Season 5, Episode 17: Weenie Tot Lovers and other Strangers




Synopsis: A year's supply of something close to food known as "Weenie Tots" could be Al's, if Kelly lands the job as spokes-model to represent the stuff. This takes the Bundy's last $100, which means Bud can't go visit the president with 4 other schoolkids - and these go on to international acclaim and success, while he sits on the couch and watches it on TV whilst eating cereal. Meanwhile, Kelly becomes Miss Weenie Tot and Al gets his favorite mock-food, but since Tots rapidly disintegrate upon contact with air, Peg manages to spoil every single box searching for a winning prize ticket. The Bundy's win 50 grand with the very last box, but...well, can you guess?



6/10: Yeah, there's some good jokes in this, and it's a very packed episode - but the funniest recurring joke is how well the kids that went on the trip that Bud had to miss are doing. Also, even though Al loses both his year's supply of Weenie Tots AND 50K, he ends up happy as Officer Dan and other cops take him away...why? Because they're serving Weenie Tots down at the slammer!

Season 5, Episode 18: Oldies but Young Uns



Synopsis: Al is haunted by a tune heard on the radio which he can hum but not name. Kelly also has a date with Joey Tribiani before he was in Friends (but here he's called Vinnie Verducci), and he and his father get into the Bundy household.



6/10: Yeah, not bad, some great lines, but not really memorable. Best thing about it is Al's pathetic obsession with getting this record at all costs.

PS. I watched this episode with two of my kids. They laughed their heads off, and commented how what Al was doing is the kind of thing I would do. Eh, kids.


Dialogue
-------------------
Bud: Ahhh, the ever lilting fragrance of "Eau de Bring 'Em All On". It must be Friday, Kel, 'cause if it was Saturday it would be "Essence de Free Clinique".
-------------------
Peg: Well honey, we're finally alone. I know what will take your mind off that record for a minute - You could make love to me 4 times!
Al: Peg, when I said I was after an oldie, I meant but a goodie.

Season 5, Episode 19: Kids! Wadaya Gonna Do?



Synposis: Al and Peg go over to watch a movie at Marcy's house, and proceed to take over the place. Meanwhile, the Bundy offspring seek gainful employment, but only Bud gains, while Kelly babysits the family from hell. Also, Bud finally manages to get a girl.


6/10: This episode would have ranked much lower, but there's a terrific scene where Al, Peg, Marcy and Jefferson are all watching TV, and we get to here their thoughts, lamenting their lives, and hitting a hilarious unity as the scene climaxes.

Season 5, Episode 20: Top of the Heap




Synopsis: Vinnie and Charlie Verducci try and implement the 'Verducci Master Plan', to be able to live the high life.


4/10: There's very little Married With Children in this episode, it's actually some sort of pilot for another series. Vinnie and Charlie visit Al at the shoe store, where Al has lost his TV in a bet due to Vinnie's poor boxing ability, so at the end he sneaks into the Verducci's apartment and takes theirs.

Could I get you to recommend a few of the best episodes?

I never fully appreciated this show but in retrospect it really was a great original sitcom. But I always felt like Ed O'Neill was carrying it, and the other characters weren't contributing enough comedically. Peggy was definitely crush-worthy when I was 6, though, and Christina Applegate did seem like she was contributing more to the show the older I got ...

Ed O'Neill is doing great on Modern Family these days.

