Before he was part of a ‘modern family,’ Ed O’Neill was head of another family: the dysfunctional Bundys on Fox’s Married With Children.

Before the Bundys hit the airways on April 5, 1987, television’s idea of family was defined by families like The Brady Bunch. Dad went to work, mom stayed at home and the kids respected their parents. The Bundys were a new breed of family.

Al Bundy (Ed O’Neill) had once been a highschool football star. Now, he was a lowly shoe salesman selling women’s shoes. He hated his job and his life. Wife Peg (Katey Sagal) was a stay-at-home mom who spent her days sitting on the sofa watching television and eating bon-bons. No cooking or cleaning for her. But that didn’t stop her from complaining.  Al and Peg had two children, Kelly (Christina Applegate) and Bud (David Faustino) who often made disrespect remarks to their parents. The Bundys neighbors, Steve and Marcy Rhoades (David Garrison and Amanda Bearse) were a newly married couple who were the poplar opposite. Marcy later remarried Jefferson D’Arcy (Ted McKinley). 

The jokes on Married With Children were considered crude for its time. However, the show was funny. I loved the show. It was hilarious. Despite their “terms of endearments,” there was no doubt that Al and Peggy Bundy loved each other.

Married With Children ended it’s run on June 9, 1997.

Thanks Ed O’Neill, Katey Sagal, David Garrison, Amanda Bearse, Christina Applegate, David Faustino and Ted McKinley for showing us a different view of love and marriage.

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