Trivia
The last episode aired on May 6, 1997, on Fox TV. After that episode aired, Fox was trying to decide whether to renew the show. When they decided to cancel it, they didn't notify the cast. Ed O'Neill said he was on vacation and a couple staying near him read about the cancellation in the newspaper and told him about it. He bought them a meal in appreciation. In a similar vein, Christina Applegate learned of the show's cancellation from two friends of hers.
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Many of the original producers later collaborated on the WB series Unhappily Ever After, which bore many similarities to MWC.
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In some episodes, the Bundy home address is 9764 Jeopardy Lane, Chicago, Illinois. In other episodes, the address is 9674 Jeopardy Lane.
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After the 1992-1993 season, Seven's mysterious disappearance is alluded to often, such as in the "Touchdown Trivia" episode, when Al is filling Kelly's head with sports facts and she forgets about Buck and Seven, and in the "Carpool" episode, where Seven's face is shown as "Missing" on the Bundys' milk carton
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Top of the Heap, later re-titled Vinnie & Bobby, was a "MWC" spinoff. There were also two other ideas for spinoffs, "Enemies" and "Radio Free Trumaine". "Enemies" dealt with Kelly's friends fighting and falling in love again, while "Radio Free Trumaine" was about two unconventional disc jockeys at Bud's college. They remained as episodes for the MWC seasons, but never made the final cut for more episodes.
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The series makes several references to the movie Deliverance. Although Ed O'Neill (Al Bundy) was not actually in the movie, it has been reported so many times that he often doesn't dispute it.
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Makes references to Ed O'Neill's film, Dutch. It's mentioned in the first part of "The England Show" when Al is on the plane. In the episode where Al and Peggy go to the video store to rent a movie, a poster for the film is covering Ed's eyes.
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In the opening sequence the shot of the cars on the interstate interchange is part of a scene from Vacation. The Griswold's green and brown Ford Crown Victoria station wagon is clearly visible on the road.
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The fountain shown at the beginning of the credits is the Buckingham Fountain in downtown Chicago.
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According to Ed O'Neill and David Faustino, much of their life was parodied on the show. O'Neill (Al Bundy) did play college football. Faustino (Bud Bundy) wanted to be a rapper, hence his character Grandmaster B.
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After the show was an unexpected success among young adults in Germany, broadcasting network RTL produced a German version called "Hilfe, meine Familie spinnt". The scripts and every single joke of the original's 1987-1988 season were translated and the family was called "Struck", but it was canceled after one season (1992).
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One of the show's creators said the reason Ed O'Neill was cast was that when he was auditioning for the pilot, he was required to simply walk through the front door into the Bundy home. Right before he opened the door, O'Neill let out a deep breath and slumped his shoulders, as if going home was a defeat. Producers said when they saw that, they knew O'Neill understood the show.
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Like Seven, many of the show's extra characters lasted for one season. Al's colleague in the shoe store, Luke Ventura, appeared in season one; Amber, the D'Arcys' niece, appears in season nine; and Aaron, Al's first shoe sidekick, appeared in season nine too.
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Ed O'Neill is the only actor from the show to appear in all 260 episodes, from the lost episode to the failed pilots that stayed in the show.
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Throughout the show, the stars had their families as guest stars. Ed O'Neill's wife, Catherine Rusoff made two appearances. David Faustino's brother, Michael Faustino, made a couple of appearances. Christina Applegate's mother, Nancy Priddy made an appearance, and Katey Sagal's brother, Joey Sagal made appearances. Elaine Hendrix and Juliet Tablak were also at one point David Faustino's girlfriends.
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In one episode, where Kelly works at TVLand, a bunch of kids come up to Jefferson D'Arcy (Ted McGinley) and ask him for his autograph and he makes a reference to Happy Days and the kids ask him if he was also in The Love Boat, which he denies. McGinley actually was in "Happy Days" as Roger Phillips and "The Love Boat" as Ashley Covington Evans.
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Ed O'Neill says that he based Al Bundy on one of his uncles, because the uncle and Al shared so many personality traits.
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Buck the Dog was on the show from the day it began, until the 10th season, when he was given a "retirement" by the producers. Buck died on May 25th, 1996 at age 13.
