| Married... with Children | |
|---|---|
| Format | Sitcom |
| Created by | Michael G. Moye Ron Leavitt |
| Starring | Ed O'Neill Katey Sagal Christina Applegate David Faustino Amanda Bearse David Garrison Ted McGinley |
| Theme music composer | Sammy Cahn Jimmy Van Heusen |
| Opening theme | "Love and Marriage" Performed by Frank Sinatra |
| Ending theme | "Love and Marriage" (instrumental) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 11 |
| No. of episodes | 262 (including 3 specials) (List of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Michael G. Moye (1987–1992 and 1993–1994) Ron Leavitt (1987–1993) Katherine Green (1994–1995) Richard Gurman Kim Weiskopf (both; 1994–1996) Pamela Eells O'Connell (1996–1997) |
| Producer(s) | Barbara Blachut Cramer (1987–1992) John Maxwell Anderson (1992–1997) |
| Camera setup | Videotape; Multi-camera |
| Running time | 22 minutes |
| Production company(s) | Embassy Communications (1987-1988) ELP Communications (1988–1997) Columbia Pictures Television (1988–1997) |
| Distributor | Columbia Pictures Television (1991–1996) Columbia TriStar Television (1996–2002) Sony Pictures Television (2002–present) |
| Broadcast | |
| Original channel | Fox |
| Picture format | 480i (SDTV) |
| Original run | April 5, 1987 – June 9, 1997 |
| External links | |
| Website | |
Married... with Children is an American sitcom that aired for 11 seasons that featured a dysfunctional family living in Chicago, Illinois. The show, notable for being the first prime time television series to air on Fox, ran from April 5, 1987, to June 9, 1997. The series was created by Michael G. Moye and Ron Leavitt. The show was known for handling non-standard topics for the time period, which garnered the then-fledgling Fox network a standing among the Big Three television networks.
The series' 11-season, 262-episode run makes it the longest-lasting live-action sitcom on the Fox network. The show's famous theme song is "Love and Marriage" by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen, performed by Frank Sinatra from the 1955 television production Our Town.
The first season of the series was videotaped at ABC Television Center in Hollywood. From season two to season eight, the show was taped at Sunset Gower Studios in Hollywood and the remaining three seasons were taped at Sony Pictures Studios in Culver City. The series was produced by Embassy Communications on its first season and the remaining seasons by ELP Communications under the studio Columbia Pictures Television (and eventually Columbia TriStar Television).
In 2007, it was listed as one of Time Magazine's "100 Best TV Shows of All-TIME." [1]
Contents |
The show follows the lives of Al Bundy, a once-glorious high school football player (who scored four touchdowns in a single game for Polk High School) turned hard luck salesman of women's shoes; his tartish, obnoxious wife Peg; their attractive but dimwitted and promiscuous daughter Kelly; and Bud, their unpopular, girl crazy, oily but comparatively smart son (and the only Bundy who ever attended college). Their neighbors are the upwardly mobile Steve Rhoades and his wife Marcy, who later gets remarried to Jefferson D'Arcy, a white-collar criminal who becomes Marcy's "trophy husband" and Al's sidekick. Most storylines involve a scheming Al being foiled by his cartoonish dim wit and bad luck. His rivalry with and loathing for Marcy play a significant role in most episodes.
| Date | Time slot |
|---|---|
| April 1987 – October 1987 | Sunday, 8:00 p.m. |
| October 1987 – July 1989 | Sunday, 8:30 p.m. |
| July 1989 – August 1996 | Sunday, 9:00 p.m. |
| September 1996 – October 1996 | Saturday, 9:00 p.m. |
| November 1996 – June 1997 | Sunday, 7:30 p.m. |
Despite the show's enduring popularity and loyal fanbase, Married... with Children never was a true ratings winner. Part of the reason was the simple fact that Fox, being a new start-up network, did not have the affiliate base of the Big Three television networks, thus preventing the series from reaching the entire country. In an interview for a special commemorating the series' 20-year anniversary in 2007, Katey Sagal stated that part of the problem the series faced was that many areas of the country were only able to get Fox through low quality UHF channels well into the early 1990s while some areas of the country did not receive the new network at all.
