David Faustino Movies

The always-touchy issue of euthanasia has provided source material for films since the silent era. 1980's Act of Love stars Ron Howard as the brother of Mickey Rourke, who has been left paralyzed by a motorcycle accident. Howard kills Rourke with a shotgun, claiming his brother begged him to do it. He willingly gives himself up to the authorities and stands trial, hoping more for understanding than exoneration. Made for television, Act of Love was based on a true story, chronicled by author Paige Mitchell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Real-life father and son Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez star in the made-for-TV In the Custody of Strangers. Blue-collar Sheen and his wife Jane Alexander attempt to instill discipline in their three growing children. But their 16-year-old son Estevez chafes at their authoritative attitudes, and runs seriously afoul of the law. Picked up on a drunk-driving charge, Estevez is charged with assault and battery when he fights off the sexual advances of his cellmate. His release continually delayed by judicial red tape, Estevez holds his parents, who are virtually helpless within the strictures of the Law, responsible for the mess he's in. But the real villain of the piece is not a person but an entity: The juvenile justice system, which is overworked, understaffed and swamped with dead-end bureaucracy. Scripted by Jennifer Miller, In the Custody of Strangers debuted on May 26, 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this suspenseful thriller, the happy family life of a married couple is dangerously disrupted by a wicked, seductive baby-sitter who wants their children for her own. She is ready to kill for the privilege and mayhem ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Fed up with watching vicious criminals walk on technicalities and loopholes, judge Michael Douglas accepts his older colleague Hal Holbrook's invitation to join "The Star Chamber." This sub-rosa organization consists of nine like-minded judges who endeavor to take the law into their own hands. Essentially, these are robed vigilantes, but Douglas joins them, determining that the end justifies the means. Before long, however, Douglas finds himself balking at sanctioning the murder of freed criminals -- and as a result becomes the target of the Star Chamber himself. Worth noting in the supporting cast of The Star Chamber are Diana Douglas, Michael Douglas' real-life mother, and Frances Bergen, widow of Edgar Bergen and mother of Candice Bergen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The angelic Mark (Victor French) is reunited (after a fashion) with his old Air Force buddy, who is now a border drug-enforcement agent. Unfortunately, Mark's friend has been murdered, but not before uncovering a dope-smuggling ring that is using model airplanes as a means of transportation. In the course of events, several other lives are threatened, including that of a young model-plane enthusiast (played by future Married...With Children co-star David Faustino). ~ All Movie Guide

The Fox network's very first sitcom launches its very first season, as Married...With Children invades the sanctity of the American home. We waste no time introducing the Bundys of Chicago, headed by cloddish, chauvinistic shoe salesman Al Bundy (Ed O'Neill) and his lazy, oversexed wife Peg (Katey Sagal). And of course, there are the Bundy brats: Daughter Kelly (Christina Applegate), who has managed to garner the worst reputation in her school at the tender age of 15, and eleven-year-old son Bud (David Faustino), a J.D.-in-training. The Bundys spend most of the series' first season outraging and disgusting their wide-eyed newlywed neighbors, young accountants Steve and Marcy Rhoades (David Garrison, Amanda Bearse). Whatever illusions Steve and Marcy may have had about the sweetness of matrimony and family life are destroyed by the boorish Bundys and their repulsive children on a weekly (if not daily) basis. Highlights (or is it lowlights?) of the series' inaugural season include Peg's efforts to go on a diet, Al's accidental "execution" of the neighbors' dog, Al and Steve bonding over the matter of a '65 Mustang (and simultaneously alienating their wives all the more), the family's depletion of their already tenuous credit rating, a "second honeymoon" at a no-tell motel, Peg going to work in order to buy a VCR, and innocent Marcy's outrageous sexual fantasies. . .about Al. Closing the season as Fox's highest-rated program, Married...With Children also established the fledgling network's mandate: Shock 'em, gross 'em out, make 'em laugh, and count the change as the advertising revenue rolls in. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