Here are 12 absolute classics from the ones I've reviewed so far:

12. S3E01 He Thought he could - Al has a face-off with a librarian that haunted his boyhood

11. S411+12 It's a Bundyful Life - Al gets visited by a guardian angel, and shown how much everyone is better off if he'd never been born

10. S2E13 You better watch out - Santa parachutes into the back yard

9. S4E01 Hot off the Grill - Al has a barbeque and makes love to Peg 4 times!

8. S2E22 All in the Family - Peg's family comes to visit

7. S3E21 Life's A Beach - Bundy's hit the beach

6. S1E05 Have you driven a Ford lately? - Al and Steve work on a Ford to get a cool car

5. S1E06 whose Room is it anyway? - Steve and Marcy want to build an extra room, but Al and Peg stick their noses in

4. S2E12 Earth Angel - A young hottie stays, making the neighbourhood men horny

3. S4E10 At the Zoo - Steve avoids getting a job and turns green. Marcy goes psycho.

2. S3E04 A Period Piece - The guys go hunting in the woods, but the women come. And they're all menstruating...

1. S4E04 Tooth or Consequences - Al goes to the dentist

Season 5: Episodes 21+22: You better shop around parts 1+2



Synopsis: The Bundys are sweltering in the middle of summer, and Al is too cheap to buy a decent air conditioner, and what he gets goes badly wrong. In the end, they move to the cold aisle of a supermarket, but get moved on, and have to buy something, otherwise get busted. Al skips in front of Marcy by tricking her, and becomes the store's one millionth customer. The prize is a $1000 shopping spree, but Marcy wants it as well. So it becomes a contest between the Bundys and the Darcys.

6/10: Not bad, but not great. Lots of eye candy though, what with Kelly being forced to jiggle around in a little pool to create a jacuzzi for Al, and then a pneumatic blonde in the supermarket who Al follows around and 'drops' things behind so she's forced to pick stuff up while he letches....


Dialogue:
--------------------------
Peg: Look, Al, as much as I applaud your exposing yourself to water, don't you think it's time we marched bravely into the fifties and bought an air conditioner?
Al: Peg, can't a hundred degree day go by without you bringing up air conditioning? Besides, as soon as we get one, they're just gonna invent something new. I'll be damned if I'll have one in my house.
Peg: That's the same thing you said about the toothbrush.
--------------------------
[Al's cheap Air Conditioner has blown out the neighborhood's transformer on the hottest day of the year]
Peggy: Oh, the whole neighborhood's gone dark!
Al: Well, at least they don't know it's our fault.
Neighbor: Bundy did this!
Crowd: BUNDY! BUNDY! BUNDY!
Kelly: God, where did they get the torches and the pitchforks so fast?
--------------------------
Al: Oh miss, I think you dropped something.
Nibbles: Oh.
[bends over, showing cleavage]
Nibbles: Thank you market dweller.
Kelly: Dad? Dad? Daddy.
Al: What?
Kelly: Do you *want* anything?
Al: Why, yes, I have a strange yearning for some melons...
[sees Marcy]
Al: and a plucked chicken.
Marcy: I thought I smelled shoes.

Season 5: Episodes 23+24: Route 666



Synopsis: The Bundys go on a vacation and end up finding an old prospector who sells them a map to a gold mine. They call Jefferson & Marcy, who come to the rescue, thinking the kids are dying, but it turns out Al & Peg want their money for the mine deal. The six of them go out to search for gold. Al discovers the first nugget, and everyone but Kelly winds up with a bag of gold. They each have their fantasies about how to spend it. Eventually, we find out they're stuck in the middle of a tourist attraction, "seeded" with phony gold for the rubes to find.

7/10: There were some great jokes in this one, like Al taking off his shoes in the desert and a bird falling dead out of the sky. I really enjoyed it, and Jefferson was particularly good when he catches 'gold fever', he cracks me up.


Dialogue:
--------------------------
Peg: Oh, Al. These rubes think I'm sexy.
Al: I would too if I drank whisky for breakfast.
--------------------------
Codger: Dodge is a damn fine car. Ran over my wife with a Dodge.

I want to see that one, DB! haha, prospecting for gold where are you finding these?

Jefferson is one of those great characters who cracks me up even before he ever opens his mouth. Perfect casting.

try and watch it, and watch the switch Jefferson makes when talking to people and talking to his nugget, it's a brilliant piece of acting, and hilarious.