Another problem lay in the fact that many of the newly developed series on Fox were unsuccessful, which kept the network from building a popular lineup to draw in a larger audience. In its original airing debut, Married... with Children was part of a Sunday lineup which competed with the popular Murder, She Wrote and Sunday night movie on CBS. Fellow freshman series included The Garry Shandling Show, Duet, and The Tracey Ullman Show, all of which were canceled in 1988, 1989, and 1990 respectively. The success of The Simpsons, which debuted on The Tracey Ullman Show in 1987, helped draw some viewers over to Fox allowing Married... with Children to sneak into the Top 50 of television shows for seasons four through eight doing its best overall rating at number 29 for its sixth season. Although these ratings were small in comparison to the other three networks, they were good enough for Fox to keep renewing the show.
Ratings data for some seasons courtesy of TVTango.com.
In 1989, Terry Rakolta, a housewife from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, led a boycott[4] against Married... with Children after viewing the episode Her Cups Runneth Over – 0306.[5] Offended by the images of an old man wearing a woman's garter and stockings, the scene where Steve touches the panties of a mannequin dressed in S&M gear, a homosexual man wearing a tiara on his head (and Al's line "...and they wonder why we call them 'queens'"), and a half-nude woman who takes off her bra in front of Al (and is shown with her arms covering her bare chest in the next shot), Rakolta began a letter-writing campaign to advertisers, demanding they boycott the show.
After advertisers began dropping their support for the show and while Rakolta made several appearances on television talk shows demanding the show's cancellation, Fox executives refused to air the episode titled I'll See You In Court – 0310.[6] This episode would become known as the "Lost Episode" and was aired on Fox on June 18, 2002, with some parts cut. The episode was packaged with the rest of the third season in the January 2005 DVD release (and in the first volume of the Married...With Children Most Outrageous episode DVD set) with the parts cut from syndication restored.
Rakolta has been referenced twice on the show: Rock and Roll Girl – 0414,[7] when a newscaster mentioned the city Bloomfield Hills, and No Pot To Pease In – 0909,[8] when a television show was made about the Bundy family and then was canceled because (according to Marcy) "some woman in Michigan didn't like it".
Sony Pictures Home Entertainment has released all eleven seasons of Married... with Children on DVD in Regions 1, 2, & 4. On December 12, 2010, Sony released a complete series set on DVD in Region 1.[9]
| DVD Name | Ep # | Release dates | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Region 1 | Region 2 | Region 4 | ||
| The Complete First Season | 13 | October 28, 2003[10] | April 7, 2004 | October 25, 2005[11] |
| The Complete Second Season | 22 | March 16, 2004[12] | October 26, 2004 | September 22, 2008[13] |
| The Complete Third Season | 22 | January 25, 2005[14] | February 10, 2005 | September 22, 2008[15] |
| The Complete Fourth Season | 23 | August 30, 2005[16] | December 22, 2005 | September 22, 2008[17] |
| The Complete Fifth Season | 25 | June 20, 2006[18] | June 27, 2006 | September 22, 2008[19] |
| The Complete Sixth Season | 26 | December 19, 2006[20] | August 17, 2006 | September 22, 2008[21] |
| The Complete Seventh Season | 26 | September 18, 2007[22] | October 5, 2006 | September 22, 2008[23] |
| The Complete Eighth Season | 26 | March 18, 2008[24] | December 19, 2006 | October 22, 2008[25] |
| The Complete Ninth Season | 26 | August 19, 2008[26] | February 20, 2007 | October 22, 2008[27] |
| The Complete Tenth Season | 27 | March 17, 2009[28] | March 20, 2007 | March 11, 2009[29] |
| The Complete Eleventh Season | 24 | October 13, 2009[30] | May 8, 2007 | March 11, 2009[31] |
DVD Special Features:
Season 1: Married With Children Reunion Special Season 2: Clips From The Married With Children Reunion Special Season 3: Clips From The Married With Children Reunion Special Season 4: None Season 5: Trailers for other TV Shows Season 6: Trailers for other TV Shows Season 7: None Season 8: None Season 9: None Season 10: None Season 11: Trailers for other TV Shows
(Note: The Big Bundy Box set only Special Featueres is interviews with Bud and Peggy)
The DVD box sets from Season 3 onward do not feature the original "Love and Marriage" theme song in the opening sequence. This was done because Sony was unable to obtain the rights to the theme song. It is highly unlikely that the theme song will return in any yet to be released DVD box set.[32]
In the German speaking countries (Germany, Austria, Switzerland) all seasons have already been released (region 2). In December 2007 the Big Bundy Box—a special collection box with all seasons plus new interviews with Sagal and David Faustino—was released.[33] This boxset was released in Australia (Region 4) on November 23, 2009.[34]
The DVD box set is rated PG for Parental Guidance in Australia and PG in New Zealand for sexual references.
