith
By today's standards, Al was quite successful. He had a nice home of his own, a hot wife who was faithful, raised two kids, had a reasonably good quality of life and a lot of fun, all this with a 40 hour a week undergraduate job. Most youngsters today would sell a kidney to have what Al Bundy had.
I think this was the bottom line of the series. He was successful. I am in Israel. Here all he had when i was a child he was count pretty successful. Until the 2000 it was impossible to went to other countries with reasonable fee.
@@mechajay3358 Cant cook food you don't have. She would shop for clothes and eat out everyday. I never understood why he just didn't go shopping himself, since he works in a mall. ans store it in his car... But that would ruin the show.
I really love these videos, honestly. Sitcoms are so often treated as "low art," and thus discarded as being meaningful. Your videos are really good at looking at it and showing just how much meaning and thematic intention is behind a lot of them.
Growing up in an immigrant household in the 80s & 90s, my relatively conservative Korean parents thought Married with Children was one of the funniest shows ever and I still have a lot of fond childhood memories growing up with the show despite the wholly inappropriate content.
Sounds like you and I are around the same age. Or at least, I was a kid when I was allowed to watch this show, into my preteens. Everyone, across the board, enjoyed this show. You had your uptight idiots, but as far as demographics, there was never one group that liked it more than another. Conservative, liberal, any race, any sex/gender/whathaveyou. I hate when someone like this--who is clearly intelligent--puts words in the mouth of people because he thinks that people should be offended. Liberalism was about offending people back then, and conservatism was about polite company. The incoming PC culture was a fanatical group neither side claimed. And I'm sure your father didn't form a masked anti-woman group that held up a TV studio, either, unlike what he's implying in this video lmfao
My mom would pretend to hate it. She’s call it trash, can’t believe you two (me and my brother) enjoy this etc etc. But she’d watch with us and I’d even catch her watching it alone once early seasons were in syndication even when show was still on. The three of us watching and arguing over this show while we cooked and ate dinner (we always ate late, even when I was under 5) are some of my greatest family memories. I think she had the hots for Ed O’Neil too lol. I didn’t get that as a child, but I get it now lol.
Married with children contains what I still consider the best line in sitcom history... Peggy: "Hi Al, welcome home. Did you miss me?" Al: "With every bullet so far!" Best line ever!!
Al Bundy scored 4 touchdowns in a single game. No one will ever be able to take that away from him. Seriously, this show was a big part of my childhood. We couldn't afford cable and would have to get the antennae just right to watch fox49. Thanks for making this.
it was 4 unanswered touchdowns in a championship game when they were down by 3 touchdowns, which won them the game. Not to mention on the 4th he ran it 75 yards to win the game... Love how it got increasingly impressive and dramatic over time. whether it was "embellishment" due to his skewed memory, or just getting better at telling the story, either way I love it.
@@Justin-vr5znBecause the "winning" touchdown" was against Bubba Smith!! Al got the ball, and ran into "Spare tire", "he got the name, "Spare tire" because he wore a spare tire on a chain around his neck!! "Spare tire" claimed Al's knee was down at the one yard line and he never crossed the goal line. So in an epic battle, in the halls of "Spare tire's" old high school, He and Al had the showdown! "Spare tire" drew a line on the floor, the championship trophy, behind that line, Al, had to rush passed "Spare tire"...........Al did it!!! He and "Spare tire" admitted, while neither could get up off the floor🤣🤣 they were still, "two great athletes" despite their advanced ages!!
I'm surprised you didn't mention the episode where he's desperate to get into the trunk of his car to retrieve something important, but he won't tell his family what it is. At the end, when he finally gets it, it turns out to be a photo of his family
THIS! 100%! I remember it because they made a big fanfare at the time about it being the 200th episode. It was a really great episode because it really drove home the fact that despite all the bickering and everything else wrong with the Bundy's lives, the most important thing to Al is still his family.
@@NoOne-qn2hv Maybe it's not a car that will let people do that? I don't know too much about cars in general let alone ones from the 80s and even then if he's poor he probably has an even older car than that so it might be one that doesn't let you do that.
The entire review was pretty lackluster. With a lot of bias against the writing and what not. Granted, as he mentioned, it's hard to condense that much show down into any reasonable length single video... I get that. Many of the picks leaned "anti show" in some way or another... As a portrayal of reality, every damn last one of the characters (probably even Buck lol) exist in the real world, the writing just put them all in the same frame, cranked them up to 11 for lots of entertaining distortion, and let it fall out of millions of picture tubes. It didn't stick around for 11 seasons because there was nothing better on... People loved a look at how much worse life could conceivably be, and better appreciated their own. And it was definitely anti-Al. So to think pivotal concepts like Al trying to get the picture out of the trunk should get any attention... You know, the parts that show who Al really is at the core... We should not be surprised they weren't included in this. That slot was taken by a tangent lesson about "sexual abuse" by dude that compiled this... Because yeah that was what we were *all* thinking about when we were watching it on the tube... 🙄🤦♂️ Sorry, rantish. This guy pisses me off.
I watched this show religiously since it came out I was 26 at the time and in the Army, my fellow soldiers and I would gather in one of our fellow soldier's room because he was the only one who had a TV. It was obviously crowded in his little room, there was about 15 of us and it got pretty stuffy in there of course so we had to put a couple of fans in the room to get some air. But we just ignored our discomfort because we all had a great time just laughing our butts off. Some of us literally would just fall down laughing holing our sides and tears running down our faces. That was the only thing that made military life somewhat tollerable, it was hell waiting for the next episode to air. Those of us that wasn't pulling guard duty or Battalion staff duty etc. Where pretty depressed when we had to miss an episode. This sitcom helped us keep our sanity.
There is an episode where Al's car gets stolen and he wants it back badly. He claims that there is something of immense value to him in the car. It turns out it is a portrait of his family.
Kelly: What is it Peg: oh you know, Big Uns Al: Its not Big Uns Peg! He opens the trunk, and pulls out a copy of big uns, the audience laughs, but then he opens the dirty magazine and there is actually a photo of his family when they were all very young. Kinda Touching.
Almost 20 years ago I had an English/Norwegian dictionary that mentioned Al Bundy. The book had a translation of the word "hooters". At the end of the description it said "Al Bundy likes women with big hooters".
i always loved that they treated each other like crap, but if an outsider messed with one of them, it would be a Bundy family beatdown in about 5 seconds.
Al was a real man. He was always faithful, loyal and defended his family. He dragged himself to a crap job every single day despite being chronically depressed but he never missed work and always provided. He did well by his family
And his family ALWAYS took him for granted. Wife always spent his money on frivolous purchases and kids always expecting allowance money just because. Nobody can blame the man for being so downtrodden all the time…
@@pauldurand4780 No, it was the guy Luke who was that, Al goes over to his house and hardly looks at the girl which Luke left for Al. He only slowly turned into that type.
Gotta love the whole "Mother can't be bothered to regulate what her children are watching, but by god, she's not gonna take the blame for being an irresponsible parent." thing.
Welcome to the 80’s. The beginning of the Karen movements. So many shows were attacked when just changing the channel would have worked. TBH, the kids probably had TVs in their bedrooms so she didn’t have to be bothered with them.
@@jdruin1 Which is hilarious, because, like hinted at in the video, reactionaries love pointing to that time to show how things were before "PC culture" took over.
Yes my thoughts exactly! Stop letting your kids watch TV, play games, go on the internet endlessly and unmonitored. :/ (Although, i did watch this show as a kid and I prob shouldn't have, my mom was cray 😅)
Something I always found relatable about the character of Al Bundy is that he can tolerate people not caring about him, but he can't tolerate people who think they know what's best for him.
In a different and slightly more conservative way, Married with Children was cathartic in the way Rosanne and Malcolm in the Middle were. Not to feel better than the Bundy's, but to see a family that looked a little more like mine than Full House, or 7th Heaven. I agree with your analysis, just that in the moment, while it aired, seeing a family struggle, fight, and stick together in a disfunctual way resonated with me.
Agree. It's why I hated full house. It was waaayyyy too perfect and happy. It was like mocking, almost. I loved Rosanne (altho tbh it might be bc I'm a lil gay and didn't know at the time haha)
@Ajax Aidy No they don't lol. Republicans aren't all the working class for one, two he mainly fucks them all over with destroying the environment, allowing corporations to do as they please and giving them tax breaks over the worker, surpressing worker's rights, cutting healthcare and welfare, continuing to spy on them, and throwing some of them into cages.
@@ChangedMyNameFinally69 you are aware he turned the economy around and he also brought back more manufacturing jobs than any other presidents prior? Maybe you should look into that.
That Xmas show where Santa plummets to his death in the Bundy's yard should be required studying for anyone interested in writing for tv. One of the sharpest, wittiest, most irreverent things ever to grace the small screen. Still makes me laugh 'til I cry.
I recently watched it with my kids, oh man we were all falling from the seats! Literally every one of us! That tells a lot for a show which is now 35 years old or so how many shows are there which are still as funny as when they came out, after 35 years, humor changes a lot! But there seems to be some kind of timlessnes regarding farce humor, Fawlty Towers is very similar also from the humor point of view in this regard!
man, she was so good at her delivery on this show Also it actually takes a really smart person to write a stupid person that well. Kelly was actually very clever but just comically mis informed and un knowledgeable, and would draw bizarre conclusions based on the information given. My favorite joke from her was where she wanted a car of her own, and she looked one up in the paper and saw a nice car for sale. "Look daddy, this guy is selling this brand new car, for only 40Ks! can you believe that? 40Ks! I guess he must run a sign business and needs the letters?" and so there was a b plot of Kelly going around, unironically cutting out the letter K from magazines and stuff it was fucking funny.
This was an awesome video. One thing I'd like to point out that as much as the Bundy dynamic was a commentary on the traditional sitcom family, it was also a direct refutation of the Reagan-era image of the American family. You had the hard working husband, who still didn't make enough to support his family or even earn their respect. You had the stay at home wife, who only stayed at home to watch TV. You had the daughter who jumped from boy to boy rather than look for her future husband. And the son, who was undeniably smart, but could never capitalize on his potential because of his preoccupation with sex and the general crab bucket mentality of his family. These were all direct contradictions of how Reagan-era politicians tried to sell the American dream.
Today it would be seen as a attack on woke hollywood. A obession with genders. A obession with sexual orientations. A obession with race And a obession with anything non western civilization as better than America. Today in woke hollywood where a recent article shows the need for a Conservative movie studio or as Fox highlighted The Conservative Movie Studio being set up. It seems we need segrated television if the left can do it with their colleges in 2020 the right can have its own television company.
Thank you to the housewife in Michigan, Terry Ricolta. Without the controversy that was generated by her protest, I would have never known about Married With Children, the greatest show on TV in the '80's-'90's. I am also thankful that my mother did not really pay attention to the news; otherwise, she would have never allowed me to watch the show and I would have never had a HUGE crush on Christina Applegate. 🥰😘😜
Terry Ricolta's attempts to hurt and cancel the show really backfired in the worst way possible and made the show even way more popular. Streisand effect at its best.