I found a clip but it's got a Mexican voiceover. Check Jefferson about 20 second in

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fgX_J...eature=related

Lol! That was great. Jefferson is so funny! and Marcy is a hoot.

diebitter i have been watching A LOT of MWC lately and i dont think you are giving season 5 enough love. for me it is clealry the best season. someting like, 5, 6, 10, 7, 4,

but i hae only watched many episodes 1 or 2 times so i guess i will get more perspective over next year

Really? Season 3 and 4 are my favourite two, though there's no such thing as a bad season of MWC of course.

i duno some episodes from 8, 9, 7, just seem too formulaic and a bit cliched that it makes me sad. i will have to watch more episoes and get back to you!! oh and on season 4, i think some of the jokes were a bit generic, i feel like the the personalities were most developed for season 5 and 6 (i also am a jefferson fan)

either way i love this show. my family comes pretty close to being like MWC in someways it is funny. i love the jokes where al is proud of 10 cents in his pocket or finding an M&M for dinner. lol.

Season 5: Episodes 25: Buck the Stud




Synopsis: A man offers the Bundys $10,000 if Buck will breed with his champion dog "Lady Briard". Needless to say, it goes terribly wrong, and Al is stuck with the bill. Meanwhile, Kelly becomes Bud's fashion counselor and dresses him in medieval costumes.

6.5/10: This is a pretty solid one, with some great jokes at the expense of the guy offering 10 grand to be able to breed from Buck (you can probably imagine), and at Bud swanning around looking like Shakespeare whilst the girls fall all over him (but it's not his look, it's the promise of him getting part of 10 grand that attracts them). And when it turns out Buck is doing all the bitches in the neighbourhood so is too tired to do the bitch in question, and Al locks him up for 2 weeks before setting him on 'Lady of Astoria', the consequences are kind of inevitable...



Dialogue:
--------------------------
Peg: Al, this isn't a check for $10,000. This is a bill for $10,000.
Al: If you read it carefully, the bill actually says, $100,000.
Peg: What happened? I thought Buck was ready.
Al: Oh, Buck was ready all right. A little too ready. In fact, far ready beyond possible for our Lady of Astoria. Or should I say, the late Lady of Astoria.
Peg: To dath, Al
Al: And beyond! But don't worry, the money is to be payed within three days, or a warrant will be issued for my arrest. So, I figure that working a few double shifts at the shoe store and with a lemonade stand run by my two "daughters" here, we'll make enough money to buy a chocolate bar, a lipstick, and a pair of nylon stockings which I'll give as gifts to my new cellmate Bruno.
Kelly: Daddy, if it makes you feel any better, you can have my share of the $10,000.
Al: Oh, I'm really going to miss you the most.

I believe MWC is the first mainstream American sitcom where most (all?) of the main characters were pretty much jerks. Seinfeld took this idea. The first protagonist jerk in a mainstream American sitcom was Archie Bunker.

Season 6: Episodes 1+2: She's Having My Baby




Synopsis: Marcy announces she's pregnant, and Al laughs. Then Peg announces she's pregnant. Ok, that's about it.

7.5/10: These two episodes are pretty damn funny. Al is thrown into a new hell, and we see the pain he has to endure. Ok, he does try to escape (meeting Jefferson along the way), but we all know he can't escape, right? Particularly funny is the disgust of Bud and Kelly, and the shame of Al. Summed by by Bud: 'How could you? And with our mother!?!'