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Katey Sagal came up with the idea for her character Peggy Bundy to dress in 1960s-inspired clothing. Sagal's reason for the look was because she wanted to parody the 1960s housewife. For her audition, Sagal had brought her own red bouffant wig, and when she won the role, producers approved the image into the show. (Peggy's '60s wear included the bouffant hair, tight capris-styled leggings paired with a large belt, and slip on heels.)
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Initially the producers were not sure about Ed O'Neill as the choice for Al Bundy. His background was mostly in dramatic roles (most recently as Lenny in a production of "Of Mice and Men"), and they weren't sure he would be able to do comedy effectively. They changed their minds once they saw O'Neill audition.
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Al's favorite song is "Duke of Earl" by Gene Chandler. He was also fond of Arthur Alexander's "Anna".
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Transvestite film actor Divine was scheduled to appear as Uncle Otto in the second-season finale, but died just before he was scheduled to film his scenes.
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The name of the shoe store where Al works is "Gary's Shoes and Accesories for Today's Woman". Al discovered to his chagrin that "Gary" was, in fact, a woman.
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The set used as Al Bundy's shoe store was previously used as the travel agency Barbara and Max worked in during the final season of One Day at a Time. In a couple of episodes of "One Day", you can even see the "New Market Mall" sign outside the windows of the travel agency.
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Al's favorite reading material is a Playboy-type magazine called "Big 'Uns". At different points in the series, Griff can be seen reading a similar magazine in the series called "Black Big 'Uns", and during a scene in Cuba, 'Fidel Castro' can be seen reading another similar magazine called "Cub 'Uns" (a play on the word "Cubans.")
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Kelly's birthday is November 25, 1971, which also happens to be Christina Applegate's birthday.
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During the show's heyday, Ed O'Neill would fulfill requests to make birthday and holiday telephone calls to fans, as Al Bundy--on the condition that he could call them collect (in character with Al's cheapskate nature).
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Katey Sagal became pregnant three times during the 10-year span of the series. The first was during the beginning of Season 6 (mid-1991) where her pregnancy was worked into a storyline, but was written out when Segal miscarried. The second time was in 1994 late in Season 8 and early in Season 9, and the third was in Season 10 from 1995 to 1996 in which both of her pregnancies (which were successful) were hid from the viewing audience.
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In addition to playing the role of Marcy Rhodes/Marcy D'Arcy, Amanda Bearse directed several episodes.
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Christina Applegate wore a long blond wig for most of the 10th Season (1995-1996) because she had actually dyed her hair red for a role in the film Nowhere which was filmed during the 1995 summer between the 9th and 10th Seasons.
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Peggy's maiden name is 'Wanker' and her relatives live in fictional Wanker County, Wisconsin. "Wanker" is British slang for "masturbator".
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David Faustino went to a crowded mall while wearing a shirt with the show's logo during the first season. Not even a single person came up or recognized him.
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The name Marcy D'Arcy is a play on Executive Producer of The Cosby Show, Marcy Carsey. The working title for "Married With Children" was "Not The Cosbys".
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Ed O'Neill said in a recent interview that when he knew about the cancellation, he talked to a Fox executive about making an episode to finish the show where the Bundies won the lottery and were demolished by a tornado during their celebration.
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The first prime time series aired on the new Fox Broadcasting Company. It debuted on Sunday, April 5, 1987 at 7:00 pm Eastern Standard Time, and the first episode was repeated twice throughout the night.
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Former 007 Roger Moore confessed that the series was a guilty pleasure of his. He had been a friend of the late director Boris Sagal, father of Katey Sagal, who played Peggy Bundy.
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"I'll See You in Court", the eighth episode of the third season due to air on February 19th 1989, was long known as the "lost episode", remaining unbroadcast in the US until 2002 (though it had been seen in other countries) when an edited version aired on FX. It was held over due to its content, about the Bundys and Rhoades being recorded on a motel sex tape.
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In 1996, UK broadcasters Carlton Televion made Married for Life for ITV, a remake of the early episodes featuring the Butler family. It was unsuccessful and ran for only seven weeks.
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The series and the fledgling Fox network were little known until the season three episode "Her Cups Runneth Over" which Michegan housewife and "family values" activist Terry Rakolta found so offensive that she began a letter-writing campaign to the show's sponsors to try to get them to withdraw their sponsorship and for Fox to drop the show. A few sponsors did cancel their commercials, but her efforts had exactly the opposite effect she wanted: the story spread like wildfire and resulted in a huge jump in the ratings for the show. It made "Married with Children" a major hit and put Fox Network on the map.
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