# Married... with Children (1987)

> A failed shoe salesman and his lazy wife and dim children squabble through life in a rundown Chicago suburban home.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/4027

## Facts

- Seasons: 11
- Episodes: 258
- Episode runtime: 22 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: comedy
- Created by: Michael G. Moye, Ron Leavitt
- Network: FOX
- Cast: Ed O'Neill, Katey Sagal, David Garrison, Amanda Bearse, Christina Applegate, David Faustino, Ted McGinley, Ritch Shydner
- TMDB rating: 8.1/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0092400/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: simple
- Violence: none
- Tone: sardonic, irreverent, deadpan, crude, cynical

## What critics say

Audiences broadly regard the sitcom as a sharp, irreverent comedy about a dysfunctional family, with consistently positive ratings across its run.

## Synopsis

Married... with Children (1987-1997) is a US network sitcom created by Michael G. Moye and Ron Leavitt for FOX. Ed O'Neill plays Al Bundy, an unsuccessful middle aged shoe salesman who hates his job and resents his life, while Katey Sagal plays his lazy wife Peggy Bundy, Christina Applegate plays their dim witted daughter Kelly, and David Faustino plays their dysfunctional son Bud, who struggles with women. Amanda Bearse and David Garrison play the Rhoades, the neighbors who serve as a more polished foil to the Bundys. The engine of the show is simple: Al schemes for small victories, Peg avoids every chore, and the kids chase their own petty goals, and the collisions among them fill each episode. The series runs eleven seasons and 258 episodes as a multi camera sitcom with a studio audience, set in a modest Chicago suburb in the late 1980s and 1990s. Its tone is cynical, crude and irreverent, with deadpan asides and broad slapstick, and its theme is the comic pleasure of a family that refuses to be better than it is. Fans of Roseanne, Everybody Loves Raymond and The Simpsons will find resonance in its blue collar bickering and sardonic outlook.

## Shows like Married... with Children

- [The Middle (2009)](https://ember.film/tv/1338)
- [Modern Family (2009)](https://ember.film/tv/1337)
- [Up All Night (2011)](https://ember.film/tv/36161)
- [Shameless (2011)](https://ember.film/tv/31582)
- [Sanford and Son (1972)](https://ember.film/tv/2458)
- [Sai de Baixo (1996)](https://ember.film/tv/19119)
- [All in the Family (1971)](https://ember.film/tv/1814)
- [Family Matters (1989)](https://ember.film/tv/2550)
- [Who's the Boss? (1984)](https://ember.film/tv/599)
- [According to Jim (2001)](https://ember.film/tv/1637)

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