Married With Children: Why Seven Vanished From The Show
Married... With Children was one of the biggest sitcoms of its era, but child character Seven proved unpopular with fans. Here's why he vanished.
Here’s whey child character Seven vanished with little explanation during Married… With Children season 7. Married… With Children follows the Bundy family which includes parents Al and Peggy and their children Kelly and Bud. The show debuted in 1987 and quickly became popular due to its non-PC humor, with the Bundy clan all being miserable souls in their own ways. Al (Ed O’Neill, Modern Family) is a bitter, washed-up former athlete, who is openly despised by the workshy Peg (Katey Sagal, Sons Of Anarchy) and gets no respect from dim daughter Kelly (Christina Applegate) or sleazy son Bud (David Faustino).
Married… With Children was so popular it ran for eleven seasons, though it’s abrupt cancellation following the production of season 11 meant it didn’t receive a proper finale. There were also attempts at spin-offs such as Top Of The Heap, which featured two characters who appeared during Married… With Children’s fifth season – played by Joseph Bologna and Matt LeBlanc (Friends) – and their various failed, get rich quick schemes. That show only lasted seven episodes, with LeBlanc being retained for sequel series Vinnie & Bobby, which again only lasted seven episodes.
Like any long-running show, sometimes producers try to spice up the formula to keep audiences interested. For Married… With Children’s season seven, this came in the form of introducing a new child character to the cast. In the opening episode “Magnificent Seven” Peg’s cousins Zemus (Bobcat Goldthwait) and Ida Mae (Linda Blair, The Exorcist) arrive for a visit and leave behind their young son Seven. The Bundys are forced to look after him, which was supposed to add a new dynamic to the show.
It didn’t quite work out that way, as by the time season 7 arrived the comic chemistry between the main Married… With Children cast was pretty much locked down. Having a hyperactive child running around added little to the established dynamic, and audiences quickly grew weary of Seven. Instead of finding an elegant way to write him out, it’s just mentioned by the D’Arcys in one episode that he showed up at their house and won’t leave, and they may start taking care of him. That clearly didn’t happen as he later shows up as “Missing” on a milk carton during Married… With Children season 8 – which doesn’t seem to bother the Bundy family.
Like Chuck Cunningham infamously walking upstairs in Happy Days season 2 and never being seen again, Seven is an example of a character who wasn’t particularly liked by viewers who were unceremoniously dropped. Like Randy being introduced in the final season of That ’70s Show, it was simply too late to introduce a new character into the core cast, which is one key reason Married… With Children’s audience didn’t take to Seven.
