Last week I gave you a tribute to that fabulously 80s ditz, Kelly Bundy. This week I thought, why not the whole show?

Married With Children first aired in 1987. I remember the first time I saw it – because to me, it was just so different from any other show. Where I’m from, shows like Get Smart, Bewitched, Genie and other such shows were (and still are) repeated constantly. I don’t find any of these shows funny in the least. Then Married With Children came along.

It was, at the time, a refreshing look at family life. It stars an incredibly dysfunctional family – father Al is a depressed shoe salesman who is married to Peggy, a conniving, lazy big haired woman. Daughter Kelly is a classic blonde, sexy ditz and son Bud is smart but a complete loser with the opposite sex. Comedy is made of this!

Coming from a dysfunctional family myself, it was so nice to see a family that weren’t totally vanilla, that didn’t learn a moral lesson at the end of every episode over a big bowl of ice cream. (If there was ice cream in the Bundy house – it was probably stolen!) Not long after the world was blessed with the Simpsons and the dysfunctional family became the norm on TV. But I always consider Married With Children to be a pioneer in this respect.

Most of the funny comes from Al and Kelly and their observations about life in general. And it is so thoroughly 80s (well… until it hits the 90s!), you could watch just for the fashion alone. I love that the family live in a crappy little house and that they never have any food in the fridge. They lead such an interesting life of sustaining themselves in any way they can, lying, cheating and stealing.

However you’ll notice in occasional episodes that the family really do love each other. Despite Al’s disdain for his life, he once has an opportunity to leave with another woman – and doesn’t take it. He also defends Kelly when she needs her father most, which is really quite touching when it happens!

I find it unlikely that anyone HASN’T seen this show, but if you’re one of the unfortunate ones – you need to see it! It’s mandatory viewing, folks!

You can get most of the DVDs from Amazon.