Dialogue:
--------------------------
Jefferson: I'm going to be a father. Don't you have anything to say to me?
Al: Oh. Sure. It's over. You're a dead man. Today is the first day of the end of your life.
--------------------------
Al: So, we're having a new baby. The gods are on a roll, aren't they? Must've been playing another round of "Can you top this?" One started off, "We'll make him a shoe salesman." Then another said, "We'll give him a red-head." Then another one, probably a cruel, hungover god, said, "But let's have him be a mighty athlete in high school first so his fall will be all the greater."
Kelly: But the gods showed you they loved you when they gave you us.
Al: Yeah, give those gods a Miller. Will someone please tell me, how did this happen?
--------------------------
Peggy: Al?
Al: Hmm?
Peggy: What should we name the baby?
Al: The Reaper?
--------------------------
Bartender: So, where you headed, pal?
Al: Oh, I don't know, some place where there's a lot of girls and no women.
Bartender: Oh, L.A.!
--------------------------
Al: Al, listen, I'm already done with the first trimester. Now what if what's left is all good, and we miss out on it?
Al: [laughing] You know, I'm finally starting to understand how she got you. Let me explain something to you. There is no such thing as a trimester. There's actually just one long forty year-mester. Except when they're pregnant, you get what I call the mini-mester. You've got your fat-mester and your puke-mester, and lord in heaven, you got your horny-mester.
--------------------------
Peggy: Gee Al, I don't know about you, but I'm horny as hell.
Al: Well, so am I, but you don't see me bothering you with it, do you?

I can't seem to quit laughing at that one.

I left out my favourite line, as I wanted it to be a surprise to anyone who digs this one out, but here goes (favourite part in bold):

Al: That can't be right! When? Why? How!? Wait a second, let me check my journal.
[He flicks through the pages of his journal] Five months ago, you say?
PEG: Oh Al, isn't it a dream?
Al: Oh, it better be! Wait, let's see now, April. April, April, ah here we go, April.
[reads from his journal] Week One: sold shoes, watched TV. Week Two: sold shoes,
watched TV, wept. Week Three: sold shoes, had a few beers, passed out...
(Peggy has a very guilty look on her face. Al looks up in horror.)
Al:Oh oh, I dreamt I fell in a washing machine, woke up feeling cheap! Peg, WHAT ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH DID YOU DO TO ME?!?
Peg: Well, I couldn't help myself. You looked so cute pulling your underwear up over your head! Well, I'm not made of stone, you know.

I should have given this 8/10 on reflection.

i am watching some of season 10. some of it is mean spirited dont know if i want to watch it all!

Season 6, episode 3: If Al had a Hammer




Synopsis: Armed with determination and the Bundy heirloom hammer, Al builds a room for himself and himself alone - until word gets out. Meanwhile, Bud builds himself a new identity as streetwise "Grandmaster B", but nobody else can seem to remember it right.



8/10: LOVED THIS ONE. Al trying to escape his pregant wife, and a ton of jokes at Bud's expense that are all variants on people not being able to remember he is 'Grandmaster B'

Plus, this one has the greatest line from any Married With Children episode, as delivered by Jefferson:

Jefferson: Having sex with your pregnant wife is like putting gas in the tank of a car that you've already wrecked.

Season 6, episode 4: Cheese, Cues and Pool




Synopsis: Kelly earns a quick $1000 to buy a gown for the Miss Cheese competition, and a suspicious Al is out for blood, but then he finds she's hustling pool, and damned good at it. Then Al is out of blood when he sells his to stake her moneymaking endeavors.


7/10: Excellent one, with Jefferson all pimped up as Kelly's manager. Some great lines, and Al acting completely off his nut because he sold 9 pints of blood is very funny.

BEST LINE:
(Peg trying to get Al to come to the prenatal classes with her)
Peg: Oh, Al, come with me.
Al: Why? I never came with you before.

Season 6, episode 5: Looking for a desk in all the wrong places




Synopsis: While Peg's away helping Marcy recover her precious childhood belongings (that Jefferson abandoned in a storage locker), the family has an "anti- baby meeting" and makes plans for a new Bundy world order, which includes food, clean clothes, and a "huge-hootered oriental woman" for Al, to replace the "pregzilla"


6/10: Not bad, but not really standout, but a steady supply of laughs.


BEST LINE:
Al: She's got you shakin like a Frenchman in a thunder storm.