Married With Children was a situational comedy based on an average American family The series was the first primetime television series to be aired on FOX Network and became one of its most loved shows ever. For the first few seasons, the series was watched by only a limited number of audiences as the Network being relatively new had not reached a lot of homes yet. However later, with the growth of the network, the series really became a hit with the audience across America and went on to become Fox’s first number one prime time show and sitcom series. The series became famous for handling non-standard topics for the time period and made Fox network stand at par with ABC, CBS and NBC networks.
The series premiered on the Fox Network on 5th April 1987. It was created by Michael G. Moye and Ron Leavitt and was produced by Embassy Television/ELP Communications which was later succeeded by Columbia Pictures Television which finally became Columbia TriStar Television. The series aired a total of 259 episodes across eleven seasons and ten years and was only beaten by The Simpsons for that milestone on FOX. In 2008, Spike Network closed a deal of US$12 million for broadcast rights to every episode and the series started airing on the Network on 29th September 2008.
The story of the series revolves around a stereotypical “white trash” American family called The Bundy’s. The family is headed by Al Bundy who is a lowly women’s shoe salesman and likes to relive his doubtful 15 seconds of fame on the football field. He is married to Peggy, a lazy television addict who also loves to spend most of Al’s wages at the salon and the mall. The couple has a daughter named Kelly who is an empty-headed but attractive blonde and loves to party. Then there is Bud, the young son of the Bundy’s who a smart, short, and weird little boy and almost always has bad luck with women. To round up the family is the dog named Buck, who likes to sit and make perverted jokes. The series also focused on Marcy Rhoades, the upwardly-mobile neighbor of The Bundy’s, who was first married to Steve and later in the show married Jefferson D’Arcy, a former spy who with various jobs preferred being a house husband.
The series remained quite popular amongst the audiences for the entire ten years for which it was aired. Although in the initial two seasons, the series focused more on a realistic view of a working-class family, later the series changed its tone to become more cartoonish and broad, shedding its appearance as a commentary on the nuclear family. The series was nominated for 7 Golden Globe Awards and 7 Emmy Awards besides 21 other awards and also won 5 other awards.
