Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, September 5, 1993 TAG: 9309170428
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: DIANE WERTS NEWSDAY|
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
And we love them.
What does this say about us?
Bad taste rules!
And it's ruled for - sit down, Terry Rakolta - 150 episodes now. ``Married ... With Children'' starts its eighth season on Fox tonight. It's network TV's longest-running current comedy! If you can't believe it ...
``Imagine my surprise!'' booms ``Married'' co-creator and executive producer Michael Moye, guffawing into the phone with a heartiness that would do Al Bundy proud. He's savoring the unexpected longevity of the Revenge of the Unwashed Herd.
``We figured it'd be 13 shows and out,'' Moye says from his studio office. ``We figured there'd be a mandate of Congress, and we'd just ride off into the sunset, but we're gonna have a good time 13 times.''
So they made the Bundy family of suburban Chicago the most outrageously disgusting downscale people they could - lazy, greedy, sluttish, manipulative deadbeats, perpetually self-centered and seeking a free ride, even if it meant dirty dealing their own family. Especially if it meant dirty dealing their own family.
``We wanted to create a family that was so disgusting, that no matter how low your life was,'' Moye says, ``you could look down at these people.''
Al (Ed O'Neill), the lumpish shoe salesman who likes nothing better than slumping on the sofa watching TV with his hands down the top of his pants. Peggy (Katey Sagal), his what-me-work wife, devoted to avoiding housework, spending money and pleading with not-tonight Al for sex. Kelly (Christina Applegate), their dim-brain sleep-around daughter. And Bud (David Faustino), their scuzzy, scamming son.
Absolutely nothing to recommend any of them, and not one redeeming value espoused at any time.
Ain't it great?
Of course, that no-ethics-here attitude was exactly what sent Michigan mother Terry Rakolta steaming when she saw the early episodes and quickly launched her infamous grassroots campaign to have the rabid Bundys put to sleep. She beseeched sponsors and appealed to the press that the Bundys were a bad influence on kids.
Well - exactly. Almost exactly, anyway. Their bad attitudes were precisely their appeal - but the show wasn't quite a denunciation of real-life families; it was a burlesque on TV families. Moye and co-creator Ron Leavitt were firing their broadest comic buckshot at the video medium's longstanding idealization of sweet, neat family perfection.
``You have to remember,'' Moye says, ``America was riding a wave of `Cosby [Show]' let's-put-everybody-in-clean-sweaters and have-a-nice-day. Being topical was also in vogue, where comedies were involved with gangs and racism and functional illiteracy. We honestly went into it to give people an alternative ...
``We just wanted to do a show that would take a giant step back to when comedies were just about making you laugh. We promised ourselves right off the bat, we would purposely make sure you could learn nothing from `Married ... With children.'''
Oh, I don't know about nothing. I think back to my favorite ``Married'' episode, the first-season Christmas story, when a shopping-mall Santa jumped from a helicopter and landed in the Bundys' back yard sans parachute. Remember the words of the cackling coroner? ``Don't die with your jewelry on.''
There were other messages, too. Like equality. If Al gazed longingly at tarty women, Peg would stuff dollars down the pants of studly male dancers. Women were objects, men were objects. Kids were annoying, rules were annoying. The Bundys scorned everything equally.
But for all its toxic zingers and double-edged repartee, ``Married ... With Children'' has actually been, on its own terms, an awfully good-natured comedy. The cast has such a light touch that the sass hasn't escalated to malevolence. The show's rarely taken potshots at the less fortunate, or indulged in racism or sexism. ``Al's prejudices are really against life,'' says Moye - against the way Al thinks his lot in life stacks up so pathetically next to the American-dream ease of the lifestyles he sees on, you know, television.
Compare the Bundys' behavior to the series that follows them on Fox starting Sunday: the new ``Daddy Dearest,'' in which Don Rickles spews stinging venom at every minority group or disadvantaged person he can lay tongue on. It's even more painful because ``Daddy Dearest'' works hard to make its sitcom world seem ``real.''
Over on ``Married,'' the whole set-up's clearly a farce from the get-go; look at Peg's cartoony grooming, or Al's overblown reactions, or the ultra-silly situations.
On what other show would you see such upcoming plot twists as Al being circumcised, or Kelly becoming a late-night TV commercial mascot (the Verminator). The bad news? Peg ``won't be quite as malicious this year,'' Moye says. But you can't have everything.
Sometimes bad taste just has to be enough.
by CNB