According to legend, the working title for Married...With Children was "NOT the Cosby Show," and that said it all. This raunchy, ribald eleven-year saga of a boorish, dysfunctional family living in the outskirts of Chicago was about as far removed from The Cosby Show as Mercury is from Pluto -- which was just fine so far as its creators, Ron Leavitt and Michael Moye, were concerned. Harboring a lifelong hatred for the "typical, wholesome" American TV family, Leavitt and Moyes chose instead to develop a series which revelled -- nay, wallowed -- in questionable taste, endless insults, and juicy sexual badinage. The newly formed Fox network, anxious to offer programming that would immediately separate itself from the "norm" as dictated by the ABC, CBS, and NBC, was receptive to the concept, and on April 5, 1987, Married...With Children debuted as Fox's first-ever sitcom -- not to mention its first-ever prime-time series. The Bundy family might well have been described as "trailer trash," only they didn't live in a trailer but instead in a large, untidy suburban Chicago house. Patriarch Al Bundy (Ed O'Neill) worked for minimum wages as a clerk at Gary's Shoe Store. Being an unregenerate male chauvinist pig, unkempt, and reeking of body odor, Al would sooner hang out at the local nudie bar with his fellow members of "NO MA'AM" (the National Organization of Men Against Amazonian Masterhood) than come home to the wretched meals prepared by his lazy, viper-tongued wife, Peggy (Katey Sagal). Hating housework almost as much as cooking and forever dressed in tight, garish outfits that displayed her ripe figure to anyone who was interested (Al certainly wasn't), Peg was also distinguished by her layers of facial makeup and her towering teased hair. The Bundy's dimwitted, slatternly daughter, Kelly (Christina Applegate), was so proud of her reputation as the high school's "easiest" girl that she sometimes gave annotated lectures on the subject; in later episodes, Kelly worked at such intellectual pursuits as waitressing and as commercial spokesperson for an off-brand beer. Kelly's kid brother Bud (David Faustino), eleven years old when the series began, was a combination juvenile delinquent and con artist, who, once he reached maturity (?), held down jobs as a clerk at the Motor Vehicle Bureau and as a one-person talent agency (with Kelly as his sole client). The Bundy family was a great source of irritation and embarrassment for their strait-laced newlywed neighbors, Steve and Marcy Rhoades (David Garrison and Amanda Bearse), who were respectably employed as accountants. The bad influence of the Bundys eventually seeped over into the Rhoades household, with Steve losing his job, divorcing his wife, and ending up working as a forest ranger, and Marcy taking as her second husband the terminally lazy Jefferson D'Arcy (Ted McGinley), whom she met during a drunken binge at a banker's convention. During the series' seventh season, Shane Sweet became a regular as Seven Bundy, son of one of Peg's many cousins; but the character never caught on and was summarily dropped without explanation. Two other series regulars never appeared on camera. Kevin Curran provided the voice of the Bundys' unhousebroken, oversexed dog, Buck, and later voiced a cute cocker spaniel puppy named Lucky -- who turned out to possess the reincarnated soul of the late and very reluctant Buck. And during the series' tenth season, Kathleen Freeman was heard but not seen as Peg's harridan hillbilly mother, Mrs. Wanker, who moved into Bud's room after walking out on her husband (played in some episodes by Tim Conway).

