Ed O'Neill Movies
Rising to fame as American family man Al Bundy on the lowbrow sitcom
Married...With Children, actor
Ed O' Neill was the physical embodiment of almost every stereotype leveled at lower-middle-class husbands and fathers. Although many sneered at the bathroom humor and questionable taste of the series (
O'Neill himself admitted that he thought the show would be canceled after a mere six episodes), his perfection in the role was undeniably effective -- so much so that it was difficult for him to avoid typecasting despite the versatility he displayed in such features as
Prefontaine and
The Spanish Prisoner (both 1997). Following graduation from Ursuline High School, the Youngstown, OH, native worked a series of odd jobs before studying theater and history at Ohio University College and, eventually, Youngstown State University. A talented football player,
O'Neill was drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1969, though was cut from the team shortly thereafter. His early stage auditions weren't much more encouraging, and between minor theater roles, the acting hopeful returned to his former high school to teach social studies. He continued to dream of becoming an actor, however, so moved to New York in 1977 and studied at the famed Circle in the Square. An early break came when
O'Neill, an understudy for the lead role in the Broadway play Knockout, was asked to take the stage when the original actor abandoned the production.
Although
O'Neill had appeared in a brief (one-line), uncredited role in 1972's
Deliverance, he had his first real part as a police detective in the
Al Pacino thriller
Cruising in 1980. As the decade progressed,
O'Neill found steady work in made-for-TV features and occasional television guest appearances. In 1986, his performance in the title role in
Popeye Doyle (a real-life character memorably portrayed by
Gene Hackman in
The French Connection) showed him to be a confident and effective lead. During a stage performance as Lenny in Of Mice and Men in Hartford, CT, an executive from FOX happened to be in the audience. After showing the script of
Married...With Children to his wife,
O'Neill knew that it was not an opportunity to let pass. He landed the role with ease, and his portrayal of the bumbling Al Bundy not only formed the backbone of the series, but created a caricature of American family life which would only be matched by the likes of Homer Simpson.
O'Neill appeared in several feature films during the show's ten-year run, including
Dutch (1991),
Wayne's World (1992),
Blue Chips, and
Little Giants (both 1994). As the series drew to a close in 1997, the actor began to venture outside the confines of the Bundy family living room in such unexpectedly dramatic turns as
The Spanish Prisoner and
The Bone Collector.
O'Neill later returned to the small screen in Big Apple (2001) and a 2003 remake of
Dragnet, playing policemen in both series.
He appeared in the David Mamet thriller Spartan in 2004, and worked with the director again on 2008's Redbelt. He was on the short-lived HBO series John From Cincinnati in 2007. However, in 2009 he scored a major career boost as the patriarch in the ABC sitcom Modern Family. His work on the show earned him an Emmy nomination, something that never happened during his days as Al Bundy. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

- 2009
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This mockumentary-style sitcom chronicles the unusual kinship of the extended Pritchett clan, a brood that includes patriarch Jay (Ed O'Neill), his younger Latina wife, Gloria, and her preteen son, Jay's daughter, Claire, and her family, and Jay's son, Mitchell, who lives with his partner, Cameron. ~ Joe Friedrich, Rovi
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- 2007
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- Add John From Cincinnati [TV Series] to Queue
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Created by the same team responsible for the quirky, iconoclastic HBO western series Deadwood, John from Cincinnati was a magical mystery tour of the California surfing scene. Set in the town of Imperial Beach, the story focused on the multigenerational Yost family, led by Mitch Yost (Bruce Greenwood), a onetime surfing legend who had been forcibly retired (except for a few early-morning forays into the waves) by a serious knee injury. The fall of the Yost fortunes had a deleterious effect upon Mitch's son Butchie (Brian Van Holt), who had become a seemingly hopeless druggie; conversely, Butchie's own son Shaun (Grayson Fletcher) was a surfing phenom who bade fare to surpass his grandfather's celebrity--if he ever got the chance. Holding the family together was Mitch's levelheaded wife Cissy (Rebecca De Mornay), owner of the surfing-goods store that provided their income. Into this dysfunctional family unit came a fabulously wealthy and truly bizarre dude known as John Monad (Austin Nichols), who when pressed for details identified himself as "John from Cincinnati." Outwardly a boorish dimwit with an annoying habit of repeating everyone else's conversations, John was clearly operating on some Higher Plane or other, implicitly possessing the ability to heal the sick and revive the dead, and holding out the hope of redemption for the fractured Yosts. With John in the vicinity, no one found it odd that, for example, Mitch suddenly developed the ability to float in the air; everyone seemed to accept the newcomer without question or prejudice. Only the Yosts' friend Bill Jacks (Ed O'Neill), a fancier of birds and pro wrestlers, distrusted John and his motives, suspecting that he was more Satan than Saint. The series' events--subtly but inextricably linking each character with the other--unfolded in a leisurely, day-by-day "need to know" basis, with small, tantalyzing clues as to the story's outcome (Rapture? Armageddon? The Perfect Wave?) buried within each episode. Cocreated by Deadwood's David Milch and "surf noir" novelist Kern Nunn, and featuring Luke Perry and Deadwood alumnus Jim Beaver in key supporting roles, John from Cincinnati began its HBO run on June 10, 2007. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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- Starring:
- Rebecca De Mornay, Garret Dillahunt, (more)

