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Married … with Children was a long running American sitcom about a dysfunctional family living in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. It ran on Fox from April 5, 1987 to May 5, 1997, and was created by Michael G. Moye and Ron Leavitt.

The show

The show depicted Al Bundy, a formerly glorious high school football player turned shoe salesman; his wife Peggy, a tartish, uneducated housewife known for her large red hairdo and tacky clothes; and their two children: Kelly, their attractive, but dumb and promiscuous daughter (she attended high school at the start of the series), and Bud, their dweebish, unpopular and girl-crazy son (he attended junior high school at the start of the series). Their neighbors were the upwardly-mobile Steve and Marcy Rhoades (Steve would later run out on Marcy and she would marry boytoy Jefferson D'Arcy after getting drunk one night). The show's theme song is Frank Sinatra's "Love and Marriage." The show has been in heavy syndication ever since its first run.

The show first aired in 1987 to very negative press. It was considered very low-brow comedy that centered entirely around toilet humor and sexual references. Critics noted that the characters were mainly one-dimensional parodies of actual people. Christina Applegate once remarked that the show was "a cartoon". Initial reviewers often likened the series to both All in the Family
(in that it depicted a dysfunctional, working class family) and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (in that it featured two couples, one older and more cynical, the other younger and more idealistic).

However, viewers quickly embraced the show because, despite its obvious shortcomings, it reflected a huge part of the populace that was not represented on American television. The concept of an unhappily married couple whose life was, essentially, a complete failure had never been explored. Suddenly people were confronted with an arguing and unhappy, trashy married couple and their underachieving, smart-mouthed children. (It's interesting to note that the role of Peg Bundy was originally offered to Roseanne, who turned it down only to do a show of her own about a struggling, realistic lower class family.)

What was important about the show, and what likely allowed it to survive for as long as it did, is that inevitably the characters would come out supporting and defending each other. No matter how much they bickered and claimed to despise their familial ties, when one of them was put into a tough situation, the others would come out fighting on their side.

Eventually the show's humor (as well as the cast's acting) improved in the eyes of critics, who began to actually praise the show for taking on issues like racism, women's rights and sexual promiscuity in a way that was accessible to just about any viewer. By the time the show ended every cast member was immediately recognizable to the public as their Married... with Children persona.

The series is remembered as one of Fox Network's first successful programs, and was one of only two shows to survive the network's troubled first season (the other being the critically acclaimed The Tracey Ullman Show, which ultimately spawned The Simpsons). It also established Fox's reputation as a low-brow network, an image it continues to alternately support and fight to this day.

The show runs in syndiction in Canada on the chanel CMT.

Remakes

The American Warner Brothers comedy Unhappily Ever After (1995-1999) has a similar setting, and was also created by Ron Leavitt.

Married... With Children is one of a handful of US comedies that have been remade for Britain (compare the much longer List of British TV shows remade for the American market). The show made no great impact, perhaps because of the questionable use of wholesome family comedian Russ Abbott in the lead role, or perhaps because the original had already been shown, albeit in a late-evening slot. The German sitcom "Hilfe, meine Familie spinnt" ("Help, my family is crazy") showing the family Strunk is a remake of 26 early episodes of "Married... with Children". The show first aired in 1992 and had twice as many viewers as the original show in Germany, but as the Bundys were aired in early evening and the Struncks in prime time, the remake didn't achieve the expected success.

In 2004, the Colombian TV network Caracol Televisión, with Columbia Pictures filial CPT Holdings, produced a 26-episode adaptation of Married... with Children, called Casados con hijos . It features the Rochas (the Colombian version of the Bundys) living in Bogotá with their neighbours, the Pachóns (the D'Arcys), using copied sets and situations from the original series, but adapted to Colombian urban environment. Broadcast at a weekend primetime slot, it has received mixed response. In Latin America, Married... with Children is still viewed through syndication on cable network Sony Entertainment Television.

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Married... with Children ]

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