Married... with Children

Married... with Children was an American sitcom about a dysfunctional family living in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois. It ran on the Fox network from April 5, 1987 to April 20, 1997.

Controversy & Missing episodes

One episode of Married With Children was "lost" due to the efforts of a Michigan housewife and another episode was edited because of 9/11.

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The Rakolta Boycott

In 1989 Terry Rakoltahttp://www.bundyology.com/rakolta.html, a wealthy housewife from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, led a massive boycott against Married With Children after viewing the episode "Her Cups Runneth Over - 3x06"http://www.bundyology.com/hpg/306.html. Offended by the images of an old man wearing a garter and stockings, a gay man and a woman who bared her breasts, Rakolta began a letter-writing campaign to advertisers demanding they boycott the show.

Related Topics:
1989 - Bloomfield Hills, Michigan

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After advertisers began dropping their support for the show and while Rakolta made several appearances on television talk shows, Fox executives played it safe and refused to air the episode titled "I'll See You In Court - 3x08"http://www.bundyology.com/hpg/308.html. That particular episode would become known as the "Lost Episode." "I'll See You In Court - 3x08" was finally aired on FX on June 18, 2002. The episode was packaged with the rest of the third season in the January 2005 DVD release.

Related Topics:
FX - June 18 - 2002 - January 2005 - DVD

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Ironically during the boycott, ratings for Married With Children skyrocketed due to interest in the show caused by Rakolta's crusade to have the show canceled. The increased number of viewers kept Married With Children on the air until 1997. According to sources on the Married With Children set, the creators of the show, Ron Leavitt and Michael G. Moye, sent Rakolta a fruit basket every Christmas as a way of saying "thank you."

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Rakolta herself has been referenced twice on the show. The first time in the episode titled "Rock and Roll Girl - 4x14"http://www.bundyology.com/hpg/414.html when a newscaster mentioned the city Bloomfield Hills. The second time occurred in the episode titled "No Pot To Pease In - 9x09"http://www.bundyology.com/hpg/909.html when a television show was made about the Bundy family. After the show was canceled, Marcy told the Bundys that "some woman in Michigan didn't like it".

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9/11 & The ticking bomb

Before 9/11, the syndicated version of the episode titled "Get Outta Dodge - 8x17"http://www.bundyology.com/hpg/817.html featured a scene of two Arabs with a ticking bomb at the front door of Al Bundy's house offering to buy his Dodge for $40 and asking for directions to the Sears Tower. The scene was cut from the syndicated re-airings of the episode after 9/11.

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Airings

Is seen on FX at 1AM Eastern time.

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Trivia

• The creators of the show named the "Bundy" family after their favorite wrestler King Kong Bundy, though some fans mistakenly believed that it was from Ted Bundy.
• The producers originally wanted to cast comedian Sam Kinison as Al Bundy. However they ultimately chose not to, due to the profane nature of Kinison's comedy routines.
• Also, the part of Peg Bundy was originally offered to Roseanne Barr.