Having clocked in eleven seasons, Married...With Children was Fox's longest-lasting series of the 1996-1997 TV season. Unfortunately, the 11th season was the last, due in part to the network's decision to change the series' timeslot three times within a single year. Al Bundy Ed O'Neill is still Chicago's most frustrated shoe clerk, all the more so because his boss, "Gary" -- actually a woman, and a none-too-pleasant one -- is seen for the first time in several episodes. Al's wife, Peg (Katey Sagal), is still lazy as a sloth and still dresses like a Rush Street "working girl." Daughter Kelly (Christina Applegate) is still pursuing a show-business career, and son Bud (David Faustino) is still drawing a paycheck from the motor vehicle bureau. If anything, the individual episodes are more outrageously "out there" than ever before. Highlights include Al making a deal with the Devil (played by Nightmare on Elm Street's Robert Englund) so the Chicago Bears can win a crucial game, a crossover episode with the Fox reality series Cops (one wonders how the Bundys have avoided being on Cops in past seasons!), and series regular Amanda Bearse showing up in the dual role of the Bundys' neighbor Marcy and her lesbian cousin (this, reportedly, was done so that actress Bearse could "out" herself on the series Ellen DeGeneres-style without compromising Marcy's heterosexuality). The saga of Married...With Children comes to an end as Al stops the wedding of his daughter, Kelly, who has become engaged to a guy who tried to rob the Bundy house. (This series finale was supposed to have been the pilot episode for a sitcom starring Christina Applegate as Kelly Bundy, but the actress decided to bypass the opportunity). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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