- 2004
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- 2003
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Telecast seven years after the final first-run episode of Married. . .With Children, this 42-minute reunion special originally aired with a minimum of commercial interruptions. Christina Applegate (Kelly Bundy) gets things going with a brief rundown of the series' formative years. This is followed by individual interviews with the seven principal cast members: Ed O'Neill (Al Bundy), Katey Sagal (Peg Bundy) David Faustino (Bud Bundy), Amanda Bearse (Marcy Rhodes D'Arcy), David Garrison (Steve Rhodes) and Ted McGinley (Jefferson D'Arcy). Six of these seven actors are seen lounging around a replica of the "Bundy Living Room" set, much of which had to be reconstructed based on those actors' memories; Katey Sagal is filmed separately on the set of her then-current sitcom 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Daughter. Amidst scores of classic clips from the original series, the actors dispense fascinating info-bites: For example, Ed O'Neill reveals that he based Al Bundy on his own uncle, while Katey Sagal describes the evolution of Peg's distinctive stiletto-heels walk. Also seen are a number of choice outtakes and deleted scenes. The coda is provided by David Faustino, bringing this entertainment retrospective to a conclusion that, like Married. . .With Children itself, manages to be both hilarious and iconoclastic. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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- Starring:
- Ed O'Neill, Katey Sagal, (more)

- 2003
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- 2000
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- Add The 10th Kingdom to Queue
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This ten-hour mini-series extravaganza originally aired on February 26, 2000 on NBC, and concerns the fate of a janitor, Tony (John Larroquette), and his lovely daughter Virginia (Kimberly Williams), who mysteriously find themselves in a land where fairies, trolls, and elves live. Their attempts to return home are thwarted by an evil witch (Diane Wiest). Appearing in supporting roles are Rutger Hauer, Warwick Davis, and Camryn Manheim as Snow White. The 10th Kingdom was rebroadcast on August, 2000, with a substantially trimmed running time of eight hours, which was shortened even further to six hours for the video release, after all commercials had been removed. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
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- Starring:
- Kimberly Williams, John Larroquette, (more)

