Married… with children, anyone who grew up in the 80’s or 90’s knows this show and can repeat catch phrases by heart, formers writers of Laverne & Shirley and Different Strokes Michael G. Moye and Ron Levitt were the original creators of the iconic show, after they were pretty sick of all the usual family sitcoms of the 80’s they decided to create the complete opposite of it, they even had a fitting name ” Not the Cosbys “.
But after more consideration the title of the new show was changed to Married With Children. Below are 20 facts about Married With Children you might not know about one of the most popular and iconic TV shows ever aired.
1. MARRIED… WITH CHILDREN WAS FOX’S FIRST PRIME TIME SHOW
It first aired on Sunday, April 5,1987, going live for the first time at 7PM EST with the pilot, the show was followed by the series The Tracey Ullman Show at 8PM and both shows were repeated again and again at 9PM.
2. MARRIED WITH CHILDREN IS THE LONGEST RUNNING LIVE SHOW IN FOX HISTORY.
259 original episodes with the final one being aired on June 9, 1997
3. THE FAMILIAR THEME SONG WAS ORIGINALLY RECORDED BY FRANK SINATRA FOR A DIFFERENT TV SHOW
” Love and Marriage ” was written by Sammy Cahn and Jimmy Van Heusen and was performed by Ol’ Blue Eyes in 1955. The recorded version that eventually ended up as the show theme song was released on 1956’s This Is Sinatra!
4. KELLY AND BUD WERE NOT CHRISTINA APPLEGATE AND DAVID FAUSTIAN IN THE PILOT
Surprisingly enough, the two stars didn’t play in the Married With Children pilot. Tina Caspary and Hunter Carson played Kelly and Bud Bundy in the unaired pilot, they were both replaced by Applegate and David before the series went on to air.
5. SAM KINISON AND ROSEANNE BARR WERE SUPPOSED TO PLAY AL AND PEGGY
Both actors were originally pitched for the show, but their managers told Move, Leavitt that they are movie actors, not television, we all know how that turned out for them. tear tear…
6. KRAMER WAS ALMOST AL BUNDY
Two years before landing the biggest role of his life as Kramer on Seinfeld, Michael Richards auditioned for the role of Al Bundy. Moye later said that of all the people who auditioned for the part, ” 80 percent played Al liked Jackie Gleason as Ralph Cramden and five percent went the Jack Nicholson in The Shining way. He didn’t know he was waiting for Ed O’Neill until he saw him.
7. ED O’NEILL WAS SPOTTED WHILE PLAYING LENNY IN OF MICE AND MEN
A FOX executive saw O’Neill play Lenny and thought he would be perfect for the job, when Ed showed up for the audition he won the role by taking a deep breath and slumping his shoulders before entering the room, something no other actor did.
8. THE AL BUNDY CHARACTER WAS BASED ON O’NEILL OLD FRIENDS AND FAMILY
He based his performance on some of his uncles and a high school friend, he knew that at first non of them will even see the show as Ed’s hometown of Youngstown, Ohio didn’t get FOX when the show just started
9. MARRIED WITH CHILDREN RUINED ED O’NEILL’S MOVIE CAREER
O’Neill played a Navy captain involved in a court martial in the war movie Flight of the Intruder from 1991, but he had to be recast after the movie was played to test audiences and they just kept laughing every time they saw him on the big screen, for that you could say Ed O’Neill was born to play Al Bundy.
10. KATEY SAGAL WAS THE ONE WHO CAME UP WITH THE PEGGY BUNDY STYLE
She played Peggy in her audition as if she was dressed like a former cocktail waitress, and it worked.
11. THE BUDGET FOR THE SHOW WAS REALLY LOW
In the early days of the series the budget was so small that when Buck the family dog went on a shopping spree, the items he bought were actually just items from the homes of the cast and crew. Another example of the poor budget they had was the fact that Katey Sagal didn’t get to wear a wig until season three of the show.
12. There was one episode of Married… With Children that didn’t air
Season three episode called ” I’ll see you in court ” was too racy for television in 1989 by the FOX network, the episode didn’t see the light of day until June 18, 2002. At the time the show was being hammered with letters about being too racy and not suitable for TV, the campaign was actually started by a Michigan housewife named Terry Rakolta ( which is Mitt Romney’s former sister-in-law ), the effect of her actions was that some advertisers decided to pull their ads from the show.
13. BUD WAS ACTUALLY A REAL LIFE RAPPER
Grandmaster B, the popular nickname of bud Bundy on the show came after the writers noticed that the actor really loved hip hop music and he invited some DJ friends on his to the set. They knew he wanted to be a rap artist so they fitted it on the show. In 1992 David released an album as D’Lil ” Balistyx “. Another cool fact to know is that Bud Bundy’s room in the show was designed by David himself, all the posters in the room was he’s on doing, artists like Nas and Ice Cube. Nas later admitted that he knew he made it when he first saw his poster in Bud’s bedroom.
14. JEFFERSON D’ARCY TURNED INTO A SECRET AGENT AFTER THE ACTOR COMPLAINED
The actor, Ted Mcginley complained his character was turning into such a wuss, so the writers created his secret agent role.
15. STEVE RHOADES LEFT THE SHOW TO GO BACK TO LIVE THEATRE
Garrison, who played the neighbour Steve Rhoades on the Married with Children show decided to leave the show after season three, he would pop up here and there after that every time with a different profession, maybe to symbolise the fact he decided to leave the successful show.
16. THE 200TH EPISODE SPECIAL WAS HOSTED BY GEORGE PLIMPTON
The author did it as a ” mock-pompous manner ”
17. THE SHOW HAD TWO FAILED SPINOFFS
When Garrison had his last appearance as Steve Rhoades in season nine finale ” Radio Free Trumaine “, where he was a college dean who made a mistake of expelling some school DJ’s, that was the first failed attempt, the second one was in season ten in episode ” Enemies ” where Nicole Eggert did a low blow version of Friends that FOX also didn’t want to pick up. Although the spinoff Top of the Heap featuring Matt LeBlanc who played as one of the many boyfriends Kelly Bundy had on the show Vinnie Verducci, it was picked up but lasted only six episodes.
18. YOU COULD SEE A BUD BUDDY SPINOFF IN THE NEAR FUTURE.
It has been reported that Sony is sniffing around a Bud centric show that could see the light on day some day.
19. ED O’NEILL GOT HIS HOLLYWOOD STAR ON THE WALK OF FAME NEXT TO A SHOE STORE
Yes, Ironically, the star of the Married With Children show Ed O’Neill got his star made on August 30, 2011 and it was placed right at the front of a DSW show store in Hollywood Boulevard
20. ED O’NEILL IS THE ONLY CAST MEMBER TO APPEAR IN ALL THE 260 EPISODES. 
We will try and update this Married… With Children facts post from time to time to add more relevant content.