I always thought of Al as a loser, growing, up. When I got older, I realized: - Has a steady job - Has a wife that never quite cheats on him, and is way hotter than she's given credit for - Has a pretty (though not smart) daughter, and a smart (but not handsome) son...and both of them are _definitely_ his. - No divorce, and the closest he ever gets to cheating is the nudie bar - Manages to keep a roof over everyone's head and a "classic car" that (generally) gets him where he needs to go. As I hit middle age, I realize...ol' Al did okay for himself!
well but only if u see things with your 2020 goggles, bundy was in fact considered as a loser, but in those times, everyone could afford a house with only one or two jobs in the family and so on, for 2020 he did extremely well in his life, for the 70s or 80s? not so much... pretty sad if u think about it
@@lp.shakur Even in the 1980s a shoe salesman would never be able to own a house that big in Chicago. In today's money that house would be worth 6 or 7 hundred thousand in Chicago. In the late 80s it would have been a couple hundred thousand, when minimum wage was around $4 per hour.
@@lp.shakur lol no, too expensive back then too, I remember watching the show and actually thinking he's doing well for himself considering he was actually able to provide for his family even as a kid in the 90s I thought that. It was cheaper excuses is b*******. Hell in California right now if you got like 10 20 grand saved up you can get yourself mortgage and house.
@@GorgeousMerc thats not true but whatever... to say its as easy today to get a house as it was back then, then you are simply lying, probably a avid fox news watcher because that are the idiotic arguments they bring... sad man
Was that Terry woman the original Karen? "I was letting my kids watch entertain themselves, but they saw gay references! Do I have to start paying attention to my kids, or will you change everything to suit me?"
She was the parent and blamed Fox for her poor skills as a parent. Still, she did help to put MWC on the map and draw people in to see what the fuss was all about.
I’m glad my mom just told me not to watch certain stuff and when me and my brother re-enacted that scene where curly was chocking on a pickle with a stick thing I accidentally hit his throat and my mom banned us from the 3 stooges for a few years! She acknowledges that she should have told us that they where just actors.........explained why they added how they did the slapstick in the 3 stooges movie....
Terry Rakolta is the sister of Ronna Romney. Her family is old auto company money. She has lived in Bloomfield Hills, a very haughty suburb in metro Detroit, IIRC her entire life. You need serious money to live there. As such, the residents sense of self importance is skewed.
Ultimately Al loved his family, he wouldn't cheat on Peggy, and would go out of his way to protect his family. This show was part of my childhood in the latter seasons and I loved the show.
Thank you for the wonderful memories. Growing up, my family did not miss an episode. We also ate in front of the TV, passed around a towel as a napkin, and passed around a gallon of milk to drink as we ate. We loved the Bundys.
The interesting thing about the show-within-a-show "Psycho Dad" is that it addresses the fact that Married With Children ended up attracting the very audience it was satirizing, when the creators of Psycho Dad cancel their own show because they realize how horrible their public is.
But it also showed the exact opposite, the sensitive boi route that would most likely laugh at the blue collar family and not their antics isn't good either in that same episode where Psycho Dad ended itself with Al stopping the armed thug.
They did the same joke in Father Ted, you might see it as the writers vindicating the audience but I believe it to be more of a joke about the comical nature of the television show itself. More laughing at the absurd, no?
Who's that riding in the sun? Who's the man with the itchy gun? Who's the man who kills for fun? Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad. He sleeps with a gun but he loves his son Killed his wife 'cos she weighed a ton. Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad. A little touched or so we're told Killed his wife 'cos she had a cold Might as well she was gettin' old Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad. He's quick with a gun And his job ain't done. Killed his wife by twenty-one, Psycho Dad! Who's that riding in the sleigh? Who's that firing along the way? Who's roughing up bums on Christmas day? Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad Who's the tall, dark stranger there. The one with the gun and the icy stare. The one with the scalp of his ex-wife's hair! Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad! Who's that riding across the plain? Who's lost count of the wives he's slain? Who's the man who's plumb insane? Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad He's a durn good pa, but he hates the law. He's likes to eat it raw, He's Psycho Dad!
I'm Bulgarian, and I can confirm that Married with Children was UNGODLY popular (the fact that we had a restaurant chain called "Pizza Bundy" should speak volumes). However, I had no idea there was a Bulgarian remake up until this very video. I decided to watch it out of sheer morbid curiosity, and let's just say, I now know how 80s kids felt watching the Michael Bay TMNT movies.
@@brianlarsen9952 It was alright. Not terrible, but I think it closed down a few years back and nobody really misses it. The one in my city is now a Pizza Hut lmao
"The audience is cheering for Al despite the fact that we're supposed to mock him for thinking this way!" Huh, I guess in that sense, Al Bundy was the original "You're missing the point by idolizing him" type protagonist!
No. Not at all. We root for him because, despite his flaws, he does love his family and continuously shows loyalty to them. Al was real in ways no other character ever has been on TV. Even Archie Bunker, at the end of his run, had his moral lesson moments.
"Marcy Darcy?!" is one of the best moments in television. I was a little kid but even I thought that was amazingly hilarious. (my real initials are MMM so I got the Stan Lee/cartoon character thing too.) I also always hated that Ellen stole the public notion of being the first network star to come out because everybody knew Amanda Bearse had already earned that honor. Now that we all know Ellen is a legit psychopath, let's make Eric Andre Ellen and re-establish Amanda Bearse as network TV's first gay icon
Peggy losing her real life baby was sad for the whole country. I think everyone grieved for her and her baby. I think it was the first pregnancy loss to be lived out in front of the public. The whole country supported her tho.
These shows are filmed over days and weeks. This is not 1-take. Each scene is separate. The audience has no context. They are just told when to laugh and how to laugh. I consider all these laugh track shows to be manipulative and fake. This show did not use the same canned laugh track as everyone else, and was not as strict in making the laughter sound “proper”.
I didn't always agree with your commentary but no one else did this kind of a summation of the series. And you did. I am standing & applauding a job well done. Good for you, Jose. The effort is obvious. The series deserved it -- you delivered. I think it's funny & prophetic to realize that such a controversial program that challenged the PC culture was co-created by a Black writer/producer. I applaud him as well for the courage he had & the entertainment he envisioned.
You know this show is good when even a 12 year old can like it. I still remember flipping through channels and coming across this show. As a kid who strictly watched cartoons never have I ever laughed so much watching a show. And the iconic sitting in couch with hand in pants. God Bless the Bundy’s
I also grew up watching this show at about the same age as you. I honestly can't believe our parents let us watch it. Then again, welcome to the 90s. We also watched Ren & Stimpy, for some reason.
@@yasminni485And now all some people do is complain about "Woke" content and try to pedfke the most sanitized nonsense to kids to "protect them", just like the Tipper Gores of the 90's.
Never in my almost 30 years on this pile of rocks we call home, did I think that I would be watching a documentary that is over an hour long on married with children
I’ve never really read it as Al or Peggy ACTUALLY not wanting to have sex with the other one. They just feel the psychological need to put up a fight due to their entire relationship being based on that kind of dysfunction. We also know from how they both speak about the other in certain instances that they both feel the other person is pretty good at it too. It’s a weird courtship thing between two adults who, despite all appearances, do love each other and find one another attractive, not actual non-consent. In 2022 we would probably just call it a kink but in 1987 not so much.
@@dqreps I can see how he made that assumption, it's a perspective thing so for him he did not see the humor in the running gag. I think that's pretty fair sometimes things aren't for everyone.
I remember hearing a bit from a newer standup comic talking about "negging" and the time a random woman was trying to hit on him by talking shit. I don't know how common that is, but it sounds like today Peg and Al with their _constant_ shit talking (basically just being the weird way they express themselves to each other) might be an ideal relationship for some folks today.
yes THANK YOU. it takes the DO I HAAAAVE TO to another level and even within the marriage is playful whining that ultimately is understood by both parties. having a close bond with another person would make this a bit clearer to people who misread this. I guess Jose doesnt realize how much he has in common with Rakolta.
I love this video! As a Russian kid i watched some Happy Together episodes and I knew it was a ripoff of some american show but this video made me very aware of the original. And I love both this series and the Russian adaptation because there are a lot of gags that only make sense to a Russian audience and that's precious. There's a statue to Gena Bukin (our Al Bundy) in Yekaterunburg (the city where the russian Bundys live). Thank you for this video, Jose!
I loved this show when I was a kid. I always realized Al was a loser but you really DID want them to do better. Looking back on it now though, The Bundys are supposed to be poor and often strapped for cash but they have their own, relatively large house and Al supports that plus two kids and a dog on retail wages. That's INSANE in a modern context.
"I always realized Al was a loser but you really DID want them to do better." I think one recurring trope was this: Al would think of some get-rich-quick scheme so he could finally become a success. He gets closer and closer to the dream ... only to see it all fall apart in the end. When it comes crashing down on him, he becomes the butt of a painful joke. I think many people in real life had similar experiences, which was why we could relate to Al's frustrations. That was how we got emotionally invested in him, despite his flaws and shortcomings.
The Home Improvement vid was so awesome. Super hyped for this. 👍 Edit: Just have to add that I had no idea one of the show's creators is black, they had women writers and directors, and didnt realize character's surnames related to pro wrestlers. I love all of these facts. 😄
I'm fascinated by the outraged that lingerie store episode caused - although, I guess I shouldn't be surprised!! The episode has stuck with me, ten years after watching it on 4am syndication, because the episode ends with Al - after seeing all that sexy, exotic underwear - bringing home, like, eight bras identical to the dull but functional one that Peg loves. (Feel free to correct me if I'm mis-remembering.) It was such a simple and relatable scenario and for all the crassness of the Bundy family, this struck me as one of the best and most honest acts of love in a sitcom. ...That's it, that's the opinion - the one episode I remember for its heartfelt ending is apparently the most controversial. Media is fascinating.
The most ironic the about Terry Rilkota complaint was that while attempting to attack the show as anti family, in reality her own statement was that she realized her children were watching the show, and later that the nerwork chose to air it before 9 pm. What this really means is the supposedly pro family complainer would have to be a mother and actually pay attention to what her children were doing, instead of using the tv as a babysitter !!
Fluffy went on to a stellar career onstage as the cat in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" which was restructured as a cat focused narrative due to his obvious talent.
I remember Ted McGinley appeared in the finale of Batman: Brave and the Bold where he made a joke about how he always appears in shows late in their runs, and specifically mentions Married with Children.
@@SarahElisabethJoyal Jefferson's arrival arguably coincided with Married...with Children going from being a very subversive show and a product of and riposte to Ronald Reagan's America to a farce. And as the writers began to run out of ideas, the show just got more and more cartoonish and bizarre.
@@TMC1982Part2 It's kinda ironic that McGinley has this reputation that whatever show he appeared in soon gets cancelled when Married with Children still lasted quite a while after he joined in, but come to think of it, yeah, he was to the show what Dick Sargent was to Bewitched
Watched the show every night when it was on with my mum and dad, I didn't catch every joke and reference but I have such fond memories of my parents always being in hysterics and it seemed to takeaway from the stresses of life for them. The Bundy's really did bring family together.
The quote from Al that this ended on is so true: he's not a loser, because despite how much his life sucks how many times the people around him told him he'd fail and even actually cheer for it....He kept pushing onward, he keeps going...
