With the launching of the 1995-1996 TV season, Married...With Children became the first Fox network show to remain on the air for ten years. It is clear, however, that age has not withered the ability of the boorish Bundy family to make fools of themselves in a variety of situations, many of them sexual. The cast remains as ever: Ed O'Neill as oafish shoe clerk Al Bundy; Katey Sagal as Al's lazy, self-indulgent wife, Peg; Christina Applegate as hot-to-trot daughter Kelly, now a TV commercial spokeswoman; David Faustino as scheming son Bud, who this season defies all logic by graduating from Trumaine University; and next-door neighbors Marcy and Jefferson D'Arcy (Amanda Bearse, Ted McGinley). New developments this season include the demise of the Bundy family's dog, Buck, though the opportunity for a saccharine "very special moment" is deftly avoided when Buck is immediately (and reluctantly) reincarnated in the form of a cute little puppy named Lucky. Also, legendary character actress Kathleen Freeman -- or her voice, at any rate -- is added to the cast as Peg's obese, never-seen mother, Mrs. Wanker, who moves into Bud's old room after walking out on her husband (and, no, Bud has not left the nest -- he had merely relocated to the Bundy family basement). If Peg Bundy seems conspicuous by her absence towards the end of season ten, it is because actress Katey Sagal was on brief pregnancy leave. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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