Married With Children was one of the first anti-sitcoms. The most popular sitcoms of the day was wholesome, family-oriented shows. Married With Children changed that with its hook being anything opposite of heartwarming, and as such, it was one of the first shows that established Fox as a real player among other networks.
The show's instant popularity spoke loud and clear that people were ready for a change in their sitcom entertainment.
Buck, The Dog, Isn't Man's Best Friend And May Even Hate The Bundys
Who could blame poor Buck? He is neglected by his family. They leave and forget about him. They forget to feed him. The viewers can sometimes hear Buck's thoughts, and he doesn't think very highly of his family.
Buck is a running storyline throughout the Married with Children series. Even when Buck dies, he is reincarnated as a Cocker Spaniel puppy named Lucky.
Steve And Marcy's Marriage
Steve (David Garrison) and Marcy's (Amanda Bearse) marriage was a storyline that lasted for four seasons. Steve and Marcy's marriage represented everything Al (Ed O'Neill), and Peggy Bundy's (Katey Sagal) marriage was not, and the comedy came from the opposites in the marriages. David Garrison decided to leave the show and pursue other things.
Marcy's character changed more than anyone throughout the entire series. When the series began, she was sweet and naïve, but later in the series, she was as bad as The Bundys.
Jefferson Is The Good-Looking Unemployed Moocher
Once Steve left the show. Marcy found another lover. The lover Marcy found was the attractive but perpetually unemployed husband, Jefferson (Ted McGinley). Jefferson and Marcy were more like the Bundys than Steve and Marcy. The comedy came from Jefferson mooching off Marcy because of his good looks.
This storyline would last the rest of the series, and later in the series, a storyline developed that Jefferson may not have been a moocher but had secretly been a spy the whole time.
Marcy Is The Controlling Nosy Neighbor
The storyline of Marcy as the controlling nosey neighbor lasted throughout the entire series. As the show progressed, Marcy's attitude became worse, and she became more like the Bundys. She wasn't as nosy as Gladys Kravitz on Bewitched, but her attitude was worse than Gladys's.
During the later seasons, Marcy seemed to live to make Al Bundy's life worse and make him feel like a bigger loser than he already felt.
Bud Bundy Will Probably End Up Like His Father
Bud Bundy (David Faustino) is probably the most intelligent person in his family with the most potential other than Buck, but that isn't saying much. Bud is the one family member who could probably do something with his life but won't because of his bad attitude.
The storyline of Bud being sex-obsessed and socially inept runs throughout the entire series and becomes worse the older Bud becomes. The storylines he gets into prove that he, like the rest of his family, is his own biggest enemy.
Kelly Bundy Is Not Super Smart
Kelly Bundy (Christina Applegate) being attractive but shallow and a bit spiteful is a storyline that runs throughout the entire series. Kelly's lack of insight gets worse the older she becomes. Kelly has more success and lucky breaks than any other family member because of her good looks, but it's to little avail.
Unfortunately, her personality gets in the way, and she ultimately undoes every lucky break she has. Watching her orchestra her own demise through a lack of logic and a lean toward selfishness is almost Shakespearean at times.
Peggy Bundy Is A Horrible Housewife
The storyline of Peggy Bundy being a lazy horrible housewife is one of the foundational plot beats of the show. Married With Children is a dark comedy. It is essential in a dark comedy for the characters not to grow and keep making obvious mistakes to the viewers. Katey Sagal has proved to be an underrated comedian throughout her career, but Peggy Bundy was where that all began.
Peggy Bundy does just that with the horrible wife storyline. In a time when TV moms were expected to reach Florence Henderson levels of perfection and always be on-call for their family, Peggy was negligent, obsessed with TV, and happy to take her husband's cash.
Al Bundy Is The Grumpy Lovable Loser
Al Bundy being the grumpy lovable loser is the joke that the entire series hangs on and the glue that holds the show together. Everything comes back to Al Bundy losing in life. His most significant accomplishment was high school football, and poor Al can't get a break. This character was truly one-of-a-kind, and actor Ed O'Neill's other works tend to be significantly different from Al.
Seasons Four and Five are the funniest seasons of Married With Children. During the earlier seasons, they were pioneering the way of this fresh form of comedy, and in the later seasons, the joke began to lose its spark. Interestingly, Sam Kinison and Roseanne Barr were almost cast as Al and Peggy Bundy, but they had other projects they were working on. Sam Kinison would appear in one of the most popular episodes of Married with Children, "It's a Bundyful Life."