Notice if you watch other sitcoms of the time like The Cosby Show, Full House, Alf, etc. the laughter of the live studio audience whenever a joke is told sounds like they're laughing cuz they're suppose to find the bland sugarcoated humor funny. But with Married With Children and their crude on the edge sense of humor, the audience sounds like they're legitimately having a good time laughing at something they've never expected to hear on a television show before.
Let's face it, Al Bundy is so much more relatable to the common person, whereas shows like Cosby, Family ties, and Growing pains ever would be. Another Fox show from the early 2000's Titus, was just as funny, and enjoyable.
25:11 Again, a moral panic stems from lazy parents letting the TV watch the kids and bring outraged over the things that unencumbered access TV allows the kids to watch.
25:04 "This episode happened to catch the eye of Terry Rakolta, a housewife in Michigan. The story goes that she had been *letting her children have free reign of the television* when she realised they were watching this particular episode of "Married ... With Children"." Glad you introduced her that way. Edit: Correction of spelling of the woman's name and of the formatting of this comment.
@Roh Hahn Trump dodging the draft is actually the only thing about him I don't completely despise. Although, him dodging the draft of course didn't mean that the US had one person less to help them terrorize a faraway corner of the world.
Even more fun to learn that -Terry Rakolta's husband, John, is DONALD TRUMP'S ambassador to the UAE (as of 2020) and is the uncle of the current Republican chairwoman Ronna (Romney) McDaniel -Ed O'Neill pulled off two dads in two different cultural climates and TV shows (Modern Family) -Michael G. Moye is Black (from watching this)
You're both confused. The Right wants to censor what you do (for example, they want to prevent you from being able to abort). The Left wants to censor what you say (for example, making a joke that someone who isn't gay might be gay is verboten).
Ugh of course it becomes political, i believe censorship is bad, say what ever thing u want as long as it is not DOES NO incite crimes or violence. Comedy needs to be somewhat offensive, cant make fun of anyone. COMEDY is dead.
I remember when I was about 7-8 I was really into Married with Children and now looking at the clips in the video I honestly have no idea why I was even allowed to watch it
I'm the same age and my parents HATED this show at the time. there were times when she would run into the room to slam the "off" button on the TV. Now, she just handwaves it and thinks its all just dumb.
I was also watching this as a kid (maybe 10 yr old)... they were reruns and probably my first taste of "American culture". While I didn't think it was culturally relevant, I did find it extremely hilarious, though in retrospect I probably didn't get all the jokes (like Marcy at the dentist)
Married with Children is still my favorite "family sitcom" of all time. They weren't afraid with their insult humor and didn't pull punches in a time where every show wouldn't dare cross that edge line. So much respect for the cast and crew
It’s more reality than the sugar coated other shows that time. My family burns each other all the time. It’s funny! We definitely relate more to the Bundys than the Keatons
I feel like this show was "All In The Family" for the punk and grunge era. I grew up on it, because it was one of my mom's favorite shows, and she let me watch The Simpsons when I was younger. Al Bundy is an absolute icon (for better or worse), and you absolutely see remnants of Archie Bunker in him (I wonder if it's mere coincidence that they share initials....), though the Bundys are definitely played more for laughs. And it's incredible how well-timed this show happened to be, right when people were tired of visions of the perfect family unit that seemed so out of touch with the reality of most Americans (that same feeling of disenfranchisement is what allowed punk and grunge to flourish around the same time). This, by the way, was a FANTASTIC retrospective. The work put into this is oh-so apparent and admirable, and I feel you really did justice to the characters, the impact, and both the successes and failures of the show. I watched the entire thing (which is hard for me to do for a feature-length anything), even pausing to get food and immediately coming back to it. To me, that's a sure sign of good content.
@CreepyBlackDude I highly recommend you check out the Married with Children Podcast right here on TH-cam if you want some great MWC content. Very fun show where they go over all the episodes (Coming back soon to do season 11, the final season) and they even scored interviews with people like Amanda Bearse, Michael G Moye, Harold Sylvester and a few of the lovely ladies that played friends of Kelly's and hot dates of Bud. They do a great job and you can tell they're such genuine huge fans of the show. I think they even do a better job than this retrospective when it comes to praising and analyzing the iconic status of the show without weighing it down with looking at things through a godawful current climate lens.
"You've got a good man at home who any man would be proud to call his wife.. ... you've obviously gotten over the whole he's a man, thing." 😆 those lines get me every time.
That quote at the end hit pretty hard. There's so many people in the world where something like that just rings true for them, winning is just getting through each day without suicide
Also I did not expect this show, of all things, have a decent take on gay marriage, in at least one episode. And huh, so this is what Leia was up to before she joined Planet Express.
My mom grew up with this show and was legit surprised that the actor who plays Al wasn't in comedy before this but then she thought about it and thought it made sense what made him funny was how humorless he was.
@@CoasterMan13Official I could have explained better let me rephrase, what makes Al funny is that he isn't trying to be and at the end of the day more than anything else he's just miserable and that's funny at least to me of course everyone has different interpretations.
@@SamanthaBoooooooo Maybe? I don't know calling him the straight man doesn't feel quite right I mean at least in experience the straight man doesn't really act like him either. I'm not really trying to label anything though. 🤷♀️🙂
Cable tv plays by different rules compared to broadcast. Just as like premium plays by different rules and so does streaming. Well, evidenced by Cuties, streaming has no rules.
Exactly! What I hate about folks who mythologize this era of television is the inflated sense of quality they have when it comes to shows like Married With Children. They complain that everything is too PC now, but this is obviously not true when you consider the existence of shows like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The truth of the matter is the success of MwC was a fluke: it was created at a time when the bar for television was low, and, as José pointed out, on a network that was starved for content. PC culture has nothing to do with it- the creators were just never that good to begin with.
18:20 but she WANTS it. That was a MAJOR plot point throughout the series with Peggy: she wants it 90% more than Al gives. To the point she breaks down and cooks, luring him to the bedroom with steaks and porkchops, before she questions whether her desires or laziness is greater (status quo meant the latter won). So, if Al charged in with a quick fix requiring zero effort (like wearing a wig), she's not going to complain.
As a lad barely out of elementary school at the time, I found Peggy Bundy and her cheetah pants more exciting than Pam Anderson at the time…and could never understand why all wasn’t motorboats her into a coma every other hour since she wanted so much sex.
This, i think this youtuber deliberately choices to ignore that fact that Peggy does indeed literally "begs for it" and "ask for it" and i do my literally with her own words.
Here’s hoping this video helps me come to understand my deep and troubling attraction to Al Bundy 🍺😔 Edit: I’m starting to piece it together and I’m not happy about it lol thank you for sharing all your hard work tho José ♥️
@@EvilGuacamoleGaming Kind of reminds me of the time I realized that not every family normally watches and relates to Everybody Loves Raymond and the implications it had for my extended family's greater dynamic. And yeah, Jose should, after resting following this, look into that show, too. It probably could make for a good supplemental to this and the Home Improvement vid.
I got into this show as a teen girl & will still be watching it in my 40s. They say if you tell a joke too many times it stops being funny. But I never get sick of the reruns.
You got a shoutout on the Talking Simpsons podcast. That's how I found this video. Absolutely amazing work. I can't wait to watch more of your video retrospectives!
The show was named: "Eine schrecklich nette Familie"~"A terribly nice family", here in Germany. And I loved it. The adapted german version, I've never even heard about before, so it seems that it didn't work so well as the original.
Just from seeing Al Bundy in the thumbnail of your video, the opening theme started playing in my head and I immediately started singing it out loud. I grew up watching Married With Children and it's still one of my top favorite sitcoms to watch. Two others being Roseanne, and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
loved, loved, loved this video. As problematic as it is, I loved Married With Children. It's my trash. I'm not proud of it, but it is what it is. I was younger and I didn't have much of the understanding that I have now. Now do Malcolm In The Middle.
@Redresseny that's the thing I've realized with older shows and movies they are enjoyable even if they are bad they have something that saves them like hilarious bad lines or hilarious bad acting for example Samurai Cop very low budget movie but the bad acting and bad lines saved it
Well that "trash" is still popular today because it's hilariously funny with GREAT actors playing iconic and hilarious characters. If you can't appreciate that then I feel sorry for you.
In the Netherlands we had 3 very successful movies and several TV seasons of an antisocial family, called the Flodder family, starting in 1986 (so around the same time as the Bundy’s). This family was actually far worse 😆
God bless you man. I watched like an episode of them in Turkey on national tv, but did not know their names. I thought this is like more chaotic married with children.
wasn't it more like Beverky Hillbillies, because the joke was that they moved into a rich neighborhood due to an ill thought out poitical initiative? (or was that just one of the movies?)
@@juliamavroidi8601 No, that's the basic premise. Both shows are anti-PC and satires of contemporary society but imho they're also fundamentally different. The Flodders never cared about societal norms to begin with and live happy carefree lives thanks to a welfare state dialed up to 11. The Bundy's receive no government support and Al is probably too proud for that anyway because despite everything he still holds on to the American Dream. He'd rather beg for his dead-end job than take those COMMIE HAND-OUTS PAID FOR WITH HIS HARD-EARNED TAXMONEY DARNIT! You can hear him say it lol! I don't know about the Beverly Hillbillies but the Flodders became somewhat unintentional folk heroes because the posh snobs were usually at the receiving end of their antics. They were dysfunctional but they weren't hypocrite NIMBYs with fake morals. I think that's part of the appeal of characters like the Bundy's and Flodders. They're unapologetically honest in who they are.
Psycho-dad loved it. First I heard Katie lost a child, my heart sincerely goes out to her. That show was funny but like them all, everything was the same. Been there seen that. But on its way to peaking it was funny and an enjoyable experience. Thank you to all involved in the production 🙏 🙌 ❤️ 💙
she was fucking proto Karen. She was defeated by Gandalf and Galadriel before she could manifest. Chrono and his friends went back in time and killed her in her infancy after they witnessed the Karen-pocalypse.
She's still alive so every time she sees a Karen go off on some employee for nothing she probably says to herself _"I did that"_ in a overly congratulatory way.
She had real complaints but none of those jokes are particularly "mind warping". I imagine the battery joke, which was the most racy would have went right over the boy's heads (I wouldn't have understood until probably 14). The breasts being shown? If those boys didn't know that men like pretty women and would be speechless by a pretty woman showing her breasts, well mom needed to have a special talk with her boys!
I only just learned that Katey Sagal who played Peggy ALSO played Leela in Futurama And they even did an episode that was a full on “Married with Children” parody with Leela In a Peggy outfit Man both these shows were the best.
I didn't notice as a kid until my mom pointed it out by just hearing her voice. She legit went "AH PEG!!" like Al does as we watched the show even tho I wasn't supposed to as I was really young when it first aired. I can still remember when Fox would go literally off the air as it wasn't a big network yet so it had no money to stay on after like 12 or 1am, it's crazy how old it feels remembering that.
My Head Canon is the series takes place in the Robocop universe. With the over the top emphasis on consumerism and insane shows within the show, like Psycho Dad.
I *loved* this show as a kid and remember watching the series finale. I definitely identified with Kelly as a space cadet. Being on the spectrum often leaves me confused and taking things way too literally.
Simply awesome how you grabbed the topic👍 I spent many years of my life living like Al Bundy, doing a job I hate, earning low wages, ripped off by my family, receiving more insults than love. It was good to know I wasn't alone.