An Argentine remake was made in 2005, called Casados con Hijos. The success of the series trascended the borders of Argentina, being also issued by local channels in Uruguay, Paraguay and Peru.
In Armenia a remake made in 2009, with the name Բնակարան N2 (Bnakaran N2) (Apartment #2).[35]
In Germany, the 1992 remake "Hilfe, meine Familie spinnt ", broadcast in the prime time, reached double the audience than the original (broadcast in the early fringe time). This, however, was not enough to maintain the series, so it was cancelled after one season.[36] The remake used the exact translated scripts of the original series (which already substituted localised humour and in-jokes for incomprehensible references to American TV shows not shown in Germany, as well as some totally different jokes) and just renamed place and person names according to the new setting.[37]
Hilfe, meine Familie spinnt was aired from March to December 1993 for 26 episodes.[38]
In 2006, Hungarian TV network TV2 purchased the license rights including scripts and hired the original producers from Sony Pictures for a remake show placed in Hungarian environment. It was entitled Egy rém rendes család Budapesten[39] (in English: Married with children in Budapest, loan translation: A gruesomely decent family in Budapest). The main story began with the new family called the Bándis inherit an outskirt house from their American relatives the Bundys. They filmed a whole season of 26 episodes, all of them being remade versions of the plots of the original first seasons. It was the highest budget sitcom ever made in Hungary. First it was aired on Tuesday nights, but was beaten by a new season of ER, then placed to Wednesday nights. The remake lost its viewers, but stayed on the air due to the contract between Sony and TV2.[40][41][42]
The Original Married... With Children ran on DTV for almost three years, on a daily basis, broadcasting the episodes from seasons 1–10. The show later aired on Domashniy TV. However, for unknown reasons, most episodes from season 11 were not shown. A Russian adaptation, titled Счастливы вместе (Sсhastlivy Vmeste) (Happy Together), is now airing on TNT channel across the country.[43][44]
The character names are: Gena Bukin (based on Al, played by Viktor Loginov), Dasha Bukina (based on Peggy, played by Natalya Bochkareva), Sveta Bukina (based on Kelly, played by Darya Sagalova), Roma Bukin (based on Bud, played by Aleksandr Yakin), Elena and Anatoliy Poleno (based on Marcy and Jefferson D'Arcy, played by Yulia Zaharova and Pavel Savinkov), Evgeniy Stepanov (based on Steve Rhoades, played by Aleksey Sekirin), Sema Bukin (based on Seven, played by Ilya Butkovskiy), Baron Bukin (based on Buck and Lucky, played by Bayra).[45]
Instead of living in a house, the Bukins live in an apartment on the top floor of a small building, and the Stepanovs/Polenos live in the apartment in front of theirs. Prior to the series' beginning, the Bukins could buy off a part of the building's attic for extra rooms, so apart from the lack of a cellar, the lack of a backdoor, a garage in a separate building instead of being adjacent to the house, and a balcony used instead of the yard, the layout of Bukins' flat looks like the Bundys' house. The apartment is in a mess from some fixes in the house which were never finished, and in the show's early episodes an unfortunately placed construction site outside allowed people (and Baron, the family dog) to go in and out the Bukins' apartment by the balcony.
As a major change, instead of disappearing like Seven after a few episodes, Sema stays with the Bukins until the end of the series, and the often bizarre explanations for his absence from events the whole family should attend became a running gag. Also, the family dog Baron doesn't die and reincarnate, he remains the same until the end of the series. The episode Requiem For The Dead Briard was however adapted, with Baron being sold to a rich person by Sema instead of dying.
