Married... with Children
You Better Shop Around (1)
TV Flash files “You Better Shop Around (1)” as hour 101 of 259 in the TV Flash guide — Married... with Children (1987–1997) on Fox, season 5, episode 21, aired 1991-04-14, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S05E21: listed hour 101 of 259 in the Married... with Children guide, hour 21 of 25 in season 5. It aired 1991-04-14 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Top of the Heap” (S05E20). Next is “You Better Shop Around (2)” (S05E22).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Al cannot afford to buy an air conditioner for the hot summer. After an attempt to install an old experimental model, (which results in a neighborhood blackout) Al moves his family into the local supermarket. After a while, they are told by the manager to buy something otherwise they will be sent to the county jail. Al decides to purchase a stick of gum and as he approaches the checkout line, sees Marcy. He decides to cut in front of Marcy and becomes the one millionth customer winning a shopping spree worth $1,000.
Viewer FAQ
Where does You Better Shop Around (1) sit in the Married... with Children guide?
S05E21 is listed hour 101 of 259 — hour 21 of 25 in season 5, season 5 episode 21.
When did Married... with Children S05E21 air?
You Better Shop Around (1) aired 1991-04-14 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…