What I special liked about the show was Al calling Kelly Pumpkin. And they always united, and became one, tuned to each other team, when they were targeted by an outsider. And they always win. They are so sweet in those moments
These comments need to remember that tons of offensive things still get aired and as long as it's actually done in a clever manner, nobody really tries to "cancel" them. Shows like it's always sunny, arrested development, and gilmore girls that are generally well received by the left all have humor that makes lgbtq part of the jokes and people generally don't mind. Granted, it's always sunny is satire but that just goes to show that if you can present this stuff in literally any context other than the joke just being "haha gay funny" then you don't get "canceled". It's literally just the laziness of punching down on groups that are always the butt of the joke just by existing that people take issue with.
Exactly. I consider myself pretty moderate, although definitely left leaning in regards to the things that people care/talk most about and I love all the shows you mentioned. What's most annoying to me is the people that say stupid shit and very clearly are being 100% serious and then try to escape the backlash by saying "it was just a joke" "blame PC culture" etc. And maybe my biggest take on it - if you're gonna be offensive, at least be funny. That's why It's Always Sunny is so good. No matter where it goes or how offensive it is, it's always funny. When a lot of people try to tell their offensive jokes, they completely forget to actually be funny in the process. There's either no set-up or punchline for it. Offending just for offending's sake isn't inherently funny. There has to be some actual comedic element going into it.
But but but but-! How am I, a 40 year old rich guy, supposed to survive in this world where I am required to put actual work and thought into my job??! How unfair! How unimaginable! Twitter is mad at me, and even though it hasn’t affected me in any perceivable way, I’m gonna victimize myself over it!
I was wondering if anyone would mention the "Archie Bunker Effect." Carrol O'Connor was a die hard liberal and Archie was supposed to be an over the top satire. Someone so obviously wrong about everything that he should be mocked and shunned. But he was such a popular character that the message was lost to confirmation bias. Conservatives thought he was the hero. Liberals thought he was the villain. Now that I think about it, I'm reminded of Poe's Law. It's impossible to tell if someone is satirizing an extreme viewpoint or actually believes it. (Last tangent I promise.) Why so many science advocates refuse to debate creationists. People watching default to their preexisting biases and by giving an extreme viewpoint a wider audience you risk elevating their narrative to be an opinion of equal value. Sorry for rambling.
@@SaintSteven67 Yet Ed also said his humor is similar to Al's so there's that lol. Ironically it's the more extreme left(and I'm not talking left leaning democrat types) that would try to get this show cancelled now rather than the extreme conservative right. Times have changed lol.
@@MrKyltpzyxm The thing though is that Al isn't a bigot like Archie is but both are similar because i believe Al is a descendant of Archie Bunker like most of the flawed but lovable tv characters we've had since All in the family: George Jefferson, Fred Sanford, Al Bundy, Eric Cartman, Mike Baxter etc. and many more all derived from Bunker.
I love how the dog in the show did not do anything special. He was just existing as an ordinary dog. Best job ever
I love the show.. But buck was definetly the best part of it 😎
Buck was basically a rug that could move around. He was great.
Midtoker Marius he did give commentary
I was street interviewed by a FOX Station on What was the best show Fox ever produced. You know Damn well I replied... Married with Children
Al Bundy was and is my hero, yes he was tempted by many gorgeous women but he always went home to Peggy, Luke Ventura was the exact opposite of Al but a friend from work who gets replaced by Al's best friend and black counterpart Griff, even though he's divorced, Marcy is the ultimate hypocrit, accusing Al of being a pig 🐷 when she herself is no better, and she divorce Steve and hooked up to Jefferson who was the male counterpart of Peg Except that he was also a scam artist so he wasn't completely lazy.
even with that gay joke in the earlier season, Al wasn't actually offended or tried to explain himself the way the other dude did, he just went "I could do better than that" and that just makes me smile
same it's kinda a cute twist on it.
There's something very wholesome about that scene.
It’s surprisingly very progressive with lgbt themes
Even Steve seemed more flustered than confused. Overall it came across as a lot more progressive about LGBT things than many shows did
If you're interested and not already a subscriber check out Matt Baum's channel. His Culture Cruise looks at queer representation in popular culture throughout TV history. He devoted a whole video to this episode
Don't let this distract you from the fact that in 1966, Al Bundy scored four touchdowns in a single game while playing for the Polk High School Panthers in the 1966 city championship game versus Andrew Johnson High School, including the game-winning touchdown in the final seconds against his old nemesis, "Spare Tire" Dixon.
(I'm not to the end yet, so I don't know if the copypasta was referenced, but figured I'd get it in before anybody else)
Legit question from someone who doesn't know anything about American football: Are 4 touchdowns in one game actually an impressive accomplishment?
@@OneEyeShadow not really but kinda
@@OneEyeShadow in high school? yeah.
I love you
@@OneEyeShadow When I was in high school my friend was a freshmen, who played for varsity. Freshmen and sophmores (first year and second) usually play junior variety, juniors and seniors (3rd and final year) play varsity, the top team. Its is based on ability, but still very rare for a first year student to have said ability. I watched him score 4 TDs in one game. He went to play college, and I don't think he went pro. If so, probably just a 3rd stringer. But yeah for someone not to be a noticed as a college prospect, Al probably just got lucky, or the high school was very small, and played unimportant teams.
Al became an instant icon after that legendary game where he scored 4 touchdowns.
not just any game... it was the 1965 City Championship (not sure on the year) against his arch rival at Andrew Johnson High School where they were down by 3 touchdowns. With a loss almost certain, the coach quit the game... But Al wasn't having that, and then went on to score a RECORD BREAKING FOUR back-to-back touchdowns (a still unbeaten record).. And who can forget, that on his 4th touchdown, Al faked a pass, ran to the right, and then flew 75 yards up the middle to win the game.
Wait, what?!?!
@@Justin-vr5zn i believe it was 1966. and lets not forget how he broke the tackle of "spare tire" dixon at the goal line to punch in that game winning 4th touchdown. a moment so legendary it has made it into the pool for final grand prize questions of any sports trivia show worth its salt inside the greater chicago metropolitan area.
R.I.P. bubba smith
4 touchdowns in 1 game, bro
Polk High forever motherfuckers
By today's standards, Al was quite successful. He had a nice home of his own, a hot wife who was faithful, raised two kids, had a reasonably good quality of life and a lot of fun, all this with a 40 hour a week undergraduate job. Most youngsters today would sell a kidney to have what Al Bundy had.
Bro had no food 💀
I think this was the bottom line of the series. He was successful. I am in Israel. Here all he had when i was a child he was count pretty successful. Until the 2000 it was impossible to went to other countries with reasonable fee.
@@veerpatel9910 Because his wife can't and never cooked
@@mechajay3358 that show was a comedy and sci-fi at the same time
@@mechajay3358 Cant cook food you don't have. She would shop for clothes and eat out everyday. I never understood why he just didn't go shopping himself, since he works in a mall. ans store it in his car... But that would ruin the show.
I really love these videos, honestly. Sitcoms are so often treated as "low art," and thus discarded as being meaningful. Your videos are really good at looking at it and showing just how much meaning and thematic intention is behind a lot of them.
Growing up in an immigrant household in the 80s & 90s, my relatively conservative Korean parents thought Married with Children was one of the funniest shows ever and I still have a lot of fond childhood memories growing up with the show despite the wholly inappropriate content.
Sounds like you and I are around the same age. Or at least, I was a kid when I was allowed to watch this show, into my preteens. Everyone, across the board, enjoyed this show. You had your uptight idiots, but as far as demographics, there was never one group that liked it more than another. Conservative, liberal, any race, any sex/gender/whathaveyou. I hate when someone like this--who is clearly intelligent--puts words in the mouth of people because he thinks that people should be offended. Liberalism was about offending people back then, and conservatism was about polite company. The incoming PC culture was a fanatical group neither side claimed.
And I'm sure your father didn't form a masked anti-woman group that held up a TV studio, either, unlike what he's implying in this video lmfao
My mom would pretend to hate it. She’s call it trash, can’t believe you two (me and my brother) enjoy this etc etc. But she’d watch with us and I’d even catch her watching it alone once early seasons were in syndication even when show was still on. The three of us watching and arguing over this show while we cooked and ate dinner (we always ate late, even when I was under 5) are some of my greatest family memories. I think she had the hots for Ed O’Neil too lol. I didn’t get that as a child, but I get it now lol.
@@nachgeben um this guy's a leftist not liberal
@@chasesigler9885 Finally, someone who knows the distinction. I want my label back!
I'm from Perú and this sitcom was transmitted around early 2000s and my mom and I love the show
Married with children contains what I still consider the best line in sitcom history...
Peggy: "Hi Al, welcome home. Did you miss me?"
Al: "With every bullet so far!"
Best line ever!!
i also will always love
Peg: Al, i really think you should see a Doctor
Al: no Peg the only Doctor that can help me is Kevorkian
"My ex-wife still misses me... but her aim is gettin' better!"
@@sholem_bond I saw your comment in the middle of repeating that line. B)
my fav -
Peggy: "how was your day honey?"
Al: "i came home didn't I? how good could it have been?..."
"Every man's home is his coffin"
Al Bundy scored 4 touchdowns in a single game.
No one will ever be able to take that away from him.
Seriously, this show was a big part of my childhood. We couldn't afford cable and would have to get the antennae just right to watch fox49. Thanks for making this.
Fox Network viewing positions!
it was 4 unanswered touchdowns in a championship game when they were down by 3 touchdowns, which won them the game. Not to mention on the 4th he ran it 75 yards to win the game... Love how it got increasingly impressive and dramatic over time. whether it was "embellishment" due to his skewed memory, or just getting better at telling the story, either way I love it.
@@Justin-vr5znBecause the "winning" touchdown" was against Bubba Smith!!
Al got the ball, and ran into "Spare tire", "he got the name, "Spare tire" because he wore a spare tire on a chain around his neck!!
"Spare tire" claimed Al's knee was down at the one yard line and he never crossed the goal line.
So in an epic battle, in the halls of "Spare tire's" old high school, He and Al had the showdown!
"Spare tire" drew a line on the floor, the championship trophy, behind that line, Al, had to rush passed "Spare tire"...........Al did it!!!
He and "Spare tire" admitted, while neither could get up off the floor🤣🤣 they were still, "two great athletes" despite their advanced ages!!
Did you assume Fox viewing positions and use lots of tin foil?
I'm surprised you didn't mention the episode where he's desperate to get into the trunk of his car to retrieve something important, but he won't tell his family what it is. At the end, when he finally gets it, it turns out to be a photo of his family
THIS! 100%! I remember it because they made a big fanfare at the time about it being the 200th episode. It was a really great episode because it really drove home the fact that despite all the bickering and everything else wrong with the Bundy's lives, the most important thing to Al is still his family.
Why didn't he just pull down the backseat
@@NoOne-qn2hv Maybe it's not a car that will let people do that? I don't know too much about cars in general let alone ones from the 80s and even then if he's poor he probably has an even older car than that so it might be one that doesn't let you do that.
The entire review was pretty lackluster. With a lot of bias against the writing and what not.
Granted, as he mentioned, it's hard to condense that much show down into any reasonable length single video... I get that.
