Married... With Children Holds An Important Role In Fox History

If, like me, you grew up on "The Simpsons" you'll no doubt recall the show's relentless mockery of the Fox Network. When the Simpsons weren't stomping on the Fox logo in couch gags, the show was depicting the network censor being murdered during the intro to a "Treehouse of Horror" episode. Growing up in England, this constant Fox-bashing was a bit of a mystery to me. What did "The Simpsons" have against this American network that literally aired their show, anyway? Well, it turns out there was more to it than the writers getting ticked off with censor notes or having it out for Fox owner Rupert Murdoch.

In the 1980s, TV was dominated by three major networks: NBC, ABC, and CBS. That had been the status quo for decades before News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch decided to shake things up, launching the Fox Broadcasting Company on October 9, 1986, as a fourth network to compete with the existing three. So, when "The Simpsons" debuted in 1989, Fox was still very much seen as the new kid on the block, which was part of why the show delighted in poking fun at Murdoch and his then-nascent television enterprise.

Since then, "The Simpsons" has become the longest-running American animated series, and even manages to churn out some decent episodes to this day. But before Homer, Marge, and the kids helped put Fox on the map, there was another sitcom family that not only paved the way for the success of "The Simpsons" but also helped build the Fox Network foundation: "Married... With Children."

Originally broadcast on April 5, 1987, "Married... with Children" became the longest-running live-action sitcom to ever air on the Fox Network (which was part of the Disney-Fox buyout) in 2019, wrapping up on May 5, 1997. But that's not the only record the show holds.

Focusing on a working-class family headed by Al Bundy (Ed O'Neill), "Married... With Children" was truly unique. Rather than portray the type of wholesome family you'd see on "The Cosby Show," "Family Ties," or any other sitcom at the time, the Bundy family was a decidedly dysfunctional unit. Aside from Al's jaded, misanthropic manner, Margaret "Peggy" Bundy (Katey Sagal) would openly mock her husband, while the pair's children, Kelly and Bud (Christina Appelgate and David Faustino), were about as off-putting as their parents. Not only that, the show had some pretty racy plotlines for the time and stirred up controversy on numerous occasions.

But that was kind of the point. As producer Marcy Vosburgh once put it, "Married... With Children" was designed to be "a show where no matter what happened after you turned it off, you could feel a little bit better about yourself." As such, you might think a TV network would schedule such risqué material in a late-night slot. But the newly-established Fox Network needed something to set itself apart from the legacy networks, and so "Married... With Children" became its first prime-time series.

Younger readers might be asking just what "prime-time" even means. Well, kids, in a time before every film and TV series ever made was available on-demand, networks would save their best shows for prime programming hours, which were generally agreed to be between 8 and 11 pm. Throughout the 11-season run of "Married... with Children," for instance, the show started airing on Sunday nights at 8 pm. After the first season, Fox switched the time slot to 8:30 pm for the second and third seasons, and then to 9 pm up until season 10. For the 11th and final season, the show started airing on Saturdays at 9 pm, before moving to Sundays at 7:30 pm and then to Monday nights at 9 and 9:30 pm.

Though Fox was, at the time, too young a network for "Married... with Children" to garner ratings that could truly rival sitcoms from the big three networks, it was popular enough that it not only paved the way for "The Simpsons," but also helped establish Fox as a legitimate rival to the existing networks. The show subverted the feel-good wholesomeness of established sitcoms and presented a dysfunctional family that would actually make audiences feel better about themselves, It wasn't just that it was something fresh and different, it was also somewhat transgressive in its deconstruction of the American family. As such, by airing "Married... with Children" during prime-time, Fox was leaning into the edginess of the whole thing, establishing itself as the "bad boy" of network television and readying the world for more of the same. 

Recently, there's been talk of an animated "Married with... Children" revival, which, regardless of whether it ever materializes or not, is a testament to the enduring popularity of Fox's first prime-time show.