In April 2008, the producers announced all episodes of Married... With Children have been adapted as Schastlivy Vmeste (including all the episodes from the seldom seen 11th season) and an online contest was started where fans could submit new ideas for episodes.[46] Starting from the 31 December 2009, the show resumed its run with an initial order of 60 new episodes, the order might be doubled based on the viewers' response.[47] According to the episodes' opening credits, some of the new episodes are co-written by original Married... With Children writers, mostly Richard Gurman and Katherine Green.
In 1996, the UK production company Carlton Television produced Married For Life a seven part sitcom that lasted one series. The Bundy's were renamed as the Butler's, Russ Abbott played Ted/Al, Susan Kydd was Pam/Peggy, Lucy Blakely played Lucy/Kelly and Peter England was Lee/Bud. The D'Arcy's were renamed Hollingsworth and the Steve character was recast with Hugh Bonneville and Marcy was renamed Judy and played by Julie Dawn Cole. The series featured an early performance from Rob Brydon
Episode List 1. For Whom The Bell Tolls (5 Mar) 2. If I Were A Rich Man (12 Mar) 3. Sixteen Years And What Do You Get? (19 Mar) 4. Where's The Boss? (26 Mar) 5. Whose Room Is It Anyway? (2 Apr) 6. My Mum, The Mum (9 Apr) 7. Eating Out (16 Apr)
The series ran on Fox for its eleven year run but it has also appeared in syndication reruns on other channels.
Married... with Children originally debuted in off-network syndication distributed by Columbia Pictures Television (now Sony Pictures Television) starting in the fall of 1991. The series later began airing on cable on FX from September 1998 until 2007. In June 2002, FX became the first television network to air the controversial, previously banned episode "I'll See You in Court", albeit in an edited format. The fully uncensored version of "I'll See You in Court" can only be seen on the DVD release Married... with Children: The Most Outrageous Episodes Volume 1. The version found on the Third Season DVD set is edited. In 2008, the Spike network reportedly paid US$12 million for broadcast rights to every episode including the unedited version of the infamous episode, "I'll See You in Court".[49]
The series started airing on Spike TV on September 29, 2008 with a weeklong marathon. TBS also began airing the show shortly after, acquiring the show in fall 2008 to run in the early morning hours, it currently runs for two to three hours on TBS during the early morning hours (depending on the length of overnight programming). TV Land picked up the rights to broadcast the show from its MTV Networks sister Spike in August 2009. Comedy Central began airing the show on February 8, 2010; Comedy Central acquired rights to air the series from TV Land, who in turn, had earlier acquired the rights to the series from Spike, though Comedy Central dropped the rights to the series in April 2010. Spike picked up the rights to series again, and began airing the series for the second time on July 10, 2010, airing on weekend mornings only.[50] All three cable channels are owned by Viacom.[51] The comedy begain aring on Nick at Nite on July 6, 2011.[52]
All episodes from seasons six and seven along with some episodes from season five and eight are available to view for free on Sony owned Crackle, along with several Minisodes.
Married...with Children has also been a ratings success in other countries around the world.