Many of the picks leaned "anti show" in some way or another... As a portrayal of reality, every damn last one of the characters (probably even Buck lol) exist in the real world, the writing just put them all in the same frame, cranked them up to 11 for lots of entertaining distortion, and let it fall out of millions of picture tubes. It didn't stick around for 11 seasons because there was nothing better on... People loved a look at how much worse life could conceivably be, and better appreciated their own.
And it was definitely anti-Al.
So to think pivotal concepts like Al trying to get the picture out of the trunk should get any attention... You know, the parts that show who Al really is at the core... We should not be surprised they weren't included in this.
That slot was taken by a tangent lesson about "sexual abuse" by dude that compiled this... Because yeah that was what we were *all* thinking about when we were watching it on the tube... 🙄🤦♂️
Sorry, rantish. This guy pisses me off.
@@MadScientist267 Stop it. Get some help.
I watched this show religiously since it came out I was 26 at the time and in the Army, my fellow soldiers and I would gather in one of our fellow soldier's room because he was the only one who had a TV. It was obviously crowded in his little room, there was about 15 of us and it got pretty stuffy in there of course so we had to put a couple of fans in the room to get some air. But we just ignored our discomfort because we all had a great time just laughing our butts off. Some of us literally would just fall down laughing holing our sides and tears running down our faces. That was the only thing that made military life somewhat tollerable, it was hell waiting for the next episode to air. Those of us that wasn't pulling guard duty or Battalion staff duty etc. Where pretty depressed when we had to miss an episode. This sitcom helped us keep our sanity.
There is an episode where Al's car gets stolen and he wants it back badly. He claims that there is something of immense value to him in the car. It turns out it is a portrait of his family.
That is the 200th episode
Kelly: What is it
Peg: oh you know, Big Uns
Al: Its not Big Uns Peg!
He opens the trunk, and pulls out a copy of big uns, the audience laughs, but then he opens the dirty magazine and there is actually a photo of his family when they were all very young. Kinda Touching.
Fake Parson “for your emmy consideration”
So it got stolen with salami.
The car was actually lost at the car wash IIRC. It turned out they couldn't find it, because it looked different being finally clean.
Almost 20 years ago I had an English/Norwegian dictionary that mentioned Al Bundy. The book had a translation of the word "hooters". At the end of the description it said "Al Bundy likes women with big hooters".
Al would be proud
Thank you for your service
'UNS
i always loved that they treated each other like crap, but if an outsider messed with one of them, it would be a Bundy family beatdown in about 5 seconds.
Lets rock!
Al was a real man. He was always faithful, loyal and defended his family. He dragged himself to a crap job every single day despite being chronically depressed but he never missed work and always provided. He did well by his family
And his family ALWAYS took him for granted. Wife always spent his money on frivolous purchases and kids always expecting allowance money just because. Nobody can blame the man for being so downtrodden all the time…
that was the early premise, then he became a degenerate, heck he was funny though
Yup. Stuck it out more than the average twice divorced western world. A hero of the silent just keep plodding on majority.
@@TheHeavensFellen he was always a degenerate, but kept his shit together..relatively ;)
@@pauldurand4780 No, it was the guy Luke who was that, Al goes over to his house and hardly looks at the girl which Luke left for Al. He only slowly turned into that type.
Gotta love the whole "Mother can't be bothered to regulate what her children are watching, but by god, she's not gonna take the blame for being an irresponsible parent." thing.
Add to that she has trash beliefs I'm kinda glad that she let the TV raise her kids
Welcome to the 80’s. The beginning of the Karen movements. So many shows were attacked when just changing the channel would have worked. TBH, the kids probably had TVs in their bedrooms so she didn’t have to be bothered with them.
@@jdruin1 Which is hilarious, because, like hinted at in the video, reactionaries love pointing to that time to show how things were before "PC culture" took over.
love that her complaint only sent more people the Bundy's way.
Yes my thoughts exactly!
Stop letting your kids watch TV, play games, go on the internet endlessly and unmonitored. :/
(Although, i did watch this show as a kid and I prob shouldn't have, my mom was cray 😅)
Something I always found relatable about the character of Al Bundy is that he can tolerate people not caring about him, but he can't tolerate people who think they know what's best for him.
like a teenager lol
I recognize you from Johnny's videos, your care packages are legendary👌
In a different and slightly more conservative way, Married with Children was cathartic in the way Rosanne and Malcolm in the Middle were. Not to feel better than the Bundy's, but to see a family that looked a little more like mine than Full House, or 7th Heaven.
I agree with your analysis, just that in the moment, while it aired, seeing a family struggle, fight, and stick together in a disfunctual way resonated with me.
Agree. It's why I hated full house. It was waaayyyy too perfect and happy. It was like mocking, almost. I loved Rosanne (altho tbh it might be bc I'm a lil gay and didn't know at the time haha)
@@rebeccasheley5762 Too bad she became a Trumpanzee
@Ajax Aidy Who cares, he's a piece of shit?
@Ajax Aidy No they don't lol. Republicans aren't all the working class for one, two he mainly fucks them all over with destroying the environment, allowing corporations to do as they please and giving them tax breaks over the worker, surpressing worker's rights, cutting healthcare and welfare, continuing to spy on them, and throwing some of them into cages.
@@ChangedMyNameFinally69 you are aware he turned the economy around and he also brought back more manufacturing jobs than any other presidents prior? Maybe you should look into that.
That Xmas show where Santa plummets to his death in the Bundy's yard should be required studying for anyone interested in writing for tv. One of the sharpest, wittiest, most irreverent things ever to grace the small screen. Still makes me laugh 'til I cry.
I recently watched it with my kids, oh man we were all falling from the seats!
Literally every one of us!
That tells a lot for a show which is now 35 years old or so how many shows are there which are still as funny as when they came out, after 35 years, humor changes a lot! But there seems to be some kind of timlessnes regarding farce humor, Fawlty Towers is very similar also from the humor point of view in this regard!
Omg...best episode ever!
José is a very nice man and his English is coming along very well.
Cody Bryson not everyone should be able to comment
@Cody Bryson what's this
19:26
@Cody Bryson Tf you smoking
lmao good one.
Let's give a quick shout out to Christina Applegate.
I used to have the biggest crush on her.
Wait till Tyler's dad shows up to ruin the party
man, she was so good at her delivery on this show Also it actually takes a really smart person to write a stupid person that well. Kelly was actually very clever but just comically mis informed and un knowledgeable, and would draw bizarre conclusions based on the information given. My favorite joke from her was where she wanted a car of her own, and she looked one up in the paper and saw a nice car for sale. "Look daddy, this guy is selling this brand new car, for only 40Ks! can you believe that? 40Ks! I guess he must run a sign business and needs the letters?" and so there was a b plot of Kelly going around, unironically cutting out the letter K from magazines and stuff it was fucking funny.
I guess the Hannibal reference was too obscure
* enthusiastic applause *
This was an awesome video. One thing I'd like to point out that as much as the Bundy dynamic was a commentary on the traditional sitcom family, it was also a direct refutation of the Reagan-era image of the American family. You had the hard working husband, who still didn't make enough to support his family or even earn their respect. You had the stay at home wife, who only stayed at home to watch TV. You had the daughter who jumped from boy to boy rather than look for her future husband. And the son, who was undeniably smart, but could never capitalize on his potential because of his preoccupation with sex and the general crab bucket mentality of his family. These were all direct contradictions of how Reagan-era politicians tried to sell the American dream.
Most underrated comment ^
Today it would be seen as a attack on woke hollywood.
A obession with genders.
A obession with sexual orientations.
A obession with race
And a obession with anything non western civilization as better than America.
Today in woke hollywood where a recent article shows the need for a Conservative movie studio or as Fox highlighted The Conservative Movie Studio being set up. It seems we need segrated television if the left can do it with their colleges in 2020 the right can have its own television company.
@@andrewdock7288 did somebody take your binkie? Poor baby!
@@andrewdock7288 aN** obsession
@@andrewdock7288 Easy with the Fox news, sir.
Thank you to the housewife in Michigan, Terry Ricolta. Without the controversy that was generated by her protest, I would have never known about Married With Children, the greatest show on TV in the '80's-'90's. I am also thankful that my mother did not really pay attention to the news; otherwise, she would have never allowed me to watch the show and I would have never had a HUGE crush on Christina Applegate. 🥰😘😜
Terry Ricolta's attempts to hurt and cancel the show really backfired in the worst way possible and made the show even way more popular. Streisand effect at its best.
I always thought of Al as a loser, growing, up. When I got older, I realized:
- Has a steady job
- Has a wife that never quite cheats on him, and is way hotter than she's given credit for
- Has a pretty (though not smart) daughter, and a smart (but not handsome) son...and both of them are _definitely_ his.
- No divorce, and the closest he ever gets to cheating is the nudie bar
- Manages to keep a roof over everyone's head and a "classic car" that (generally) gets him where he needs to go.
As I hit middle age, I realize...ol' Al did okay for himself!
well but only if u see things with your 2020 goggles, bundy was in fact considered as a loser, but in those times, everyone could afford a house with only one or two jobs in the family and so on, for 2020 he did extremely well in his life, for the 70s or 80s? not so much... pretty sad if u think about it
@@lp.shakur Even in the 1980s a shoe salesman would never be able to own a house that big in Chicago. In today's money that house would be worth 6 or 7 hundred thousand in Chicago. In the late 80s it would have been a couple hundred thousand, when minimum wage was around $4 per hour.
bruh they couldn't eat lmao
@@lp.shakur lol no, too expensive back then too, I remember watching the show and actually thinking he's doing well for himself considering he was actually able to provide for his family even as a kid in the 90s I thought that. It was cheaper excuses is b*******. Hell in California right now if you got like 10 20 grand saved up you can get yourself mortgage and house.
@@GorgeousMerc thats not true but whatever... to say its as easy today to get a house as it was back then, then you are simply lying, probably a avid fox news watcher because that are the idiotic arguments they bring... sad man
Was that Terry woman the original Karen? "I was letting my kids watch entertain themselves, but they saw gay references! Do I have to start paying attention to my kids, or will you change everything to suit me?"
She was the parent and blamed Fox for her poor skills as a parent. Still, she did help to put MWC on the map and draw people in to see what the fuss was all about.
I’m glad my mom just told me not to watch certain stuff and when me and my brother re-enacted that scene where curly was chocking on a pickle with a stick thing I accidentally hit his throat and my mom banned us from the 3 stooges for a few years! She acknowledges that she should have told us that they where just actors.........explained why they added how they did the slapstick in the 3 stooges movie....
You know when I younger we different term then that we called them Gladys Kravitz so instead we would say another we have another Gladys Kravitz.
She was the Alpha Karen. Karen Zero. The Karen's from which all other Karens have sprung.
Terry Rakolta is the sister of Ronna Romney. Her family is old auto company money. She has lived in Bloomfield Hills, a very haughty suburb in metro Detroit, IIRC her entire life. You need serious money to live there. As such, the residents sense of self importance is skewed.
I love that Jefferson always laughs whenever someone makes fun of Marcy Darcy. 😂
Well the did get married while drunk.
It's the only appropriate response. Marcy Darcy will never not be funny..
Ultimately Al loved his family, he wouldn't cheat on Peggy, and would go out of his way to protect his family. This show was part of my childhood in the latter seasons and I loved the show.