- 1996
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- Add Married... With Children: Season 11 to Queue
Add Married... With Children: Season 11 to top of Queue
Having clocked in eleven seasons, Married...With Children was Fox's longest-lasting series of the 1996-1997 TV season. Unfortunately, the 11th season was the last, due in part to the network's decision to change the series' timeslot three times within a single year. Al Bundy Ed O'Neill is still Chicago's most frustrated shoe clerk, all the more so because his boss, "Gary" -- actually a woman, and a none-too-pleasant one -- is seen for the first time in several episodes. Al's wife, Peg (Katey Sagal), is still lazy as a sloth and still dresses like a Rush Street "working girl." Daughter Kelly (Christina Applegate) is still pursuing a show-business career, and son Bud (David Faustino) is still drawing a paycheck from the motor vehicle bureau. If anything, the individual episodes are more outrageously "out there" than ever before. Highlights include Al making a deal with the Devil (played by Nightmare on Elm Street's Robert Englund) so the Chicago Bears can win a crucial game, a crossover episode with the Fox reality series Cops (one wonders how the Bundys have avoided being on Cops in past seasons!), and series regular Amanda Bearse showing up in the dual role of the Bundys' neighbor Marcy and her lesbian cousin (this, reportedly, was done so that actress Bearse could "out" herself on the series Ellen DeGeneres-style without compromising Marcy's heterosexuality). The saga of Married...With Children comes to an end as Al stops the wedding of his daughter, Kelly, who has become engaged to a guy who tried to rob the Bundy house. (This series finale was supposed to have been the pilot episode for a sitcom starring Christina Applegate as Kelly Bundy, but the actress decided to bypass the opportunity). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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- Starring:
- Ed O'Neill, Katey Sagal, (more)

- 1995
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- Add Married... With Children: Season 10 to Queue
Add Married... With Children: Season 10 to top of Queue
With the launching of the 1995-1996 TV season, Married...With Children became the first Fox network show to remain on the air for ten years. It is clear, however, that age has not withered the ability of the boorish Bundy family to make fools of themselves in a variety of situations, many of them sexual. The cast remains as ever: Ed O'Neill as oafish shoe clerk Al Bundy; Katey Sagal as Al's lazy, self-indulgent wife, Peg; Christina Applegate as hot-to-trot daughter Kelly, now a TV commercial spokeswoman; David Faustino as scheming son Bud, who this season defies all logic by graduating from Trumaine University; and next-door neighbors Marcy and Jefferson D'Arcy (Amanda Bearse, Ted McGinley). New developments this season include the demise of the Bundy family's dog, Buck, though the opportunity for a saccharine "very special moment" is deftly avoided when Buck is immediately (and reluctantly) reincarnated in the form of a cute little puppy named Lucky. Also, legendary character actress Kathleen Freeman -- or her voice, at any rate -- is added to the cast as Peg's obese, never-seen mother, Mrs. Wanker, who moves into Bud's old room after walking out on her husband (and, no, Bud has not left the nest -- he had merely relocated to the Bundy family basement). If Peg Bundy seems conspicuous by her absence towards the end of season ten, it is because actress Katey Sagal was on brief pregnancy leave. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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- Starring:
- Ed O'Neill, Katey Sagal, (more)

- 1994
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- Add Married... With Children: Season 09 to Queue
Add Married... With Children: Season 09 to top of Queue
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, Rovi
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- Starring:
- Ed O'Neill, Katey Sagal, (more)

- 1993
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- Add Married... With Children: Season 08 to Queue
Add Married... With Children: Season 08 to top of Queue
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, Rovi
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- Starring:
- Ed O'Neill, Katey Sagal, (more)

- 1992
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- Add Married... With Children: Season 07 to Queue
Add Married... With Children: Season 07 to top of Queue
As a means of freshening up Married...With Children during the series' seventh season, the producers decided to add a new regular: Seven Bundy (Shane Sweet), six-year-old son of one of Peg Bundy's hillbilly cousins, who is left in the care of Peg (Katey Sagal) and her husband, Al (Ed O'Neill), by Seven's irresponsible parents. Alas, Seven never caught on with the series' fans (some critics have compared him to the benighted "Oliver" on the final season of The Brady Bunch), so the character was abruptly dumped in mid-season, without comment or explanation. Elsewhere, things haven't changed much for the boorish Bundy family. Dad Al continues to be the archetypal male chauvinist pig, Peg persists in avoiding housework and indulging in sexual fantasies, daughter Kelly (Christina Applegate) puts her show-biz career on hold to work as a waitress, and son Bud (David Faustino) continues to seek out hot chicks and fast money. This is the season in which the entire cast appears as pirates and captured maidens in a dream sequence; Al is sued by a man who was robbing the Bundy house; Peg doodles a cartoon of Al which wins him about 15-and-a-half minutes of fame; Bud shows up as a contestant on The Dating Game; and Al's old girlfriend makes him an offer he can't refuse. Season seven closes with an offbeat special episode, "A Day in the Life," focusing on the backstage activities of series regulars Amanda Bearse (Marcy) and Ted McGinley (Jefferson). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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- Starring:
- Ed O'Neill, Katey Sagal, (more)

