Married…With Children:  The Complete Series

One of those little moments in life I’ll never forget occurred when I was about six or seven, and it involved an argument my mother was having with my grandfather. 

My grandfather was a huge fan of professional wrestling, and he didn’t miss any televised event of any nature, even if it was on the Spanish language channel and he didn’t have any idea what they were saying.  Except this particular night, which was a Sunday, and if I remember correctly, WCW was having an extended broadcast for Clash of the Champions. 

At 9 o’clock, my mom turned the channel to FOX, which began the argument because Ric Flair was about to wrestle Sting or the Road Warriors or something on TBS. 

“Dad, we’ve watched wrestling all day, it’s my turn now,” my mother said.

“This show is trash!” my grandfather retorted.

“I’m not turning it back.  Now be quiet so I can watch!”

“This trash…” and all I can remember from my grandfather at that point was incoherent mumbling because he was soon enthralled with the current episode of Married…With Children, and not too long after that he was laughing so hard any last attempt at trying to appear morally offended had subsided.

Married…With Children was a Sunday night staple at my house for the duration of it’s eleven year run.  We never missed an episode, even on nights like that when wrestling was on.  That particular night was just the last time I remember any fuss over it. 

For those younger readers who might need a primer, Married…With Children was one of the first television shows to air on the FOX network, and out of the initial block of programming the fledgling network had to offer, the longest surviving.  It followed the exploits of the Bundy family and their dysfunctional misadventures through life.  And it was always hilarious.  Even during episodes where the writing wasn’t about dialogue and razor-sharp barbs played out at another characters’ expense, when it was some bizarre live action version of a Looney Tunes cartoon, it was always funny.

Married…With Children is one of those shows that was ahead of its time.  During the initial broadcast run, you wouldn’t hear anything about it.  It was almost as if no one wanted to admit they watched it, because the humor could be downright crude at times.  Hell, I even had a girl at summer camp actually stop talking to me completely because I admitted to watching and liking the show.   Many shows have borrowed from and tried to imitate it in various degrees, but none have come close to the spectacle that is the Bundy family.

Now for a few lines about the box set release in itself:

For a complete series boxset containing eleven seasons, you can find it for around fifty bucks at most places, which is a steal.  That being said, however, the episodes from season three onward are not broadcast originals.  The theme song ‘Love and Marriage’ performed by Frank Sinatra is replaced with an elevator-music-almost-sounds-like-it song with no words.  Does it detract from the individual episodes?  I don’t think so.  The eighth episode of the third season “I’ll See You in Court” is also edited from the original, but it was never broadcast during the initial season three run.  Did I notice that before looking it up on Wikipedia?  Nope.  And you probably wouldn’t had I not told you. 

The box the discs comes in is also the most interesting (as in I’ve never seen retail discs packaged like this) and probably my most preferred way, because I’m anal about protecting my DVDs and hate having box sets that scratch my discs as I remove them from the container they came in (I’m looking at you, Doctor Who: The Complete David Tennant Years).  It’s two spindles, with half the discs housed on one and the other half on the other, and two cardboard inserts that secure the discs from falling out or spinning freely to get scratched up. 

Don’t be like me, however, and try to demonstrate to your roommate how the discs won’t move even if the spindles are turned upside down while the box is open, because they’re not that good, and you’ll be sorting out thirty some-odd discs off your living room floor like I was.

Buy this.  It’s worth every penny.

4 out of 4

reviewed by Seth Moore

© Copyright 2012 John Shatzer