Bearing absolutely no resemblance to real life and doggedly avoiding sentiment and "very special episodes," Married...With Children was not exactly everyone's cup of treacle; in fact, one Michigan housewife became so incensed by the series' outrages (which were grotesquely exaggerated for full satiric effect) that she organized a letter-writing campaign to force Fox to cancel the series. Though the woman did not succeed, one third-season episode of Married...With Children, in which the Bundys were unwittingly videotaped while having sex at a cheap motel, was never aired by Fox and in fact was not seen in the United States until 2002, some 14 years after it was produced! Though the series had more than its share of detractors, it also enjoyed a huge fan following with most viewers fully aware that Married was actually a spoof of late-'80s/early-'90s TV raunchiness and accepted it as such. The series' "nothing sacred" attitude enabled the writers to sidestep a particularly delicate situation during season six. To accommodate the real-life pregnancy of Katey Sagal, it was decided that Peg Bundy would also have a baby. Unfortunately, Sagal miscarried, leaving audiences to wonder how this personal tragedy would affect the series. As it turned out, the writers managed to transform pathos into hilarity by stating baldly that Peg's pregnancy was merely a bad dream, à la Dallas! (Later in the series, Sagal again became pregnant, fortunately carrying the baby to term; this time around, however, the writers felt it would be best not to say anything whatsoever about babies on the series). Ending its original network run in 1997, Married...With Children has continued to be successfully rebroadcast in syndication and as part of the FX cable network lineup. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One significant cast change occurs during season four of Married...With Children -- namely, the departure of Steve Rhoades (David Garrison), long-suffering accountant neighbor of the boorish Bundy family. Taking a chance by okaying a $50,000 loan for the redoubtable Al Bundy (Ed O'Neill), poor Steve loses his job at the bank. Before long, Steve's wife, Marcy (Amanda Bearse), is short one husband, as Steve runs off to become a park ranger at Yellowstone. After the divorce, Marcy joins Al's wife, Peg (Katey Sagal), and the delinquent Bundy children for a getaway vacation to Las Vegas -- which culminates in a grudge match with a female wrestler! Nor is this all that happens during season four -- not by a long shot. In the season opener, "Dead Men Don't Do Aerobics," Peg persuades a physical-fitness nut to pig out on junk food -- with fatal results. Elsewhere, a young Milla Jovovich guest stars as a foreign exchange student who becomes a thorn in the side of the Bundys' daughter Kelly (Christina Applegate); son Bud Bundy (David Faustino) becomes the world's youngest talent agent; the family dog, Buck, finds a voice (in the unseen form of actor Kevin Curran); and Al suffers from an unwelcome foot fetish when chosen to emcee a beauty contest at the shoe store where he works. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season six is "the year of the babies" on Married...With Children. To accommodate the real-life pregnancy of series star Katey Sagal (Peg Bundy), the scriptwriters contrive to have Peg find herself in "the family way" -- and for good measure, the Bundy's next-door neighbor Marcy Rhoades D'Arcy (Amanda Bearse) is also expecting. But by the middle of the season, it turns out the ladies' pregnancies were imaginary, the result of a Dallas-style nightmare. The reason is simple and poignant; Katey Sagal had suffered a miscarriage, so it was decided to eliminate the entire pregnancy angle from the rest of the season. In other, non-maternal plot developments: Bud Bundy (David Faustino), teenage son of Peg and her hubby Al (Ed O'Neill), adopts a nickname that no one can remember; Bud's sister, Kelly (Christina Applegate), gets her own TV talk show, "Vital Social Issues 'N Stuff With Kelly;" experiencing an epiphany, Al decides to devote his life to selling "God's Shoes;" and Marcy has a run-in with ex-husband Steve Rhoades (former series regular David Garrison), currently on the lam for stealing rare hawk eggs from a public park (Don't you just hate when that happens?). The sixth season concludes with a two-parter set in England, where the Bundys, Marcy, and Marcy's current husband Jefferson (Ted McGinley) tackle an ancient curse -- not to mention the more contemporary curse of lost luggage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Eight seasons have passed since Married...With Children made its Fox network debut, but the Bundy family is just as boorish and decadent as ever -- if not more so. This season, shoe salesman Al Bundy (Ed O'Neill) loses sleep over the dread "Bundy Curse," endeavors to teach a high school graduate the facts of life, and establishes the all-male conclave "NO MA'AM"(National Organization of Men Against Amazonian Women). Lazy, oversexed housewife Peg Bundy (Katey Sagal) wins a chance at a 10,000-dollar contest during a basketball game, is exposed to public embarrassment (and admiration) when her picture is hung up outside a photo shop, and impersonates one of the Village People. Libidinous daughter Kelly (Christina Applegate) gets a steady job as a pest exterminator and displays a hitherto untapped prowess at sports; and opportunistic son Bud (David Faustino) generally hangs around the house, like always. Next door at the D'Arcys, unemployed Jefferson D'Arcy (Ted McGinley) reveals his past life as a secret agent, while wife Marcy (Amanda Bearse) embraces feminism and has an existential moment while delivering a speech. The season ends with the episode "Kelly Knows Something" -- quite a shocker for series fans who have resigned themselves to the "fact" that Kelly knows nothing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

As Married...With Children enters its ninth season, the Bundy family's youngest member, Bud (David Faustino), has gotten a job at the motor vehicle bureau; Bud's older sister, Kelly (Christina Applegate), has become a commercial pitchwoman; father Al (Ed O'Neill) continues striking a blow for male chauvinist pigs worldwide as head of "NO MA'AM"; and mom Peg (Katey Sagal) at last invades the sanctity of Al's favorite hangout, the Nudie Bar. Next door at the D'Arcy home, Jefferson D'Arcy (Ted McGinley) worries that his past life as a spy will catch up with him, while wife Marcy (Amanda Bearse) invites her niece to her home -- and invites trouble when the girl scores with Bud. New to the series' cast is Harold Sylvester as Griff, another salesman at the shoe store where Al works. We also get to see a lot more of Al's buddies and fellow NO MA'AM members Ike (Tom McCleister), Sticky (Pat Millicano), and Bob (E.E. Bell). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Alexandra's life becomes a living hell when she discovers the undercover policeman she loves is actually a dangerous serial killer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide