The third season of Married...With Children might not have happened if a certain Michigan housewife had had her way. Outraged by the excessive sex talk and overall lack of good taste on the series, the woman from Michigan launched a letter-writing campaign to get Married... banned from the Fox network. This didn't happen for three reasons: Most viewers accepted the series as a broad satire of '80s TV raunchiness, the series was enjoying its best-ever ratings, and the show was a cash cow for Fox, accruing more advertising revenue than the rest of its programs combined. As they say, money talks, and something else walks. Anyway, season three offers even more outrageous behavior from the Bundy family of Chicago, much to the dismay of their strait-laced neighbors, the Rhoadeses. To cite on example among many, we submit for approval the episode in which, thanks to Peg Bundy's (Katey Sagal) lousy sense of directions, Steve Rhodes (David Garrison) and wife Marcy (Amanda Bearse) come home to find that their house has been demolished and their lot replaced by a gaping hole! The season's best-known episode, "The Camping Show," was originally titled "A Period Pierce" because it deals with the discomfort of Peg and Marcy whose "time of the month" occurs during a camping trip; the Fox network decided to change the title rather than offend its audience (as if the audience for this show could ever be offended). Another episode, "I'll See You in Court," was not aired in the U.S. until it was cablecast by the FX channel in 2002. The plot? Well, it seems that both the Bundys and the Rhoadeses are videotaped while having sex at a cheap hotel...say no more, say no more, wink wink, nudge nudge. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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