Yeah. The way jose characterizes him and the jokes of the theme are pretty off base.
Love is going to far. he was resigned to them
A surprising number of the writers of Married . . . With Children were women.
honestly i feel like women comedy writers would be the best demographic to write legitimately funny and punching-up jokes about anti-feminism
Sometimes the misogyny is coming from inside the house.
Why would that surprise you?
@@DeeperWithDiego Because TV writers, even for "women's shows," are overwhelmingly male.
@Madalin Grama You can even see it in the earlier seasons when Peggy and Marcy get really good digs in on Al whenever he makes a sexist comment.
Thank you for the wonderful memories. Growing up, my family did not miss an episode. We also ate in front of the TV, passed around a towel as a napkin, and passed around a gallon of milk to drink as we ate. We loved the Bundys.
The interesting thing about the show-within-a-show "Psycho Dad" is that it addresses the fact that Married With Children ended up attracting the very audience it was satirizing, when the creators of Psycho Dad cancel their own show because they realize how horrible their public is.
Woah
But it also showed the exact opposite, the sensitive boi route that would most likely laugh at the blue collar family and not their antics isn't good either in that same episode where Psycho Dad ended itself with Al stopping the armed thug.
They did the same joke in Father Ted, you might see it as the writers vindicating the audience but I believe it to be more of a joke about the comical nature of the television show itself. More laughing at the absurd, no?
I feel like it's more like Terrance and Phillip in South Park, the show making fun of the critique of the show.
Who's that riding in the sun?
Who's the man with the itchy gun?
Who's the man who kills for fun?
Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad.
He sleeps with a gun
but he loves his son
Killed his wife 'cos she weighed a ton.
Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad.
A little touched or so we're told
Killed his wife 'cos she had a cold
Might as well she was gettin' old
Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad.
He's quick with a gun
And his job ain't done.
Killed his wife by twenty-one,
Psycho Dad!
Who's that riding in the sleigh?
Who's that firing along the way?
Who's roughing up bums on Christmas day?
Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad
Who's the tall, dark stranger there.
The one with the gun and the icy stare.
The one with the scalp of his ex-wife's hair!
Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad!
Who's that riding across the plain?
Who's lost count of the wives he's slain?
Who's the man who's plumb insane?
Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad, Psycho Dad
He's a durn good pa, but he hates the law.
He's likes to eat it raw, He's Psycho Dad!
I'm Bulgarian, and I can confirm that Married with Children was UNGODLY popular (the fact that we had a restaurant chain called "Pizza Bundy" should speak volumes). However, I had no idea there was a Bulgarian remake up until this very video. I decided to watch it out of sheer morbid curiosity, and let's just say, I now know how 80s kids felt watching the Michael Bay TMNT movies.
I thank you for telling me about the pizza bundy
Have you tried Pizza Bundy?
How is it?
@@brianlarsen9952 It was alright. Not terrible, but I think it closed down a few years back and nobody really misses it. The one in my city is now a Pizza Hut lmao
Can we get a thumbs up for the great writers of this magnificent Series.
Men watch it not for the satire, because they can relate to Al Bundy.
@@michaellandon1960 I think you should give men more credit. It’s more nuanced then that
Better than that: we can give 'em a "Woah Bundy!"
"The audience is cheering for Al despite the fact that we're supposed to mock him for thinking this way!" Huh, I guess in that sense, Al Bundy was the original "You're missing the point by idolizing him" type protagonist!
Try Archie bunker for og
@@turnipopolis I've made the mistake of reading YT comments on All in the Family.
No. Not at all. We root for him because, despite his flaws, he does love his family and continuously shows loyalty to them. Al was real in ways no other character ever has been on TV. Even Archie Bunker, at the end of his run, had his moral lesson moments.
@@johncreel5048 Al wasn't half as real as Dan Conner
Al Bundy walked so Tony Soprano could run
Its amusing how much Katey Segal used the same voice style for Peggy and Leela
There’s even an episode of Futurama where Leela dresses like Peggy and you can really tell how similar the deliveries are
I had such a crush on Peg.
@@Clay3613 I had such a crush on Leela
@@stephenmarco2927Ha, yeah! That was so funny.
Watching Married with Children. on Sunday nights was a De facto tradition. Absolutely my all-time favorite sitcom. 😂
"Marcy Darcy?!" is one of the best moments in television. I was a little kid but even I thought that was amazingly hilarious. (my real initials are MMM so I got the Stan Lee/cartoon character thing too.)
I also always hated that Ellen stole the public notion of being the first network star to come out because everybody knew Amanda Bearse had already earned that honor. Now that we all know Ellen is a legit psychopath, let's make Eric Andre Ellen and re-establish Amanda Bearse as network TV's first gay icon
Anyone who really knows knows that Amanda Bearse is a gay icon.
"Re-imagining"
Geez!
Your comment just proved Rakolta's point, in her complaint that *kids* were watching those shows. 🤣👍
Eric Andre is too powerful to be chained down to daytime tv.
So you're marcy marcy marcy?
Peggy losing her real life baby was sad for the whole country. I think everyone grieved for her and her baby. I think it was the first pregnancy loss to be lived out in front of the public. The whole country supported her tho.
And then she adopted Seven and after a month abandoned him somewhere and pretended he never existed.
I remember this
@@thefonzkisslike your parents did?
Really the whole country? Nah
Did the plot have Peggy have a miscarriage.
What I loved is that they left the REAL audience reactions IN THE FINAL CUT!!!!
That never fucking happens
Why ?
They really didn't use a laugh track?
@@ashenmoonclash no
These shows are filmed over days and weeks. This is not 1-take. Each scene is separate. The audience has no context. They are just told when to laugh and how to laugh. I consider all these laugh track shows to be manipulative and fake. This show did not use the same canned laugh track as everyone else, and was not as strict in making the laughter sound “proper”.
@@ThinkDifferentish wrong, Full House did use laugh tracks while MWC had unexpected audiences who cheer at everything.
Great breakdown. This show was my childhood. Thanks for the in depth retrospective
I didn't always agree with your commentary but no one else did this kind of a summation of the series. And you did.
I am standing & applauding a job well done. Good for you, Jose. The effort is obvious. The series deserved it -- you delivered.
I think it's funny & prophetic to realize that such a controversial program that challenged the PC culture was co-created by a Black writer/producer. I applaud him as well for the courage he had & the entertainment he envisioned.
You know this show is good when even a 12 year old can like it. I still remember flipping through channels and coming across this show. As a kid who strictly watched cartoons never have I ever laughed so much watching a show. And the iconic sitting in couch with hand in pants. God Bless the Bundy’s
At one point I recall watching this show back-to-back with the "Dinosaurs" series, the one made by Jim Henson's son.
@@LikaLaruku omg I remember Dinosaurs! I have to find some episodes of that show, forgot all about it til you mentioned it.
I also grew up watching this show at about the same age as you. I honestly can't believe our parents let us watch it. Then again, welcome to the 90s. We also watched Ren & Stimpy, for some reason.
@@yasminni485And now all some people do is complain about "Woke" content and try to pedfke the most sanitized nonsense to kids to "protect them", just like the Tipper Gores of the 90's.
@@miguelvelez7221 I am so glad I grew up in the 80s-90s. We didn't have this bs. These snowflakes "woke" idiots will destroy this planet.
Never in my almost 30 years on this pile of rocks we call home, did I think that I would be watching a documentary that is over an hour long on married with children
But you loved it :) me too
Got any weed
I’ve never really read it as Al or Peggy ACTUALLY not wanting to have sex with the other one. They just feel the psychological need to put up a fight due to their entire relationship being based on that kind of dysfunction. We also know from how they both speak about the other in certain instances that they both feel the other person is pretty good at it too. It’s a weird courtship thing between two adults who, despite all appearances, do love each other and find one another attractive, not actual non-consent. In 2022 we would probably just call it a kink but in 1987 not so much.
Exactly. And its a gag. Not REALLY non consensual. Not sure how he could really see it that way. Times have changed and not all for the better.
THIS
@@dqreps I can see how he made that assumption, it's a perspective thing so for him he did not see the humor in the running gag. I think that's pretty fair sometimes things aren't for everyone.
I remember hearing a bit from a newer standup comic talking about "negging" and the time a random woman was trying to hit on him by talking shit. I don't know how common that is, but it sounds like today Peg and Al with their _constant_ shit talking (basically just being the weird way they express themselves to each other) might be an ideal relationship for some folks today.
yes THANK YOU. it takes the DO I HAAAAVE TO to another level and even within the marriage is playful whining that ultimately is understood by both parties. having a close bond with another person would make this a bit clearer to people who misread this. I guess Jose doesnt realize how much he has in common with Rakolta.
I love this video! As a Russian kid i watched some Happy Together episodes and I knew it was a ripoff of some american show but this video made me very aware of the original. And I love both this series and the Russian adaptation because there are a lot of gags that only make sense to a Russian audience and that's precious. There's a statue to Gena Bukin (our Al Bundy) in Yekaterunburg (the city where the russian Bundys live). Thank you for this video, Jose!
I loved this show when I was a kid. I always realized Al was a loser but you really DID want them to do better.
Looking back on it now though, The Bundys are supposed to be poor and often strapped for cash but they have their own, relatively large house and Al supports that plus two kids and a dog on retail wages. That's INSANE in a modern context.
I always wondered how it was possible. Any kid with their first job gets this perspective. Did he get paid commissions?
@@JamesKirkWilkinson he drove a car with over 700,000 miles on it and tied fishing string to his dollars at the nudey bar
@@cantgetright742 Personally, I would never go to a strip club with my father. There are just some things that a guy keeps within his own generation.
"I always realized Al was a loser but you really DID want them to do better."
I think one recurring trope was this: Al would think of some get-rich-quick scheme so he could finally become a success. He gets closer and closer to the dream ... only to see it all fall apart in the end. When it comes crashing down on him, he becomes the butt of a painful joke.
I think many people in real life had similar experiences, which was why we could relate to Al's frustrations. That was how we got emotionally invested in him, despite his flaws and shortcomings.
@@perfectsplit5515 they are like The Connors
The Home Improvement vid was so awesome. Super hyped for this. 👍
Edit: Just have to add that I had no idea one of the show's creators is black, they had women writers and directors, and didnt realize character's surnames related to pro wrestlers. I love all of these facts. 😄
I'm fascinated by the outraged that lingerie store episode caused - although, I guess I shouldn't be surprised!!
The episode has stuck with me, ten years after watching it on 4am syndication, because the episode ends with Al - after seeing all that sexy, exotic underwear - bringing home, like, eight bras identical to the dull but functional one that Peg loves. (Feel free to correct me if I'm mis-remembering.) It was such a simple and relatable scenario and for all the crassness of the Bundy family, this struck me as one of the best and most honest acts of love in a sitcom.
...That's it, that's the opinion - the one episode I remember for its heartfelt ending is apparently the most controversial. Media is fascinating.
I actually remember watching this one in the 90s and thinking - wow they can show something like that before 10pm, holy cow
The most ironic the about Terry Rilkota complaint was that while attempting to attack the show as anti family, in reality her own statement was that she realized her children were watching the show, and later that the nerwork chose to air it before 9 pm.
