Bundyology - Goofs on Married... with Children

Goofs

Last update May 13, 2010

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Some mistakes are plot irregularities, e.g. the original colour of the Dodge was mentioned in a contradictory way, and so were the years Kelly and Bud were born and the year Al & Peggy married as the show's chronology isn't realiable in general. On the other hand I included situations which almost made it to the bloopers reel. Also take a look at the Mysteries page where you can also read about "plot resets", "exaggerations", "cartoonism" and - of course - "mysteries".

In "Thinnergy" (0102), Peggy has to laugh when Al feeds her in bed.

In "But I Didn't Shoot the Deputy" (0104), during the funeral, Steve says: "Although he lived one year in dogs years, he lived seven in people's years..." This was mixed up, and should have been said: "Although he lived one year in people's years, he lived seven in dog's years..."

In "Johnny Be Gone" (0113), Bud had put the batteries into a radio to check the battery level. Later he gives the batteries back to his father to have them inserted into a remote control for a radio controlled model car. After Al has tested the car the radio sounds again - without batteries.

In "Buck Can Do It" (0201), during Al's dream sequence, while "Dream Buck" is standing in front of the door, you can see part of the insane killers already standing on the porch. Also, Steve is trying not to laugh after his line about "Mr Mike". A continuity inaccuracy: Steve is upset at Marcy for implying he is to have a vasectomy. Steve tells Marcy: "All you have to do is take a pill," which greatly upsets Marcy who is dead against the idea saying: "The pill could be dangerous." However, in "Have You Driven a Ford Lately?" (0105), after Kelly chases Bud upstairs for shaking tissues out of her bra, Steve asks Marcy: "You're still on the pill?" to which Marcy nods her head.

In "Poppy's by the Tree (Part 1)" (0202), when Al and Peggy are laying on the bed, you can see a hole in the sheet where the sword will come through.

In "Poppy's by the Tree (Part 2)" (0203), where the serial killer tries to attack Al with his axe, Al stops it with the suitcase and the axe handle very visibly bends.

In "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (Part 1)" (0206) you can see the studio lights several times on the "ceiling", e.g. at Troy's when Zorro picks up Marcy. Also, you can also see Marcy deliberatly take of her wedding ring before putting it down into Zorro's pants.

In "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun (Part 2)" (0207) Al says: "...whose underpants they were wedged in," they being a singular ring.

In "Born to Walk" (0208), there's a microphone at the "ceiling" when Kelly comes down the stairs in the last scene and Peggy is on the phone. Also, Buck apparently steps onto Al's crotch, but it's obvious he didn't.

In "Alley of the Dolls" (0209), near the end, Peg mentions to Al that after the spare made by the opposing team, he needs to get 23 pins. The scorecard shown a minute before Al's final turn is the scorecard of the Bundy team. If you look at the card carefully, Al has a strike in the 8th, followed by a spare in the ninth. Seeing as Al bowled a strike going into the 10th, that counts as 10 pins for his tenth frame and another 10 pins for sparing in the ninth (spares count as 10 pins, plus the amount you hit on your next roll). So Al's second strike was actually the game winner, regardless of what his 3rd roll was since they needed 23 pins and Al currently has 30.

In "The Razor's Edge" (0210), Al is amazed that Steve cooked and says that Peg told him the stove broke down weeks ago. Steve says that he repaired it, the cord was just cut. This would make the stove electric, but later on it is mentioned that it is a gas stove.

In "How Do You Spell Revenge?" (0211), The N on the Bundys' New Market Mall baseball jerseys and jackets are on backwards. Maybe this was done on purpose.

In "You Better Watch out" (0213), after Santa fell into the back yard and everybody is turning towards the camera, you can see Al still laughing. That's also mentioned on the Married... with Children Reunion special.

In "Build a Better Mousetrap" (0215), Al hits his left thumb with the hammer in his right hand. In the next scene Peg is sitting next to him bandaging his right thumb. His left thumb is bandaged too, which happened when he was baiting the mousetrap, which a right handed person would do with his right hand.

