Married with Children was originally just a 30-minute gap to fill time because they couldn’t find anything or anybody else as the Fox Network was viewed as a joke. The executives programming Fox’s first Sunday lineup felt the same and they figured all these other programs were the winners to give the Big Three concern: 21 Jump Street, The Tracey Ullman Show, Mr. President and Duet.
The first one to bite it was Mr. President made by Johnny Carson’s production company and starred George C. Scott, yawn. Canned after its second season. Duet had a worse fate. The starring couple were so sickening and unlikable, their show was repurposed into Open House for a fourth season and starred the supporting characters who were funny. Tracey survived until the star chose to pull the plug after four seasons as the network’s president dithered every Spring on its renewal. We all know what it gave birth to. Lastly, Jump hung in there the longest with its final season in 1991 being syndicated. It probably fell apart quickly when breakout star Johnny Depp left to pursue his infamous film career.
Married on the other hand was daring while the others were just what everybody else was rehashing. Created by a pair of former writers from The Jeffersons, the show was the opposite of what were typical SitCom families: they were miserable, they disliked each other, they had money problems, their house was a dump, they rarely got a break, the patriarch had a pitiful job managing a shoe store, etc. This wasn’t terribly new but Fox was willing to gamble on anything to get eyeballs which translated into ratings gold via the next morning’s Nielsen ratings. It was crass, it was vulgar and oddly, Married was actually funny. By the second season, I made efforts to catch it on Sunday nights alongside Star Trek: The Next Generation. Not an easy task in college due to all the other things grabbing your attention, when I should’ve been studying harder.
What made the show incredible was its longevity. Until The Simpsons circa 2001 or 2002, it became the longest running prime time SitCom Fox ever had (11 seasons) and remains their champion for a live-action SitCom. Plus Married survived the one actor known as the patron saint of shark jumping…Ted McGinley! To be fair, I like him and he’s done great stuff, namely the villain Stan Gable in Revenge of the Nerds. However, poor Ted had the misfortune of being added to well-loved shows when they got too long in the tooth: Happy Days, Love Boat and Dynasty. Even I thought it was over when he replaced Marcy’s first husband. Thankfully, his bad-luck streak ended as Married continued with him for six-to-seven more seasons, a fact he brought up when he was Aquaman’s temporary voice on Batman: The Brave and the Bold.
Thirty-five years later, Married…with Children has a legacy. Actress Christina Applegate is probably the most successful alumnus. Ed O’Neill carried on to be a different grumpy patriarch on Modern Family for another long stretch. Katey Sagal became the voice of Leela on Futurama and Gemma on Sons of Anarchy, she’s also been moms for other animated characters: Duckman and Mordecai (Regular Show). David Faustino does voice work in numerous cartoons today. The other legacy is how it laid down the foundation for more TV shows focused on hard-luck/adversarial families both humorous (Unhappily Ever After, Malcolm in the Middle), dramatic (Breaking Bad) or in-between (Shameless).
Hard to believe it was that long ago.