Married... with Children
976-SHOE
TV Flash files “976-SHOE” as a desk essential hour — Married... with Children (1987–1997) on Fox, season 4, episode 8, aired 1989-11-12, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S04E08: listed hour 65 of 259 in the Married... with Children guide, hour 8 of 23 in season 4. It aired 1989-11-12 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Desperately Seeking Miss October” (S04E07). Next is “Oh, What a Feeling” (S04E09).
Essential hour: “976-SHOE”. 976-SHOE is the hotline-shoe hour: NO MA'AM energy as brand, the Rakolta boycott already making the Bundys more infamous.
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Al decides to open a shoe emergency hot-line with help from Steve in the form of a $50,000 loan. But typically, Al's get-rich-quick scheme backfires when nobody phones in. When Marcy gives Al a second $50,000 loan to repay the original loan, the Bundys and the Rhoades join together in a downward spiral of failure when Al instead sinks the second $50,000 into his failing shoe hot-line, which results in Steve losing his job at the bank, Marcy getting demoted, and Al ending up being the loser as always.
Viewer FAQ
Where does 976-SHOE sit in the Married... with Children guide?
S04E08 is listed hour 65 of 259 — hour 8 of 23 in season 4, season 4 episode 8.
When did Married... with Children S04E08 air?
976-SHOE aired 1989-11-12 and is listed at 30 minutes.
Is this the anti-Cosby sitcom on purpose?
Yes. Crude, anti-sentimental, and built to contrast the warm family sitcom. Fox used the Bundys to tell a young network who it was.
In the series
Why this series still plays
The anti-wholesome sitcom that made Fox a personality — O'Neill's Al is comic misery perfected, Sagal, Applegate, and Faustino the first family of gleeful dysfunction. Shoes, insults, NO MA'AM energy. Essential if you want 1980s TV to sneer back. The Rakolta boycott only made the Bundys more infamous.
The couch is the look. Not a hearth — a slouch in a worn throne, shoes as theology, a wife in leopard who refuses the Cosby sweater. Fox's Married... with Children (1987–1997) dressed gleeful dysfunction as a fourth network's personality: Ed O'Neill's Al Bundy, Katey Sagal's Peg, Christina Applegate's Kelly, David Faustino's Bud. Michael G. Moye and Ron Leavitt's crude counterprogramming. *Worn leather, cigarette haze, a football score as jewelry.* Style is the plot, even when the plot is an insult. **This was…
Filed against
- Ed O'Neill as Al Bundy
Ed O’Neill’s Al Bundy made Married… with Children a shoe-salesman religion of misery — 1980s catalog Fox sneer, then Modern Family recasting the slouch as Jay Pritchett’s blended-household deadpan. TV Flash files him as the couch that…
- Katey Sagal as Peggy Bundy
Katey Sagal’s Peggy Bundy made Married… with Children a leopard-print weather system — 1980s catalog anti-wholesome, Fox’s first family of gleeful dysfunction. Futurama and Sons of Anarchy proved the same instrument could sing pathos and…
- Christina Applegate as Kelly Bundy
Christina Applegate played Kelly Bundy on Married... with Children — the anti-wholesome sitcom that made Fox a personality, O'Neill's Al as comic misery, Sagal, Faustino, the first family of gleeful dysfunction. Shoes, insults, NO MA'AM…
- David Faustino as Bud Bundy
David Faustino’s Bud Bundy made Married… with Children a runt with a punchline — 1980s catalog Fox dysfunction, then The Legend of Korra stretching the voice into a bender’s politically edged sequel. TV Flash files him as the sitcom kid…