In "Peggy Loves Al - Yeah, Yeah, Yeah" (0217), when Mr. Rhoades comes in the front door, you can see a bush with leaves on it. In February there are no leaves on the trees in Chicago. Also, when Peg is waiting for Al leaving the bathroom to say that he loved her, she has one hand behind her, but when the camera switches, she has both hands in front of her.

In "A Period Piece" (0301), on the second morning at the cabin, the caption "Day two...6:52 AM" is shown. No more than three minutes later, Peggy says "Al...it is 7:30 in the morning!"

In "Her Cups Runneth over" (0306), the old guy in Francine's calls Al by the name of "Bundy". How was he supposed to know his name? It was obviously just a slip of the tongue by the actor, because according to the script he was supposed to call him "Buddy".

In "The Bald and the Beautiful" (0307), the DIRECTED BY credit actually says "DIRECTED BY DIRECTED BY JOHN SGUEGLIA".

In "I'll See You in Court" (0308), during the court scene, while Steve begins his opening case, the clock reads 12:27. Directly after Marcy's rather embarrassed look, the time changes on the same clock from 12:27 to 11:30. All of this in roughly a 4 second span.

In "The Gypsy Cried" (0309), you can see the microphone above Al and Peggy entering first class.

In "The House that Peg Lost" (0316), the Bundys look out of the front door to watch Steve and Marcy on their property. Actually the Rhoades live on the same side of the street.

In "Married... with Queen (Part 1)" (0317), there is a microphone that dips down above Peggy's head while she is at the table with Kelly and Bud in the beginning.

In "Dead Men Don't Do Aerobics" (0402), Jim Jupiter's sign is Saturn instead of Jupiter.

Until 0402 and from 0513 on, the Bundy's house number is 9764 (which is correct). In between it changed to 9674 without any reason, and in addition the opening credits from 0402 to 0415 show the same number for the Rhoades' house (which is actually 9766).

In "976-Shoe" (0408), the loan chart behind Steve's head at the bank reads $125,000 (tied with Swenson) before the hick signs the paper. After the hick signs the paper, when Steve goes to change the sign, it reads $150,000 ($25,000 more than swenson) before he makes the change.

In "Who'll Stop the Rain?" (0411), it's raining in the Bundy living room since the roof is leaking - in a two-story building [I've heard that this is possible, though]. Futhermore, when some characters enter from the pouring rain, they are never wet - even the umbrellas that some come in with are dry. Another goof: After Steve put that little "animal" onto Marcy's shoulder and Marcy starts to run around scared, for a moment you can see that "animal" (something white) on the floor at Steve's feet. One more: When Bud is talking to Kelly about his "TV Reception Adaptor Glasses", you can clearly see the studio lights on the lenses of Bud's sunglasses. And the last one: Before Al comes back into the bedroom after falling off the roof the first time, Peggy sets the alarm clock at 1:57 (with the alarm scheduled to go off at 2:00). However, the alarm sounds less than a minute later. How time flies!

In "It's a Bundyful Life (Part 1)" (0412), when Bud and Kelly start fighting over Al, Kelly turns towards Al and inadvertently puts her hand right on his private parts. You can then see Al react very quickly to this and Kelly then quickly removes her hand, not knowing where to put it next. Also, a boy enters the store with his mom who called him by the name of "Damon", but later on in the episode, when the boy is told to "say goodbye to Uncle Al", the boy's mothers calls him by the name of "Franklin". However, the mother also might have said "demon" instead of "Damon".

In "Rock and Roll Girl" (0414), when the Gutter Cats begin their song, you can see the actual MWC crew member waving to Cecil to signal for "the girl" and I think you can also see a camera. Another goof: in the beginning phase of the show listen to the sound when Kelly and Peggy step on Marcy's foot; she must have wooden feet.

In "You Gotta Know when to Hold 'Em (Part 1)" (0416), when Al puts his feet up on the table and asks what is wrong with the remote control (before he realizes the TV is gone), you can see the faint remains of "555" on his right shoe and "SHOE" on his left shoe. This is a left over from 408.

In "You Gotta Know when to Fold 'Em (Part 2)" (0417), during the match, Peggy, Marcy, Kelly and Bud are sitting at ringside and Al lets out a high pitched yell. Bud says "Hey, no fair, she's biting below the belt." Watch Kelly's face and you will see that she can hardly keep from laughing. She recovers in time to deliver her line though.