- 1991
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- Add Married... With Children: Season 06 to Queue
Add Married... With Children: Season 06 to top of Queue
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, Rovi
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- Starring:
- Ed O'Neill, Katey Sagal, (more)

- 1990
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In this drama, a divorced dad fights for visitation rights with his daughter after she and her mother are relocated to an unknown locale as part of the Federal Witness Protection program. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
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- Starring:
- Ed O'Neill, Mike Farrell, (more)

- 1990
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- Add Married... With Children: Season 05 to Queue
Add Married... With Children: Season 05 to top of Queue
The big news during season five of Married...With Children is the remarriage of Marcy Rhoades (Amanda Bearse), next-door neighbor of the boorish Bundys. After a drunken binge at a bankers' convention, Marcy wakes up to discover that she is the wife of one Jefferson D'Arcy (Ted McGinley), whose lack of charm is matched only by his lack of ambition. Not that Al and Peg Bundy (Ed O'Neill, Katey Sagal) don't have misadventures of their own. Taking his family on a car trip for Labor Day Weekend, Al spends all three days stuck in "typical" Chicago freeway traffic. Peggy begins popping birth-control pills at the precise moment that Al is hoping to father a child so that he can inherit a fortune. The couple's daughter Kelly (Christina Applegate) miraculously graduates from high school, becomes the commercial spokesperson for "Weenie Tots," and dates a guy twice her age. And son Bud (David Faustino) fulfills a lifelong dream by finally scoring with a chick. As if to make certain that Married...With Children doesn't completely lose its grip on reality, we are offered episodes in which Al Bundy witnesses an invasion by little green aliens, and (in the season's final episode) the family goes prospecting for gold in the town of Lucifer, NM -- just off Route 666. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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- Starring:
- Ed O'Neill, Katey Sagal, (more)

- 1990
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- 1989
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- Add Married... With Children: Season 04 to Queue
Add Married... With Children: Season 04 to top of Queue
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, Rovi
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- Starring:
- Ed O'Neill, Katey Sagal, (more)

- 1988
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- Add Married... With Children: Season 03 to Queue
Add Married... With Children: Season 03 to top of Queue
The third season of Married...With Children might not have happened if a certain Michigan housewife had had her way. Outraged by the excessive sex talk and overall lack of good taste on the series, the woman from Michigan launched a letter-writing campaign to get Married... banned from the Fox network. This didn't happen for three reasons: Most viewers accepted the series as a broad satire of '80s TV raunchiness, the series was enjoying its best-ever ratings, and the show was a cash cow for Fox, accruing more advertising revenue than the rest of its programs combined. As they say, money talks, and something else walks. Anyway, season three offers even more outrageous behavior from the Bundy family of Chicago, much to the dismay of their strait-laced neighbors, the Rhoadeses. To cite on example among many, we submit for approval the episode in which, thanks to Peg Bundy's (Katey Sagal) lousy sense of directions, Steve Rhodes (David Garrison) and wife Marcy (Amanda Bearse) come home to find that their house has been demolished and their lot replaced by a gaping hole! The season's best-known episode, "The Camping Show," was originally titled "A Period Pierce" because it deals with the discomfort of Peg and Marcy whose "time of the month" occurs during a camping trip; the Fox network decided to change the title rather than offend its audience (as if the audience for this show could ever be offended). Another episode, "I'll See You in Court," was not aired in the U.S. until it was cablecast by the FX channel in 2002. The plot? Well, it seems that both the Bundys and the Rhoadeses are videotaped while having sex at a cheap hotel...say no more, say no more, wink wink, nudge nudge. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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- Starring:
- Ed O'Neill, Katey Sagal, (more)