What this really means is the supposedly pro family complainer would have to be a mother and actually pay attention to what her children were doing, instead of using the tv as a babysitter !!
@Robt. Underrated comment. Last bit especially!!!!
Not only that but her complaining about the show had the opposite effect and just drew more eyeballs to it, who wanted to see what the fuss was about.
That is such a talented cat
That IS such a talented cat!
Holy crap that's a talented cat!
Performing under his own name
Fluffy went on to a stellar career onstage as the cat in "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" which was restructured as a cat focused narrative due to his obvious talent.
49:46
I remember Ted McGinley appeared in the finale of Batman: Brave and the Bold where he made a joke about how he always appears in shows late in their runs, and specifically mentions Married with Children.
Back when the old jump the shark website didn't suck they had an entire page dedicated to him
He was in those nerds movies, he was a jock and then became a nerd
@@tumadrexuxa I can't believe someone other than me has seen those movies (I've actually seen all 4 😂)
@@SarahElisabethJoyal Jefferson's arrival arguably coincided with Married...with Children going from being a very subversive show and a product of and riposte to Ronald Reagan's America to a farce. And as the writers began to run out of ideas, the show just got more and more cartoonish and bizarre.
@@TMC1982Part2 It's kinda ironic that McGinley has this reputation that whatever show he appeared in soon gets cancelled when Married with Children still lasted quite a while after he joined in, but come to think of it, yeah, he was to the show what Dick Sargent was to Bewitched
Watched the show every night when it was on with my mum and dad, I didn't catch every joke and reference but I have such fond memories of my parents always being in hysterics and it seemed to takeaway from the stresses of life for them.
The Bundy's really did bring family together.
Had to come back and forth to this video a few times though. The constant virtue signalling is tiring.
@@alZiiHardstylez boy, you said it. Pencil neck geek narrating is trying to make it out to be like something negative.
That deserves a WOAH BUNDY!
The quote from Al that this ended on is so true: he's not a loser, because despite how much his life sucks how many times the people around him told him he'd fail and even actually cheer for it....He kept pushing onward, he keeps going...
Notice if you watch other sitcoms of the time like The Cosby Show, Full House, Alf, etc. the laughter of the live studio audience whenever a joke is told sounds like they're laughing cuz they're suppose to find the bland sugarcoated humor funny.
But with Married With Children and their crude on the edge sense of humor, the audience sounds like they're legitimately having a good time laughing at something they've never expected to hear on a television show before.
When they hoop n Hollar and yell. That's not cause the clap n laugh light was on.
Exactly! MWC was genuinely funny in a way that the audience had never seen at that time and in a way that we don't ever really see anymore now.
Let's face it, Al Bundy is so much more relatable to the common person, whereas shows like Cosby, Family ties, and Growing pains ever would be. Another Fox show from the early 2000's Titus, was just as funny, and enjoyable.
The cast said sometimes they had to tell the audience to quiet down as it wasn't letting them complete the scenes.
25:11 Again, a moral panic stems from lazy parents letting the TV watch the kids and bring outraged over the things that unencumbered access TV allows the kids to watch.
25:04 "This episode happened to catch the eye of Terry Rakolta, a housewife in Michigan. The story goes that she had been *letting her children have free reign of the television* when she realised they were watching this particular episode of "Married ... With Children"."
Glad you introduced her that way.
Edit: Correction of spelling of the woman's name and of the formatting of this comment.
@Roh Hahn You don't say! Who could have seen *that* coming?!? Oh, the shock and surprise!
@Roh Hahn Trump dodging the draft is actually the only thing about him I don't completely despise. Although, him dodging the draft of course didn't mean that the US had one person less to help them terrorize a faraway corner of the world.
Thank you for creating such a wonderful review, this drama is one of my all-time favourite sitcom😂🤣😂🤣😂
Even more fun to learn that
-Terry Rakolta's husband, John, is DONALD TRUMP'S ambassador to the UAE (as of 2020) and is the uncle of the current Republican chairwoman Ronna (Romney) McDaniel
-Ed O'Neill pulled off two dads in two different cultural climates and TV shows (Modern Family)
-Michael G. Moye is Black (from watching this)
And yet Trump supporters claim to be against censorship?
@@Chris47629 Conservatives: it's only censorship when it disagrees with us and our agenda.
You're both confused. The Right wants to censor what you do (for example, they want to prevent you from being able to abort). The Left wants to censor what you say (for example, making a joke that someone who isn't gay might be gay is verboten).
It’s still censorship plus the people against this show were mostly right wingers
Ugh of course it becomes political, i believe censorship is bad, say what ever thing u want as long as it is not DOES NO incite crimes or violence. Comedy needs to be somewhat offensive, cant make fun of anyone. COMEDY is dead.
Why am I crying for a dog I never even met, dang you Jose.
Lol you are all soy boys, how old are the people who watch this channel you guys seem ancient
@@genghiskhan7006 You seem like a The Toughest Boy, I definitely respect you.
Barak Obama
What is your middle name
@@adeer87 I'm not going to date you.
Plushypony 94 we both know I cant spell it
I remember when I was about 7-8 I was really into Married with Children and now looking at the clips in the video I honestly have no idea why I was even allowed to watch it
Same!! And I now totally understand why my mom didn't want to watch it with me. 🙄
I'm the same age and my parents HATED this show at the time. there were times when she would run into the room to slam the "off" button on the TV. Now, she just handwaves it and thinks its all just dumb.
i was also not allowed to watch it. thankfully, other friends did not have such rules at their houses
Because my dad loved the show as well :D this and the simpsons where about the only shows we would watch together at the time
I was also watching this as a kid (maybe 10 yr old)... they were reruns and probably my first taste of "American culture". While I didn't think it was culturally relevant, I did find it extremely hilarious, though in retrospect I probably didn't get all the jokes (like Marcy at the dentist)
Growing up is realizing Bud has the BEST jokes!! David Faustino is underrated ❤
So . . . when's the Malcolm in the Middle video essay coming out?
Yes, please.
I would watch the shit outa that!
...life is unfair.
@@kallisto9166 Me: Malcolm in the Middle video essay?
Jose: You're not the boss of me now.
Me: Shit.
Panoptical Dreams I used to love watching that show with my teenage son!!
Married with Children is still my favorite "family sitcom" of all time. They weren't afraid with their insult humor and didn't pull punches in a time where every show wouldn't dare cross that edge line. So much respect for the cast and crew
It’s more reality than the sugar coated other shows that time. My family burns each other all the time. It’s funny! We definitely relate more to the Bundys than the Keatons
I feel like this show was "All In The Family" for the punk and grunge era. I grew up on it, because it was one of my mom's favorite shows, and she let me watch The Simpsons when I was younger. Al Bundy is an absolute icon (for better or worse), and you absolutely see remnants of Archie Bunker in him (I wonder if it's mere coincidence that they share initials....), though the Bundys are definitely played more for laughs. And it's incredible how well-timed this show happened to be, right when people were tired of visions of the perfect family unit that seemed so out of touch with the reality of most Americans (that same feeling of disenfranchisement is what allowed punk and grunge to flourish around the same time).
This, by the way, was a FANTASTIC retrospective. The work put into this is oh-so apparent and admirable, and I feel you really did justice to the characters, the impact, and both the successes and failures of the show. I watched the entire thing (which is hard for me to do for a feature-length anything), even pausing to get food and immediately coming back to it. To me, that's a sure sign of good content.
Punk was more late 70s - mid 80s, though I guess I get your meaning. We were tired of 80's sitcom families. I hated a lot of 80s sitcoms in general.
@CreepyBlackDude I highly recommend you check out the Married with Children Podcast right here on TH-cam if you want some great MWC content. Very fun show where they go over all the episodes (Coming back soon to do season 11, the final season) and they even scored interviews with people like Amanda Bearse, Michael G Moye, Harold Sylvester and a few of the lovely ladies that played friends of Kelly's and hot dates of Bud. They do a great job and you can tell they're such genuine huge fans of the show. I think they even do a better job than this retrospective when it comes to praising and analyzing the iconic status of the show without weighing it down with looking at things through a godawful current climate lens.
More the hair metal era LOL
_The Comic Strip Presents..., The Young Ones, Flodder (Dutch),_ comedy definitely leveled up in the eighties.
I will never forget the way Al saved us all when he scored 4 touchdowns in his senior year at Polk High...
No matter how many times I see the reruns of this show, I still laugh out loud. One of my favorite all time shows.
POV: you're an AP US History student in the 2050s trying to gather information for your DBQ about 80s culture
I hated the dbq
90's
"You've got a good man at home who any man would be proud to call his wife..
... you've obviously gotten over the whole he's a man, thing." 😆 those lines get me every time.
I was fortunate to experience this show when it started. Still love it to this day
His "not putting a gun in my mouth" speech is truely one of my favirite television moments.
oh, then you'd really enjoy American beauty
And then he took the sugar bowl.
@@benjamindover7399 , he didn't just take the sugar bowl. He dumped the sugar in her gas tank.
That quote at the end hit pretty hard. There's so many people in the world where something like that just rings true for them, winning is just getting through each day without suicide
Hearing you rap is without a doubt the best way I've ever seen someone avoid a copyright claim. 10/10, looking forward to the Jose mix tape
Also I did not expect this show, of all things, have a decent take on gay marriage, in at least one episode.
And huh, so this is what Leia was up to before she joined Planet Express.
My mom grew up with this show and was legit surprised that the actor who plays Al wasn't in comedy before this but then she thought about it and thought it made sense what made him funny was how humorless he was.
Humorless? How in the hell is Ed O'Neill humorless?
@@CoasterMan13Official I could have explained better let me rephrase, what makes Al funny is that he isn't trying to be and at the end of the day more than anything else he's just miserable and that's funny at least to me of course everyone has different interpretations.
@@xarenanotmyrealname4134You might be trying to say he played the "straight man" the traditional character for the comedy characters to play against
@@SamanthaBoooooooo Maybe? I don't know calling him the straight man doesn't feel quite right I mean at least in experience the straight man doesn't really act like him either. I'm not really trying to label anything though. 🤷♀️🙂
"They couldn't make a show like this nowadays for fear of offending people and PC culture."
*laughs in Always Sunny in Philadelphia*
Cable tv plays by different rules compared to broadcast. Just as like premium plays by different rules and so does streaming. Well, evidenced by Cuties, streaming has no rules.
Exactly! What I hate about folks who mythologize this era of television is the inflated sense of quality they have when it comes to shows like Married With Children. They complain that everything is too PC now, but this is obviously not true when you consider the existence of shows like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. The truth of the matter is the success of MwC was a fluke: it was created at a time when the bar for television was low, and, as José pointed out, on a network that was starved for content. PC culture has nothing to do with it- the creators were just never that good to begin with.
Yeah anytime I hear this shit I immediately am annoyed with the person saying it
The Eric Andre show lol
God, you can't even shout the N word at minorities on the street any more without being called a racist.
/s
It aged better than i expected, that's for sure.
Good writing eclipses age.
Fine I'll be the one to say it... Amanda Bearse talking about her fictional dentist appointment is really really hot.
You need the see the episode when the bank hires her to give bad news around the country.
They gave Marcy a good handful of times to give us a brief insight into how freaky she was.
This show is still funny as hell today, and when it's on, I tune in.