| Country | Foreign title | Translation | Network(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Australia | Married...with Children | None | Network Ten Nine Network GO! TV1 |
Reruns of the show run four times during week at 10pm and three episodes are shown from 9am Sunday on the cable network TV1. Original episodes aired on the Ten Network and later on the Nine Network. (Ten aired the show as a filler late weeknights before it was picked up by Nine and put into its Primetime schedule.) DVD episodes (omitting the original theme music) currently (August 2011) air on GO! |
| Argentina | Married... with Children | Subtitled | Sony Entertainment Television | |
| Austria | Eine schrecklich nette Familie (An Awfully Nice Family) |
Dubbed | ORF | |
| Belgium | Married...with Children | Subtitled | Eén Ketnet VTM VT4 2BE |
Currently not airing.previously been aired on the public networks Eén and Ketnet and the commercial networks VTM and VT4, 2BE. |
| Brazil | Um amor de Família (A Lovely Family) |
Dubbed Subtitled |
Sony Entertainment Television PlayTV |
Has been running (on and off) since 1991 on different national channels. Today the show runs on Sony Entertainment Television with original sound and subtitles, the dubbed version runs on PlayTV. |
| Bulgaria | Женени с деца (Married with Children) |
Dubbed | bTV Fox life Diema |
Currently airing on bTV Comedy. |
| Canada | Married...with Children | CMT Global Spike TVtropolis YTV |
Currently broadcasting on Spike. | |
| Chile | Casado con hijos | Subtitled | Sony Entertainment Television | Today the show runs on Sony Entertainment Television and it was aired on Mega, a national channel. |
| Colombia | Casado con hijos | Subtitled | Sony Entertainment Television | It originally ran on Cadena Uno and on Canal A, later it began to air again on Teleantioquia. |
| Croatia | Bračne vode (Marriage Waters) |
Subtitled | HRT RTL Televizija Nova TV Fox Life |
The show runs on Nova TV and Fox Life. It was originally aired on Croatian Radiotelevision (HRT) in late 1990s. |
| Czech Republic | Ženatý se závazky (Married with Liabilities) |
Dubbed | TV Nova TV Prima |
The family name is "Bunda," which means "coat" in Czech. The show was first aired on TV Nova and then reran on Prima TV several times. |
| Denmark | Vore værste år (Our Worst Years) |
Subtitled | TV3 | |
| Dominican Republic | Casado con Hijos (Married with Children) |
Dubbed | Telesistema 11 | |
| Estonia | Tuvikesed (Lovebirds) |
Subtitled | Kanal 2 | Broadcast after midnight on Kanal 2 |
| Finland | Pulmuset (Loveydoves) |
Subtitled | MTV3 Nelonen |
Originally shown by MTV3, currently being rerun on Nelonen. |
| France | Mariés, deux enfants (Married, Two Children) |
Dubbed | M6 Comédie! |
The show has been seen on M6 since 1989. It also runs on the cable channel Comédie! since 2002. |
| Germany | Eine schrecklich nette Familie (An Awfully Nice Family) |
Dubbed | RTL ProSieben Kabel1 Comedy Central |
It first ran from 1992 on RTL ("RTLplus" at that time), moving to ProSieben for the final 51 episodes, ending in 1997. It currently airs two episodes a day Monday-Friday on Kabel1.[53] The show runs in a constant loop. It runs Season 1–11 and then starts all over again. |
| Greece | Παντρεμένοι με παιδιά (Married with Children) |
Subtitled | ANT1 Mega Channel Makedonia TV |
Has been on and off the air in ANT1 channel from the nineties onwards, while Mega Channel provided the last 2 seasons never played from ANT1. The show has seen many reruns, currently airing from Macedonia TV for the 4th time on that channel. |
| Hungary | Egy rém rendes család (A gruesomely decent family) |
Dubbed | TV3 RTL Klub Viasat 3 CoolTV |
The show has ventured from channel to channel over the years, from the now-defunct TV3 through RTL Klub to Viasat 3, where it is occasionally repeated. A cable television called CoolTV airs 3 episodes and PrizmaTV 2 episodes each day. |
| Israel | נשואים פלוס (Married Plus) |
Subtitled | Yes Comedy | It is currently on the air, on satellite yes, Channel yes comedy. Since 2006 the show can be seen on HOT cable television, in the channel Bip, channel 6. A shoe store in Herzliya named itself Bundy Shoes (though the shop in the series is Gary's). In the past the show was shown on Channel 2, Channel 3 and Channel 6. An Israeli made Russian language version is currently being produced and can be seen on channel 9. |
| Italy | Sposati ... Con Figli (Married ... With Children) |
Dubbed | FX | It is currently on the air, on satellite Sky, Channel FX. |
| Kazakhstan | Счастливы вместе (Happy Together) |