- 1988
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Robert Conrad stars in this 2-hour Police Story TV special, directed by another veteran of 1960s series television, James Darren. Conrad plays an unpopular cop who is being sued for harassment by a prostitute. His mob enemies murder the hooker and frame Conrad for the killing. This results in Conrad being sent to a prison nicknamed "the gladiator school," where many of the inmates eagerly await the opportunity to exact revenge upon the hard-nosed cop. Originally telecast on November 5, 1988, Police Story: Gladiator School is an expanded remake of one of the scripts from Police Story's original 1973-1980 weekly run. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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- 1987
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- Add Married... With Children: Season 01 to Queue
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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, Rovi
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- Starring:
- Ed O'Neill, Katey Sagal, (more)

- 1987
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- Add Married... With Children: Season 02 to Queue
Add Married... With Children: Season 02 to top of Queue
Firmly established as the fledgling Fox network's most successful (and most outrageous) sitcom, Married...With Children sails into its second season with more misadventures of the boorish Bundy family and their long-suffering neighbors, the Rhoadeses. As farcical and far-out as the plotlines had been in season one, the series' "real-life" quotient is virtually nonexistent in season two. In the two-part season opener, the Bundys take a vacation to Florida, where Peg (Katey Sagal) is kidnapped by an axe murderer and Al (Ed O'Neill) exerts the least possible energy to save her. Later episodes revolve around the sexual promiscuity of the Bundys' dog, Buck, Peg's revealing (in more ways than one) night out with neighbor Marcy (Amanda Bearse) at a male strip club, daughter Kelly (Christina Applegate) amazing one and all by actually passing her driver's test, 12-year-old son Bud's (David Faustino) tentative fling with a 21-year-old art student, the demise of Santa Claus on the Bundy property, and the first signs of marital disfunction in the Rhoades household. The most talked-about episode of season two was "Peggy Loves Al, Yeah, Yeah, Yeah," in which the Fox network conducted a telephone poll during the original telecast (on February 14, 1988) to find out if the viewers really wanted Al to get off his chauvinistic high horse and tell Peggy that he really loves her. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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- Starring:
- Ed O'Neill, Katey Sagal, (more)

- 1987
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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, Rovi
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- Starring:
- Christina Applegate, Amanda Bearse, (more)

- 1987
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Raquel Welch's astonishing performance in the made-for-TV Right to Die compensates for any number of script deficiencies. Ms. Welch plays a successful psychologist with a happy home life who is suddenly stricken with the dreaded neurological affliction ALS (aka "Lou Gehrig's Disease"). At first, she is determined to fight for her life, but as her conditions deteriorates and she becomes more of a human vegetable, Ms. Welch begs her husband (Michael Gross) to help her die. The producers of Right to Die chose Raquel Welch not so much for her resemblance to the real-life person upon whom the story is based, but in the hopes that this "offbeat" piece of casting would attract a large TV audience. Ms. Welch accepted the role to counter industry accusations that she was impossible to work with. Thus the motivations behind Right to Die were more commercially oriented than the film's subject matter deserved, but this can be excused in the light of Welch's harrowingly accurate portrayal of a woman literally dying by inches before our eyes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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- Starring:
- Raquel Welch, Michael Gross, (more)

- 1986
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Partially filmed in New York City, the made-for-TV Popeye Doyle is based on the character introduced in the 1971 Oscar-winner The French Connection--who, in turn, was based on real-life Manhattan police detective Eddie Egan. Ed O'Neill takes over from French Connection star Gene Hackman as Popeye Doyle, playing the part along more humorous and less brutal lines than his theatrical-film predecessor. Doyle tackles the cast of a murdered model, which leads to a gang of terrorists. This lead sends Doyle on the trail of yet another cartel of international drug smugglers. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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- Starring:
- Ed O'Neill, Matthew Laurance, (more)

- 1985
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Married...With Children's Ed O'Neill guest stars as parole officer Dan Colson, an old pal of Detective Sgt. Rick Hunter (Fred Dryer). Unfortunately, the pressures of having to deal with the scum of the earth (to say nothing of enduring the murder of a close friend) have pushed Colson off the deep end, and now he is practicing his own bloody brand of vigilante justice. Grimly, Hunter sets about to stop Colson from murdering a framed parolee. Watch for a young Frances McDormand in a supporting role. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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