Married... with Children
Reverend Al
TV Flash files “Reverend Al” as hour 213 of 259 in the TV Flash guide — Married... with Children (1987–1997) on Fox, season 10, episode 4, aired 1995-10-08, 30 min.
From the desk
How this hour is filed
This leaf is S10E04: listed hour 213 of 259 in the Married... with Children guide, hour 4 of 26 in season 10. It aired 1995-10-08 (30 min). The listed hour before it is “Requiem for a Dead Briard” (S10E03). Next is “How Bleen Was My Kelly” (S10E05).
Catalog log
Broadcast listing — not a TV Flash recap.
Al and his mens group NO MA'AM decide to form their own church in order to avoid paying beer tax. When Marcy and her women's group FANG expose Al's plan to the public, NO MA'AM surprisingly receives sympathy and donations from thousands of long-suffering married men in America which makes it possible for them to open their church. Al becomes a televangelist and preaches the NO MA'AM way of life.
Viewer FAQ
Where does Reverend Al sit in the Married... with Children guide?
S10E04 is listed hour 213 of 259 — hour 4 of 26 in season 10, season 10 episode 4.
When did Married... with Children S10E04 air?
Reverend Al aired 1995-10-08 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…