Bundyology - A Documentary Related to Married... with Children

Tickled Pink (TV Documentary):
Transcript of MWC Related Statements
by Staff Writers and Amanda Bearse

Last update January 28, 1998

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As posted by StuartM at alt.tv.mwc on January 26, 1998.

Here follows a transcript of the "Married with Children" sections of the British Channel 4 documentary "Tickled Pink", an exploration of the sitcom world in the gay 1990s. The "Married with Children" inserts were recorded around March 1997, during production of season eleven.

NARRATOR:
"Married with Children" is the longest running sitcom in America. Enormously successful, the show is based on a family who basically hate on another. Christian McLaughlin is the only gay writer on the team.

McLAUGHLIN:
So I'm the only gay writer on the staff, that I know of, but the wrap party's coimng up - so there's an open bar, so who knows what might transpire? I was a little concerned about what the mix of personalities would be like. But from the first day, everyone is so irrelevant and hip and outrageous.

CUT TO SHOT OF A GOLF CART, WITH THE ENTIRE WRITING STAFF RIDING. SOMEONE YELLS OUT: On "Married with Children", we have nothing but the best transportation for our writers!"

McLAUGLIN:
Everyone immediately started teasing me a little bit, to my mind, show that they're comfortable about things. So it very quickly became another quirky element to this band of whackos we have working on the show.

CUT TO McLAUGLIN, WALKING THROUGH THE WRITER'S OFFICES. WE SEE STAFF MEMBERS AT THEIR COMPUTERS

McLAUGHLIN:
I think they're working on the last script of the season.

BEN MONTANIO:
Oh yes, it's a very rich, fulfilling process that's going on here.

VINCE CHEUNG:
Yeah, it's called a gang bang.

NARRATOR:
Like many sitcom writers, Christian has a writing partner, who happens to be straight and a woman.

VALERIE AHERN:
We offer two distinct perspectives with the female and the gay, and those are selling points when we sell ourselves to a show. Especially a show like this where pretty much the entire writing staff are straight, middle-aged men, except for the executive producer in this case. So we bring something unique.

McLAUGHLIN:
Everybody is treated badly on the show. In terms of all stereotypes - women and fat people, pretty much everybody gets the "Married with Children" treatment. I mean now, jokes about huge breasts seems to roll off of my tongue at the oddest times, and I'd never even thought about breasts that much before - not since "Charlie's Angels", which were the only plot points on that show. And now, I really can write those filthy, sexist, degrading jokes, and I'm very proud of having developed that skill, this year!

NARRATOR:
Amanda Bearse, who stars in "Married with Children", faced the nightmare of being outed when a tabloid newspaper got hold of the story.

BEARSE:
I kind of knew, as an actor, that problems come with success, and that when you are successful, your right to privacy sometimes falls by the wayside and people want to know more about you. And my being gay is a part of who I am - it's not all. I think that right now, I'm still the lesbian actress, and I think that it was my intention. Because by making that professional statement about who I am. You know, it's like "Hey America, here's one and you never even knew it!" I think it's ironic that Amanda bearse the actress is now known more as a director, and that the leabian handle becomes even more irrelevant, because my image is not a part of the work that I do.

(Interview interupted)

BEARSE:
Whoever you are, whatever you are, embrace that and bring it to the role. Because that is the truth about good work and acting - when people bring so much of themselves to the role that it's just more complete. It's still okay to be complete and whole with yourself as a gay person, when you step through the door to the audition.

(Interview interrupted)

BEARSE:
The hardest thing in my life, right now, is balancing my work with raising a child. And I don't think that it has anything to do with the fact that I'm gay. I think every working mother, or father, can have that in their life and it's a day-to-day thing. Parenting is a day-to-day thing and it's the hardest thing in my life and it's the hardest thing I've ever done.

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