Bundyology - An Interview with David Faustino

Loaded (Magazine):
Interview with David Faustino

Last update February 23, 1998

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As posted by StuartM at alt.tv.mwc on February 19, 1998.

From LOADED

Issue 39 (July 1997)

WHAT IF AL WAS PRESIDENT?
Oh God. Al Bundy for President? We'd bomb the French, hah hah, I wasn't even going to say that. Oh I don't know man, we'd just eat great meals, we'd just have steak dinners every night, Bud would be trying to screw all the secretaries and Al would be having a ball. It could be a great thing for the country. I think the youth would love Al Bundy and they may listen to his word-whatever that might be.

WHAT DOES THE DOG SPEND THE MONEY AL GIVES HIM IN THE CREDITS ON?
The dog spends money on milkbones. And he got himself a new boyfriend, so we have a gay dog. You can take that back to London and tell everyone that the Bundys' dog is gay.

DO YOU THINK THE SHOW HAS BEEN SUCCESSFUL BECAUSE IT'S CLOSER TO REAL LIFE THAN PEOPLE WOULD LIKE TO THINK?
I don't know how close to real life it is. I think it's successful because it's the kind of show where you don't have to learn any lessons. It's just a half-hour of sit-down-and-laugh. There are no morals, there are no lessons to be learnt, it's just funny.

APART FROM THE TV AND MONEY, IS THERE ANYTHING THE FAMILY COULDN'T DO WITHOUT?
The Dodge. What could they do without the Dodge? That's their pride and joy.

WOULD YOU LIKE TO HAVE NEIGHBOURS LIKE THE BUNDYS IN REAL LIFE?
Yes, I think the Bundys would be cool neighbours to have. You can come in and out of their house. Even though they're goofy and wild. I could think of worse neighbours. You could have a grumpy old man or woman next door.

WHERE DID THE NAME BUNDY COME FROM? WAS IT TAKEN FROM THE SERIAL KILLER, TED BUNDY?
No, the name Bundy came from the wrestler, King Kong Bundy. He's a famous WWF wrestler who's a big bald bad guy, and he's been on the show twice now. The original creators of "Married with Children" were big wrestling fans.

HAVE THE BUNDYS BEEN LIKE A SECOND FAMILY?
Oh yeah, definitely. We've all been here for 11 years. Even some crew members are the same as day one. We behave like a family, sometimes we have our little arguments, but we get along well.

HAVE YOU HAD OTHER SPECIAL GUESTS?
Oh, we've had a lot of people. Sam Kinison the comedian played an angel-it was a take-off of "It's a Wonderful Life"-he comes back to see Al cos Al says 'Maybe I should never have been born.' In the movie, the angel shows how miserable life is without him, but in this show Peg comes in, everybody's happy, we all have food, Kelly's smart and she's a virgin, so it's pretty funny.

WHICH IS YOUR FAVOURITE EPISODE?
My favourite episode is still from the first season, eleven years ago (sic). Santa Claus is supposed to parachute into the mall where Al works. His parachute doesn't open and he ends up dead in the back yard.

WHAT WERE PEOPLE'S EXPECTATIONS WHEN THE SHOW STARTED?
I think people just thought, 'wow, this is a funny show!' When the show first came on it was - not to say it's not funny now - but back then it was more new and fresh and it was hysterical. It took two or three years until people really started understanding it and word of mouth got spread. Then, all of a sudden it was like, boom!

HAVE YOU HAD ANY CRITICISM FROM MORAL CRUSADERS?
Oh yeah, we've had a lot of people, but they've just been great for the show. It gives us more publicity. We had a lady named Teri Racolter [wrong spelling by the magazine, it's actually "Terry Rakolta"]. She was this lady in Michigan, who's some activist. Very rich, powerful, lot of money, have you heard of her? She caused this big scandal and that's when the show really took off forever. It really helped us out.

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