This whole episode was clearly just a trojan horse for José to launch his rapping gig.
18:20 but she WANTS it. That was a MAJOR plot point throughout the series with Peggy: she wants it 90% more than Al gives. To the point she breaks down and cooks, luring him to the bedroom with steaks and porkchops, before she questions whether her desires or laziness is greater (status quo meant the latter won). So, if Al charged in with a quick fix requiring zero effort (like wearing a wig), she's not going to complain.
oh my goodness, Peg actually knew how to cook!
As a lad barely out of elementary school at the time, I found Peggy Bundy and her cheetah pants more exciting than Pam Anderson at the time…and could never understand why all wasn’t motorboats her into a coma every other hour since she wanted so much sex.
This, i think this youtuber deliberately choices to ignore that fact that Peggy does indeed literally "begs for it" and "ask for it" and i do my literally with her own words.
Here’s hoping this video helps me come to understand my deep and troubling attraction to Al Bundy 🍺😔
Edit: I’m starting to piece it together and I’m not happy about it lol thank you for sharing all your hard work tho José ♥️
This is a woeful tale told in one comment.
Godspeed
@@EvilGuacamoleGaming Kind of reminds me of the time I realized that not every family normally watches and relates to Everybody Loves Raymond and the implications it had for my extended family's greater dynamic.
And yeah, Jose should, after resting following this, look into that show, too. It probably could make for a good supplemental to this and the Home Improvement vid.
Bruce Parker
YES! I used to watch Raymond so much
@@b.parker1740 the way you describe that sounds intriguing... I didn't really ever watch Raymond so I'd be interested in that
I member my mom telling me not to watch this show cause it was bad. I refused obviously 😂 she grew to love this show as well.
same here, years later we sat and watched it together, and cackled the whole time
Same lol
I got into this show as a teen girl & will still be watching it in my 40s.
They say if you tell a joke too many times it stops being funny.
But I never get sick of the reruns.
You got a shoutout on the Talking Simpsons podcast. That's how I found this video. Absolutely amazing work. I can't wait to watch more of your video retrospectives!
My entire family bonded over this show.
This show was an event in my household.
The show was named: "Eine schrecklich nette Familie"~"A terribly nice family", here in Germany. And I loved it.
The adapted german version, I've never even heard about before, so it seems that it didn't work so well as the original.
Im Vergleich mit dem Original auch gar nicht schlecht übersetzt damals. :)
"Eat mom's food" was one of Bud's greatest comebacks
😆
Just from seeing Al Bundy in the thumbnail of your video, the opening theme started playing in my head and I immediately started singing it out loud. I grew up watching Married With Children and it's still one of my top favorite sitcoms to watch. Two others being Roseanne, and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
loved, loved, loved this video. As problematic as it is, I loved Married With Children. It's my trash. I'm not proud of it, but it is what it is. I was younger and I didn't have much of the understanding that I have now. Now do Malcolm In The Middle.
@Redresseny Tangwhich!
@Redresseny that's the thing I've realized with older shows and movies they are enjoyable even if they are bad they have something that saves them like hilarious bad lines or hilarious bad acting for example Samurai Cop very low budget movie but the bad acting and bad lines saved it
@Lon Hixson how so? I think I saw what you mean. If it is that, I fixed it. If not, please point it out. Thanks.
Well that "trash" is still popular today because it's hilariously funny with GREAT actors playing iconic and hilarious characters. If you can't appreciate that then I feel sorry for you.
In the Netherlands we had 3 very successful movies and several TV seasons of an antisocial family, called the Flodder family, starting in 1986 (so around the same time as the Bundy’s). This family was actually far worse 😆
AMERICA
@@Puppy_Puppington a diff for sure
God bless you man. I watched like an episode of them in Turkey on national tv, but did not know their names. I thought this is like more chaotic married with children.
wasn't it more like Beverky Hillbillies, because the joke was that they moved into a rich neighborhood due to an ill thought out poitical initiative?
(or was that just one of the movies?)
@@juliamavroidi8601 No, that's the basic premise. Both shows are anti-PC and satires of contemporary society but imho they're also fundamentally different. The Flodders never cared about societal norms to begin with and live happy carefree lives thanks to a welfare state dialed up to 11. The Bundy's receive no government support and Al is probably too proud for that anyway because despite everything he still holds on to the American Dream. He'd rather beg for his dead-end job than take those COMMIE HAND-OUTS PAID FOR WITH HIS HARD-EARNED TAXMONEY DARNIT!
You can hear him say it lol!
I don't know about the Beverly Hillbillies but the Flodders became somewhat unintentional folk heroes because the posh snobs were usually at the receiving end of their antics. They were dysfunctional but they weren't hypocrite NIMBYs with fake morals.
I think that's part of the appeal of characters like the Bundy's and Flodders. They're unapologetically honest in who they are.
Psycho-dad loved it. First I heard Katie lost a child, my heart sincerely goes out to her. That show was funny but like them all, everything was the same. Been there seen that. But on its way to peaking it was funny and an enjoyable experience. Thank you to all involved in the production 🙏 🙌 ❤️ 💙
Wow. That Terry Rakolta
woman is almost a caricature of a Karen.
She's a trailblazer. She walked so that Karen could run.
she was fucking proto Karen. She was defeated by Gandalf and Galadriel before she could manifest. Chrono and his friends went back in time and killed her in her infancy after they witnessed the Karen-pocalypse.
Back in the day she would have been called a Tipper Gore
She's still alive so every time she sees a Karen go off on some employee for nothing she probably says to herself _"I did that"_ in a overly congratulatory way.
She had real complaints but none of those jokes are particularly "mind warping". I imagine the battery joke, which was the most racy would have went right over the boy's heads (I wouldn't have understood until probably 14). The breasts being shown? If those boys didn't know that men like pretty women and would be speechless by a pretty woman showing her breasts, well mom needed to have a special talk with her boys!
I only just learned that Katey Sagal who played Peggy ALSO played Leela in Futurama
And they even did an episode that was a full on “Married with Children” parody with Leela In a Peggy outfit
Man both these shows were the best.
.. How did you not recognize that voice though.
TheMrVengeance
I’m not very observant....
@@francinemcloughlin6096 Same
She's also married to the creator of Sons of Anarchy and played Charlie Hunam's mom in the show.
I didn't notice as a kid until my mom pointed it out by just hearing her voice. She legit went "AH PEG!!" like Al does as we watched the show even tho I wasn't supposed to as I was really young when it first aired. I can still remember when Fox would go literally off the air as it wasn't a big network yet so it had no money to stay on after like 12 or 1am, it's crazy how old it feels remembering that.
My Head Canon is the series takes place in the Robocop universe. With the over the top emphasis on consumerism and insane shows within the show, like Psycho Dad.
Makes sense apparently
They both satire the same culture and politics. So they have the same feel to them in some ways.
On my first day in Elite Dangerous, I came across an NPC named "Al Bundy". Probably the most memorable positive moment I had in this game.
Kind of sad you didn't include the alien 👽 episode. Al's dirty socks were the fuel of their spaceship.
I *loved* this show as a kid and remember watching the series finale. I definitely identified with Kelly as a space cadet. Being on the spectrum often leaves me confused and taking things way too literally.
What spectrum
@@decem_sagittae autism spectrum
When people say im on spectrum they mean im entitled bitch with shitty behaviour and you should be ok with that
@@decem_sagittae autism spectrum
@@notNajimi what's that?
Simply awesome how you grabbed the topic👍 I spent many years of my life living like Al Bundy, doing a job I hate, earning low wages, ripped off by my family, receiving more insults than love. It was good to know I wasn't alone.
What I special liked about the show was Al calling Kelly Pumpkin. And they always united, and became one, tuned to each other team, when they were targeted by an outsider. And they always win. They are so sweet in those moments
I loved how loyal they were to each other. Even as toxic as they are to each other, they still loved each other.
Greatly enjoyed the video and happy to see your growth over the last year.
Damn i did not Expect to see a Comment from You here :) Al is a Hero,Best Show ever.
Bro shut the hell up video game boy
Eyy it’s Viper 😏👉
@@steffen2165 Yikes
could you make a similar one about Unhappily Ever After
These comments need to remember that tons of offensive things still get aired and as long as it's actually done in a clever manner, nobody really tries to "cancel" them. Shows like it's always sunny, arrested development, and gilmore girls that are generally well received by the left all have humor that makes lgbtq part of the jokes and people generally don't mind. Granted, it's always sunny is satire but that just goes to show that if you can present this stuff in literally any context other than the joke just being "haha gay funny" then you don't get "canceled". It's literally just the laziness of punching down on groups that are always the butt of the joke just by existing that people take issue with.
Exactly. I consider myself pretty moderate, although definitely left leaning in regards to the things that people care/talk most about and I love all the shows you mentioned. What's most annoying to me is the people that say stupid shit and very clearly are being 100% serious and then try to escape the backlash by saying "it was just a joke" "blame PC culture" etc.
And maybe my biggest take on it - if you're gonna be offensive, at least be funny. That's why It's Always Sunny is so good. No matter where it goes or how offensive it is, it's always funny. When a lot of people try to tell their offensive jokes, they completely forget to actually be funny in the process. There's either no set-up or punchline for it. Offending just for offending's sake isn't inherently funny. There has to be some actual comedic element going into it.
But but but but-!
How am I, a 40 year old rich guy, supposed to survive in this world where I am required to put actual work and thought into my job??! How unfair! How unimaginable! Twitter is mad at me, and even though it hasn’t affected me in any perceivable way, I’m gonna victimize myself over it!
people certainly tried to "cancel" this show..
cancelled
You should totally cover "All in the Family", Al and Archie both being reactionary conservative working class fathers.
I was wondering if anyone would mention the "Archie Bunker Effect."
Carrol O'Connor was a die hard liberal and Archie was supposed to be an over the top satire. Someone so obviously wrong about everything that he should be mocked and shunned. But he was such a popular character that the message was lost to confirmation bias. Conservatives thought he was the hero. Liberals thought he was the villain.
Now that I think about it, I'm reminded of Poe's Law. It's impossible to tell if someone is satirizing an extreme viewpoint or actually believes it.
(Last tangent I promise.)
Why so many science advocates refuse to debate creationists. People watching default to their preexisting biases and by giving an extreme viewpoint a wider audience you risk elevating their narrative to be an opinion of equal value.
Sorry for rambling.
@@MrKyltpzyxm also, Ed ONeil is a Democrat as well. Still, many Conservatives thought Al was their hero.
MrKltpzyxm Another interesting fact is that carol o Connor was extremely well educated, went to oxford i believe.
@@SaintSteven67 Yet Ed also said his humor is similar to Al's so there's that lol. Ironically it's the more extreme left(and I'm not talking left leaning democrat types) that would try to get this show cancelled now rather than the extreme conservative right. Times have changed lol.
@@MrKyltpzyxm The thing though is that Al isn't a bigot like Archie is but both are similar because i believe Al is a descendant of Archie Bunker like most of the flawed but lovable tv characters we've had since All in the family: George Jefferson, Fred Sanford, Al Bundy, Eric Cartman, Mike Baxter etc. and many more all derived from Bunker.
I loved this show because it was realistic and not sugarcoated and made me appreciate my family so much more. 😂