In "Raingirl" (0419), when Al sits on the sofa when he is dressed in his new high-priced suit, he is moving his sunglasses to his head but he looses them behind the sofa. The camera then switches to Kelly and then back to Al who is having his sunglasses back on his head. He is quick to get them from behind the sofa and place them on his head!

In "Peggy Turns 300" (0420), Peggy scores three more strikes after having made ten strikes in a row, but for a perfect game you only need twelve strikes. Also, at the end when Al is imagining watching himself on the talk show with Roy Firestone, he isn't holding a remote control. But in the shot of him from behind, he is holding one.

In "The Agony of DeFeet" (0422), 422- The Agony of DeFeet, when Kelly is watching Bud and Marcy, you can see a shadow on the wall behind her. It looks to be Ed O'Neill getting ready to come down the stairs.

In "The Unnatural" (0504), the end scene in Kankakee shows a large hill. Kankakee is an actual city in Illinois, about 50 miles south of downtown Chicago. Like the rest of most of Illinois, there are no hills. It's not a slag heap or a pile of mined limestone since it is forested.

In "Kelly Bounces Back" (0506), Kelly knocks over the lamp next to the couch. When the camera moves away, you can see the lamp laying down. Nobody of the other actors in the scene go near that lamp, but in a following shot, the lamp is standing on the table again.

In "Married... with Who?" (0512), while playing "charades", Al throws his hands in the air shouting "Right!" and a thump us heard - probably he hit the microphone. Also in this episode, when Marcy says to Al: "You're a cheat, a thief and a liar!," her flower-veil-arrangement around the bottom of her hair falls off. The next shot you see of her, after Al's line, the veil has magically reappeared.

In "Weenie Tot Lovers and Other Strangers" (0517), as Peg and Al are about to leave on their vacation, Bud tells them that they are ineligible because Kelly is now a Weenie Tot employee. Then he says: "... we'll be poor for the rest of our lives, choke on those Weenies." Bud is still saying the line, but in a split second you see him running up the stairs and he's not saying anything. He probably started busting up when he said that last line.

In "You Better Shop around (Part 1)" (0519), Peg shoots at Al's wading pool and we see a jet of water shooting across the screen. However, such a pool would only release air, not water. Also, when the Bundys must stop an angry mob from storming the house, Peggy has a line where she says to Al: "Well, Desert Fox..." But since the audience is cheering so loudly, Peggy repeats this line when the audience has died down. Finally, Peggy says to the clerk that they were shopping, putting a bag of chips into the cart. Al says that they were careful shoppers and asks Peg to read the ingredients on the bag of chips that she just put into the cart. But now they are on the lawn chair with her.

In "Cheese, Cues and Blood" (0604), Al tears open the front door in pursuit of Kelly and the pool hall. Through the front window you can see a duplicate front door in the garage. Also, Al punches Jefferson who lands on the pool table losing his hat. In the next shot Jefferson has his hat back on his head. Also, when Al picks up Jefferson from the pool table, to clean him off and apologize after he choked him, you see the orange ball next to the side rail. Next time you look at the table its all of a sudden gone and next to the end rail grouped with 2 other balls.

In "Kelly Does Hollywood (Part 2)" (0610), during Al and Kelly's scene before her rehearsal, look in the mirror to the side - you can clearly see the camera which is doing the filming as it follows the actors.

In "The Mystery of Skull Island" (0614), while playing "Ethical Dilemma", Peggy lands on a square which is "Sexual Intimacy". In a later scene, Al lands on the same square only this time is it called "Caring". You can also tell that the square says "caring" too.

In "Just Shoe It" (0615), when everybody is running out after the new toilet disc commercial, injured Al is alone with Buck who "accidentally" changes the channel from football to Steel Magnolias with the remote. Actually, when everybody's running out, there is no remote control on the couch, but when Buck jumps onto the couch it's suddenly there.

