Originally broadcast on April 5, 1987, “Married… with Children” became the longest-running live-action sitcom to ever air on the Fox Network (which was part of the Disney-Fox buyout) in 2019, wrapping up on May 5, 1997. But that’s not the only record the show holds.
Focusing on a working-class family headed by Al Bundy (Ed O’Neill), “Married… With Children” was truly unique. Rather than portray the type of wholesome family you’d see on “The Cosby Show,” “Family Ties,” or any other sitcom at the time, the Bundy family was a decidedly dysfunctional unit. Aside from Al’s jaded, misanthropic manner, Margaret “Peggy” Bundy (Katey Sagal) would openly mock her husband, while the pair’s children, Kelly and Bud (Christina Appelgate and David Faustino), were about as off-putting as their parents. Not only that, the show had some pretty racy plotlines for the time and stirred up controversy on numerous occasions.
But that was kind of the point. As producer Marcy Vosburgh once put it, “Married… With Children” was designed to be “a show where no matter what happened after you turned it off, you could feel a little bit better about yourself.” As such, you might think a TV network would schedule such risqué material in a late-night slot. But the newly-established Fox Network needed something to set itself apart from the legacy networks, and so “Married… With Children” became its first prime-time series.