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The show is about a chaotic white trash family, the Bundys.
They live in Chicago in disharmony. But they will always stay together, or as Al,
the father of the family, says: "Love, hate, look, we're a family, what's the difference?" (episode 501).
The plot is a parody on US family sitcoms of the mid-eighties, and so the working title
of the show was "Not The Cosbys". Main issues in Married... with Children are sex, failures,
indifference, parasitism and falseness. But the characters' lives go on, or as Al says: "Bundys are losers,
not quitters" (episode 708). Its characters are usually politically incorrect, and some of
them are more or less dumb. The show is so obnoxious that it never had really
famous guest stars. As a compensation, the producers hired many Playboy Playmates and other
beautiful women for small parts. During its 10 production years, the show changes
a lot, but the Bundy family always stays together. 
In 1989, Terry Rakolta of Bloomfield Hills (a suburb of Detroit, Michigan), started a fight
against the show as she objected to it as negative for families. She wrote to all the
sponsors of the series and took part in several talk shows to stop Married... with Children.
The show lost a few sponsors for a short time, but Rakolta's fight
made people curious about this series. The ratings improved and since
then the producers have sent a fruit basket to Rakolta every Christmas. However, a 1989
show called "I'll See You in Court" wasn't sold to Fox as it was too crass for them. It is
now known as "The Lost Show". Outside the US it was broadcasted many times as there
is actually no notable difference to other episodes, but the US premiere on FX didn't take place before June 18, 2002 -
13 years, 5 months and 12 days after the taping of the show. Unfortunately its world premiere is unknown.
Rakolta later became president of the organization
"Americans for Responsible Television". Another concession towards Fox is about the two-parter "I Want My Psycho Dad".
This episode was scheduled for early season eight (1993). It's about violence on TV which was a big
issue in US Congress and Government at that time, so it was moved to early season nine.
The show was Fox's first hit series. On November 27, 1988, Married... with Children became the first Fox
show to deliver a 10 rating and a 25 share, i.e. 10% of all American households and 25% of all American households
watching TV that time were watching the premiere of the episode
"Poke High" (304). With the season 6 premiere on September 8, 1991, it hit number one in the rankings with
29.2 million viewers and its highest share of 29, i.e. 29% of all running US TV sets were tuned to MwC.
In some areas - like Los Angeles or Washington D.C. - it was the top show of the week many times. From season
4 to 10, its time slot was Sunday at 9 pm.
In season 11, Fox switched the show to a Saturday night slot. Since Bundy fans do have lives, ratings became
worse, so the episode premieres were moved to Sunday pre-primetime. After problems with football overtimes it
was moved to Monday primetime. Meanwhile, there was hardly any advertising for the show, just as if Fox
didn't believe in MwC anymore.
All these factors made the ratings sink from 14 to 9 million viewers and the series disappeared
from the top 100 shows list. Another problem in season 11 was the fact that Columbia TriStar
couldn't produce severals episodes on time. After all this trouble, Fox didn't want to pay US$ 1.5 mio. per
episode for another season as the show already lost some viewers in season 10, and there would be more TV channels
on the air in the future. They decided that buying the show would be a risk as they couldn't be sure that they
would receive advertising revenues of the same amount as the purchasing costs. Fox decided on April 17, 1997,
to cancel the show. I don't know if Columbia TriStar offered the show to other networks or stations, but since
there was nobody to buy season 12, production of the show ended. Since Fox's decision took place after the last
season 11 taping, there is no actual final episode.
The live audience becomes a part of the show through the seasons. The laughters, applauses and awwws you hear
are real. There is no canned audience sound added. The first time an incoming character gets applause just for
entering is in "You Gotta Know when to Fold 'Em, Part 1" (416) for Al. It's the first episode without Steve as
a regular character. The record audience applause is for David Garrison's surprise entrance in "Get the Dodge
Out of Hell" (917), lasting over 20 seconds. David makes fun of that by looking at his watch.
The set of Married... with Children was also used for other shows.
For instance, Al's shoe store can be seen in an episode of the sitcom "One Day at A Time" when it's used as the
office of an air-travel agent. More details about the development of an episode at
Making of MwC.
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450+ episodes 435 episodes 369 episodes 336 episodes 274 episodes 274 episodes 269 episodes 264 episodes 259 episodes 255 episodes 255 episodes 255 episodes 254 episodes 253 episodes 251 episodes |
The Simpsons The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet My Three Sons Make Room for Daddy The Beverly Hillbillies The Donna Reed Show Cheers Frasier Married... with Children King of the Hill Happy Days Love Boat Bewitched The Jeffersons M*A*S*H |
20 years 14 years 12 years 11 years 9 years 8 years 11 years 11 years 10 years 13 years 10 years 9 years 8 years 10 years 11 years |
1989-2010 1952-1966 1960-1972 1953-1964 1962-1971 1958-1966 1982-1993 1993-2004 1987-1997 1997-2009 1974-1984 1977-1986 1964-1972 1975-1985 1972-1983 |
Fox ABC ABC/CBS CBS CBS ABC NBC NBC Fox Fox ABC ABC ABC CBS CBS |
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