In "Dinner with Anthrax" (0619), an Anthrax band member knocks down a black trophy with his guitar as he swings it araound. A scene later that very trophy is back on the stand. Also, Peggy complains about the anniversary gift she just got and recalls that she got motor oil for their 15th anniversary. But it was in fact the 16th anniversary as in 103 ("Sixteen Years and what Do You Get"). Another thing: when you first see Antrax in the Bundy's living room, you can see snow through the glass door almost as high as that door. When Al and Peggy return from Florida, almost all snow is gone in just two or three days. It must have been a hell of a heatwave to melt that fast, causing a big flooding. And another goof: when Al has his final line ("What kind o' horrible sound ..."), look to left of the picture behind him and you can see a guitar sticking out of - a clean cut rectangular hole. That goes along with the following goof: when Anthrax are featuring their song you can see Scott Ian playing his Jackson guitar (maybe a Dinky) and Danny Spitz playing his Jackson Randy Rhoads model guitar; but when Al comes back to the house he's looking at a guitar that seems to be a Fender Stratocaster (or a Stratocaster knock off). Also, within that episode, you can see when the band is playing, they aren't playing in sync to the actual music. It's especially notable when Charlie Benante is wrecking his drum kit and you hear the drums playing perfectly regardless.

In "England Show (Part 1)" (0624), the people from Lower Uncton say that Al and Bud are the last male Bundys alive. But considering the high number of other male Bundys we meet in previous episodes this is highly doubtful despite the fact that we don't see any male Bundy on the show after episode 624. We should have heard of so many people passing away between episodes 0511 (where we can see several male Bundys) and 0624.

In "What I Did for Love" (0705), Peg and Al enter Hemphley's and Peg did not have a bag with her. Later on in the scene, she did.

In "Frat Chance" (0706), As Al pulls the car out of the garage, he returns to take a bowl of popcorn and drives off with it. Later Bud refers to his father taking chips and even mentions a dip.

In "Christmas" (0712), Al walks in and stands with his back to the closet door, marking his (shrinking) height against the door. In the scene he draws a straight line on the door, but as they cut tothe scene where he walks away from the door the line is suddenly at quite an angle.

In "Unalful Entry" (0720), when the burglar puts the watch back on Al's wrist, you can see Al moving his hand to help getting the watch back on.

In "The Proposition" (0726), there was a Lakeside Mall sign in front of Al's store by mistake. Al actually works at the New Market Mall. The Lake Side Mall was his mall's competition in 0213. By the way, the same sign was also used as an inside joke in 0712 where Al was a mall Santa, so Al had to work at the mall he hated in 0213. Also in 0726, when Coco eats cheese from Al's chin, Ed O'Neill is pissing himself with laughter.

In"No Chicken, No Check" (0806), when Al is showing Kelly pictures of the meat that Peggy bought, notice the way Al is holding the pictures when he is showing them to Kelly. When Kelly pushes Al out of the way, he is holding them in a different manner.

In "Take My Wife, Please" (0807), when Al is saying that "next to Christmas, Easter, Sunday through Monday, Halloween is the worst day of the year," he says "Sunday through Monday" instead of "Monday through Sunday" or "Sunday through Saturday" (depending on when he thinks the week starts). Also, Jefferson mentions that he is dressed like the Village People lead singer who is actually the policeman, not the leather guy.

In "NO MA'AM" (0809), Al slaps some other NO MA'AM member's cap into his face. The actor is holding his nose after that.

In "NO MA'AM" (0809), At the end, in the 10 second frame where the Bundy house is partially dark and empty, before the tumbleweed rolls in, if you look at the front door that was left open and look to the right of the doorway (top-right corner of the screen), you can clearly see a MwC crew member's head looking through the doorway waiting to be signaled to throw the tumbleweed through the door. You can also see the crew member's arm the second after the tumbleweed was thrown.

In "Sofa So Good" (0815), Bud is telling Kelly about his new scent "Simply Abe". He shows Kelly the $5 bill on a string around his neck, then tucks it back under his shirt. The camera cuts to Kelly, then back to Bud who is now wearing the $5 bill necklace on the OUTSIDE of his shirt.

