Unhappily Ever After 

A "Married with Children" take-off with the twist of a schizophrenic father.

Creators:

Ron Leavitt, Arthur Silver

Stars:

Geoff Pierson, Kevin Connolly, Nikki Cox

3 nominations.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Geoff Pierson	...	Jack Malloy 100 episodes, 1995-1999
Kevin Connolly	...	Ryan Malloy 100 episodes, 1995-1999
Nikki Cox	...	Tiffany Malloy 100 episodes, 1995-1999
Justin Berfield	...	Ross Malloy 100 episodes, 1995-1999
Bobcat Goldthwait	...	Mr. Floppy / ... 100 episodes, 1995-1999
Stephanie Hodge	...	Jennie Malloy / ... 78 episodes, 1995-1998

Storyline

A slightly cleaner take-off of "Married with Children" with overstressed father Jack, whose life consists of a lousy job; a law-breaking, sex-starved wife; a skimpily dressing daughter with her eyes on an Ivy League school; an idiot son; and Mr Floppy, the epitome of Jack's raging schizophrenia, physically embodied in the form of a boozing, chain-smoking, perverse stuffed gray rabbit with whom Jack consults for advice in the rabbit's basement playpen, where Jack inevitably secludes himself.

---

Plot Keywords:

rabbit | basement | stuffed toy | stuffed toy rabbit | sitcom | 

---

Genres:

Comedy

---

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

11 January 1995 (USA)

Also Known As:

Unhappily Ever After

Filming Locations:

CBS Studio Center - 4024 Radford Avenue, Studio City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

Touchstone Television

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min 30 min (100 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Mr. Floppy's first words to Jack were, "Jack, you're a loser."

---

Quotes

Mr. Floppy: Kiss my cottontail!

---

Connections

Featured in MsMojo: Top 10 Shows that TOTALLY Ripped Off Better Ones (2018)

---

Soundtracks

Hit the Road Jack
(1961)
Written by Percy Mayfield
Performed by Ray Charles and The Raelettes
Published by ABC-Paramount
Played in the opening excerpt montage of every episode

User Reviews

Interesting idea falls flat

I have watched a few episodes of this show on late night syndication, and I found myself in the odd position of being intrigued and disappointed at the same time.

The show revolves around the type of family that inhabited pre-"Ally McBeal" Fox Channel shows. We have the stereotypical wife who loves to shop and think illogically. We have the son who can only rely on his hand to console him. We have the daughter who inspires the laugh track to go nuts with wolf whistles just by stepping out onto the stage.

When these characters are around, the show has two modes: predictable and offensive. We see that the son is going to get slapped in the face by the popular girl at school, and we wonder where the humor is in him accidentally killing the mailman (who we find out later is his actual father).

The show takes a slightly more interesting turn, though, in its central character. The father. In other shows, the father has been the most logical figure of the household. He is the one that holds the insanity together. In "Unhappily Ever After", however, the twist is that the father is the crazy one. A couple of times each episode, he sits down on the couch and gets half-assed advice from Mr. Floppy, a hallucination of a stuffed bunny that he had in his childhood.

This part of the show is where I get intrigued. This is an interesting and original idea, with numerous possibilities. Unfortunately, the writers don't know what to do with it, and consequently let the idea become the joke. Mr. Floppy (who is given life thanks to voice-over king Bobcat Goldthwait) has no other purpose in the show than to tell crude jokes and brag about his charm.

It is a shame to see such an idea go to waste. "Unhappily Ever After" had the potential to be one of the most original comedies of the 90's, and instead turned into a cheap and predictable retread of the "Married With Children" formula.