NTK | The Russian remake of the show, Счастливы вместе, is currently being shown on NTK (Independent Television Channel) every weekday night from 8:00–9:00. | |
| Lithuania | Vedęs ir turi vaikų (Married and has children) |
Voice-over | TV3 TV6 Lithuania |
The show periodically runs on TV3 and TV6 Lithuania. |
| Mexico | Married...with Children | Sony Entertainment Television TV Azteca |
Runs on Sony Entertainment Television and ran on and off on TV Azteca. | |
| Netherlands | Married...with Children | Subtitled | Veronica RTL7 Comedy Central |
Originally aired on Veronica, RTL7. The show is currently being broadcast on Comedy Central. |
| New Zealand | Married...with Children | None | TV2 Sky TV |
Ran for many years on TV2, now on Sky TV. |
| Norway | Bundy (Bundy) |
Subtitled | TV3 Viasat 4 |
The show is called Bundy and is currently in reruns after midnight every day except weekends on TV3. Is also shown daily on Viasat 4. |
| Peru | Matrimonio con Hijos (Marriage with Children) |
TV 13 – RED GLOBAL Sony Entertainment Television |
The show runs on TV 13 – RED GLOBAL from Monday to Friday at 8:00 p.m. | |
| Poland | Świat według Bundych (The World According to Bundys) |
Voice-over | Polsat | The show was aired many times on Polsat, and it is still on air there today. |
| Romania | Familia Bundy (The Bundy Family) |
Subtitled | PRO TV PRO Cinema Antena 1 Antena 2 |
As of November 2009, it runs weekly, from Monday to Friday on Antena 1. |
| Serbia | Брачне воде / Bračne vode (Marriage Waters) |
Subtitled Dubbed (Season 1) |
Fox televizija Fox Life |
The show airs on Fox Life, all seasons with subtitles only. |
| Singapore | Married with Children | None | Star World | Married with Children is currently on air every Monday to Friday during the minisodes. |
| Slovenia | Družina za umret (Family to die for) |
Subtitled | Kanal A | The show was first aired in the early 1990s and it has been repeated numerous times every year. |
| Slovakia | Married...with Children | Dubbed | TV Markíza | The show is being run with the Czech dubbing on TV Markíza. |
| South Africa | Married...with Children | M-Net | The original series ran on the pay channel, M-Net. | |
| Spain | Matrimonio con hijos (Marriage with Children) |
Dubbed | TVE2 Canal 300 SET en VEO |
The original series were a classic that ran for a decade in the public national channel TVE2. Recently the Spanish TV channel Cuatro did a remake of the original series under the name Matrimonio con Hijos.[54] In Catalonia, the show is currently running on the DTT channels Canal 300 and Sony Entertainment Television en VEO. |
| Sweden | Våra värsta år (Our Worst Years) |
Subtitled | TV3 ZTV TV6 |
The show has been running repeatedly on the Kinnevik-owned channels TV3 and ZTV since the start of the show and with repeated reruns. After several years off the air, it returned in 2006 as a part of TV6's launch schedule. |
| Turkey | Evli ve Çocuklu (Married...with Children) |
Star TV aTV CNBC-e |
Currently on e2 in 2000s (decade). | |
| Ukraine | Щасливі разом (Happy Together) |
Novij Kanal STB |
The Russian remake of the show, Счастливы вместе, is currently being shown on Novij Kanal (New Channel) every weekday night from 9:30–10:30. | |
| United Kingdom | Married...with Children | None | ITV Sky One |
Seasons One to Six were originally screened on ITV regions in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The series was dropped when ITV remade selected episodes for a 1996 series called Married For Life. The series then moved to Sky One and remained on there until the last episode. |
| Uruguay | Matrimonio con hijos (Marriage with children) |
Dubbed | Canal 12 | |
| Latvia | Precējies, ir bērni | Dubbed | TV3 TV6 (Latvia) |
(EVERY DAY.) |
| Venezuela | Casado... con Hijos (Married...with Children) |
Venevision, Sony |
The opening footage comprises views of Chicago, opening with a shot of Buckingham Fountain in Grant Park. The aerial downtown shot was taken from the Lake Shore Drive section north of the Loop. The expressway entrance shot was taken from the 1983 movie National Lampoon's Vacation featuring the Griswolds' green family truckster. Both the downtown view and the highway entrance shot were omitted from Season 4 onwards, but the remaining fountain shot included an "In Stereo Where Available" note. Non-English versions might differ, e.g. the dubbed German version always includes the expressway shot.[55] The house exterior seen in the opening sequence is located on Castlewood Lane, Deerfield, IL.
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