In "How Green Was My Apple" (0816), Al cuts the D'Arcy's phone line. But when Al jacks up the house at night, Jefferson uses the telephone to call for the rocket launcher. The phone line could have been repaired by then, though. In addition, when Al backed out of his drive way, their were no Spikes on the ground. But when Al said he would drive through his yard, he went forward and the spikes popped his tires. The Spikes just magically appeared. Also, When the rocket launcher trashes the Bundy's house, you see their driveway, that however was destroyed in a previous scene. In fact, there is no sign at all of the explosion.

In "Get outta Dodge" (0817), when Al and Peggy are looking at the new car, you can see a mike above Al's head. Also, when Al turns on the Radio Shack clock radio in the garage, mysteriously music is playing even though that radio isn't on since since you can't see the clock digits which is necessary on this model to hear music. Furthermore, when the clock sounds the alarm, the clock is showing 6:00, but only a couple of seconds later the clock shows 6:01. How time flies!

In "Field of Screams" (0819), when Al is released from the goalpost, the chain is cut right near the post. But later in the news, you can see the chain dangling as if it'd been cut further along, closer to Al's wrist.

In "Assault and Batteries" (0824), Bud and Kelly find Buck's birth certificiate which has been there for ten years. The original Bundy couch burned down in 815, though.

In "Shoeway to Heaven" (0901), Jefferson gives a pair of shoes to Dominique, provided she mention Al's shoe store. Later when they run out of shoes, they hire the shoemaker. When Dominique is on television she falls because of a broken shoe she got from Jefferson. The shoemaker in the store comes in and says he sees that one of HIS shoes has failed.

In "Driving Mr. Boondy" (0902), when they are driving back from Milwaukee, Lake Michigan is on their right (i.e. on the viewer's left), which means they have to be driving NORTH (along Lake Shore Drive) because Milwaukee is north of Chicago which is on the West side of Lake Michigan. So they are actually shown going toward Milwaukee.

In "Sleepless in Chicago" (0908), Jefferson gives Marcy a Barbie doll and she says: "My parents never let me have a Barbie doll." In fact, in "Guys and Dolls" (0214), Steve sells Marcy's old Barbie doll. Also In that episode Marcy speaks about her childhood she spent with her Barbie dolls.

In "Kelly Takes a Shot" (0915), Amber tells Bud that "I thought you were different from other guys, I thought you were sensitive." Later on in the scene, Bud remembers Amber's words as "I thought you were special."

In "Something Larry this Way Comes" (0916), there is a big brown sign on the window of the shoe store which says "Sale". However, it's covering the Open/Close sign found in the lower right corner. How is anyone supposed to know that the store is open if the big brown sign covers it?

In "Ship Happens (Part 1)" (0919), just before the scene when Marcy jump on the steward and just after she kisses Al, we can see Jefferson's legs through the door's split since Ted McGinley is waiting for Amanda Bearse to leave.

In "And Bingo Was Her Game-O" (0921), the bingo announcer is yelling out N 33, but Peggy is clearly marking a "O" number and yells out bingo.

In "The Undergraduate" (0922), Kelly chuckles after Bud takes a photo through the window door. Also, when Al is cutting up some food, he has all of a sudden plenty of food in his mouth when he's saying "Are you never happy?" to Bud.

In "Shoeless Al" (0924), Bob Rooney's shirt is mis-spelled "Bobrooney". Actor E.E. Bell explained this spelling like that: "On the bowling episode my shirt did say "Bobrooney". The idea there was when we ordered the shirts, whoever was talking to the shirt maker said, 'Al, Griff, Ike, Bob Rooney.' and he heard it as Bobrooney."

In "Radio Free Trumaine" (0926), David Garrison is mis-credited as Steve "Rhodes" instead of "Rhoades" in the end credits.

In "A Shoe Room with a View" (1001), after Al falls to the floor due to being elecrocuted, he gets up and you can see the view of the garage behind him, as the door is still open from when Peg entered through it. Though you should see the garage contents, what you actually see is the back of the set.

In "Guess Who's Coming to Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner" (1002), during and after Peg's "alive marriage" speech, Ed is again trying not to laugh.

In "The Weaker Sex" (1006), at the very beginning of the episode, Al and Griff are racing shoes down boards. If you look at the boards closely you can see indentations in the middle of them - that's the track for the shows to follow so they don't fall off.

In "Blonde and Blonder" (1008) we can see that Marcy is holding a pelican that talks when she is talking to Peggy, Al and Jefferson. We see her from the front putting it in the box. In the next shot we see she's still holding it and puts it back in the box again.

In "Spring Break (Part 2)" (1018) the point on the map of Tennessee designated "Nashville" is actually the location of Knoxville; Nashville is located much further to the west.

In "The Two that Got away" (1011), later after Al "swallows" the picture, you can see it in his hand.

In "I Can't Believe It's Butter" (1012), when Griff leaves the Bundy house to head home, Al calls the sex line to talk to Butter who's upstairs. The upstairs phone ring is an old school "bell" ring. Later in the episode when Griff calls from the same phone Al did earlier, Peg is pretending to be Butter. The phone ring is now electric.

In "The Agony of the extra C" (1019), when Al and the No Maam gang have Bob Rooney passed out on the couch, they are seen to be trying to get the tattoo artist to make a letter C to fix Jefferson's tattoo. The camera soon after changes angles and you can see Bob Rooney clearly wearing underware, and the tattoo artist rubbing the needle over them.

In "The Joke's on Al" (1026), Griff is sentenced to death by electrocution, but in Illinois, death penalty is carried out by lethal injection.

In "The Stepford Peg" (1101), when Jefferson first enters, he locks the door behind him. Marcy enters a few minutes later in the same scene without unlocking the door.

In "Twisted" (1103), after Kelly's "personal possessions" you can see the microhone disappearing from over her while the camera is on Peg and her TV. Also, when Al goes to open the "secret exit" from the basement during the storm, the lights on the door go from red (locked) to green (open) before he's done pushing buttons on the panel.

In "Grime and Punishment" (1104), Marcy giggles after she throws the hammer at the moving nipples. Also, Al's drill bit is clearly flexing when he puts it in his ear. And in the same scene, you can hear the drill run but the bit is not turning. Also, Al and Peg go through Bud's baby book and it says there that Bud's first words were: "Bud need food, Bud want food, ouch," but in "Christmas" (0712,) when they show Bud as a baby his first words are: "Playboys, Hooters."

In "Crimes against Obesity" (1105), unconscious Bud grabs the hammer that Kelly puts into his hand.

In "Kelly's Gotta Habit" (1106), Jefferson - covered with cream - laughs while talking to Al.

In "The Juggs Have Left the Building" (1108), at the start of Peg and Kelly's song you can see all of the studio lights on the "ceiling".

In "T*R*A*S*H" (1114), the address "Addison and 23rd" mentioned twice doesn't exist. The writers went to the trouble to find out about Addison St., which is on the very north side of town and is the street Cubs (Baseball) Park is on, but if there is a 23rd St., it is on the South Side. In any case it would rin east-west like Addison, so they would never cross.

In "Damn Bundys" (1120), Al lands on the table and breaks it. In the very next episode Kelly gives Bud a massage on the same table.

In "The Desperate Half-Hour" (1123), Bud is smiling when Al tells about his remote control and when Peggy is running for the shot remote control. Also, Al said he had to buy a Bladder Buster to get a pair of 3D glasses, but later on in the episode, he has a pair of 3D glasses on his head... and another pair in his shirt pocket.

Please contact Bundyology if you know more goofs.

Thanks a lot to Alex De Rouck, "MrYankees1", Christian Köhler, "MWCFREAK", Fred L. Budreau, Daniel, John Abell, "tolivercrash", John Nelson, Nirv, Nitzan Gilkis, Jack Stunkel, Michael Tocci, "Mattmets", Lester Dalton, Loic, Gergely Bor, "Mad Mutt", Shawn Small, Rick & Jamie Burgin, Justin Roth, Martha Robles, No1goose, "Alex", Andrew Zeranick, "Buck", Joe Streppa, "Mike", Randy, Matt Williams, Eugene Johnson, Itai Podoler, Vanessa Romero, Cafeeine, Darren Turner, "M...w/ C" and Gregory Sorg.
Special thanks to "Marriedaniac", Don Willard and Sylvia Götting.

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