Al Bundy
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| Al Bundy | |
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| First appearance | "The Pilot" |
| Last appearance | "How to Marry a Moron, Part 2" |
| Cause/reason | Last Episode of the Series. |
| Created by | Michael G. Moye Ron Leavitt |
| Portrayed by | Ed O'Neill |
| Episode count | 259 |
| Information | |
| Nickname(s) | Al |
| Gender | Male |
| Age | (61 in 2009) |
| Date of birth | 7/11/1948 |
| Occupation | Shoe salesman |
| Family | Mother (died during series), father (deceased) |
| Spouse(s) | Peggy |
| Children | Bud and Kelly |
| Relatives | Jimmy (nephew) Uncle Stymie (uncle) Seamus McBundy (ancestor; deceased) |
Al Bundy (born November 7, 1948)[1] is a fictional character from the U.S. television series Married... with Children, played by Ed O'Neill.
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[edit] Fictional character history
He is a slovenly character who finds himself constantly downtrodden by life and forever regretful of the turns his life has taken since the end of high school, when marriage and a broken leg prevented him from playing college football. The character was so popular that it has left O'Neill somewhat typecast since the series ended production. Al Bundy is married to Peggy Bundy, his lazy, red-haired wife. He mistakenly asked her to marry him after he got drunk. He has two children: Kelly, a promiscuous, dumb blonde, and Bud, an intelligent but perpetually horny weasel who he named after a brand of beer. Al is the proud owner of a '71 Dodge Dart Demon (although in one episode it is revealed that "The Dodge" is constructed out of the parts of other broken-down, destroyed Dodges) and lives in Chicago. He works as a shoe salesman at the fictional Gary's Shoes and Accessories for Today's Woman in the fictional New Market Mall. Al hates his job, loses it several times throughout the series, yet always ends up coming back to it. While it is suggested throughout the show that Al makes minimum-wage, it is likely an exaggeration, as the Bundys have a rather typical home that would be impossibly out of reach for a minimum-wage worker. However, in one episode, Al is offered early retirement and given a year's pay - $12,000. It is also worth noting that throughout the series Al is saddled with massive debts, caused by everything from the various disasters he becomes involved in to his wife's spending habits, and yet never seems to miss a mortgage payment or have to file for bankruptcy. The "Bundy Will", indebted the "benefactor" with these debts that Al Bundy has incurred and is used as a Punishment.
Among the show's running gags, most of them concern Al. Aside from his bad luck, Al also maintains a "do-it-yourself" attitude whenever something needs fixing in the house, that combined with his poor judgement, creativity and lack of skill often results in his falling off the roof or hurting someone else. Al is also shown as being careless about hygiene (Peggy is the one who criticizes him the most, yet she is at least partly responsible for this, as she never does the laundry) : he is often told he smells bad, and whenever he goes to a public restroom, he overflows the toilet (he is often seen leaving to the said place with a newspaper tucked under his arm). A running gag is that Al, just like he has sex, showers or even brushes his teeth very rarely. It is implied that Al is not very well liked by his neighborhood. In "Route 666" Marcy said that when they found out on what was believed to be Al's death, they all started dancing and singing Ding Dong, the shoe man's dead and called it a cruel, cruel hoax. Other people pay little to no attention to him and, as a result, his name often ends up misspelled on paychecks, parking spots etc ("Bumby", "Boondy", "Budny"...).
Despite being a somewhat phlegmatic and slow person, Bundy has a very dry sense of humor, and a definite love for his family, though that can still be traded for a fair amount of money. On the rare occasions where he enjoys luxury and money, Al indeed expresses love for his family. An example can be seen in one episode where Peggy and Al receive free first-class plane tickets to New York City from Marcy and are seen sipping champagne and singing "I've Got You" together. This suggests that perhaps his distaste for them is spawned merely by his blaming them for his poor quality of life.
Al hates fat women, his job, the prospect of having sex with his wife, his feminist neighbor Marcy D'Arcy, and the French. He loves dirty magazines, free beer, bowling and "nudie" bars, and often cherishes the glory moment of his past - scoring four touchdowns "in a single game" while playing for the fictional Polk High School Panthers in the 1966 city championship game versus fictional Andrew Johnson High School, including the game winning touchdown in the final seconds against his old nemesis “Spare Tire” Dixon (played by Bubba Smith in episode "All-Nite Security Dude"). His favorite movie is Hondo, and his favorite sitcom is the fictional Psycho Dad. His favorite magazine is Big'uns. He enjoys watching sports and dirty movies on television, with his right hand tucked into his pants (he switches to his left hand on Sundays).
Al's talents include playing baseball, bowling, cooking on the barbecue (wearing an apron that says "Kiss the Cook, Kill the Wife"), and getting into and winning fistfights. He can survive incredible injuries ranging from a fall off the Bundy roof (which happened when he tried to install a satellite dish), getting shocked by that same dish, and getting pulverized by a massive woman wrestler (Big Bad Mama from Gorgeous Ladies of Wrestling) in Las Vegas, to jumping from an airplane without a parachute. Al also has an encyclopedic knowledge of sports trivia, which usually demonstrates how he has little interest in anything of substance.
Bundy and his friends founded NO MA'AM, the misogynistic "National Organization of Men Against Amazonian Masterhood". Its "political goals" is to fight the increasing power of women all over society, but the organization tends to just be a social club of the men in the neighborhood where they just hang out, bowl, and frequent the Jiggly room. (introduced in season 8 under episode titled NO MA AM).
However, there have been instances of actual "Political activities" such as kidnapping Jerry Springer, countered a breast-feeding sit in organized by Marcy with a Beer Belly dance off; causing a riot over a proposed beer tax, going to Washington to appeal to Congress when Psycho Dad is cancelled and even forming a short lived misogynistic religion, whose chief theology is blaming all the world's problems on Eve, a woman. Al however, shows great leadership skills, often calling to order when No Ma'am members squabble, with an "order! order Gentlemen", and being an initiator of many of no Ma'am's activism.
Since there was no final episode special to provide an epilogue, it is unknown what would happen to Al in the end. However, his guardian angel (Sam Kinison in the episode "It's a Bundyful Life Part 2") accidentally mentions that at age 60 his stomach gets so ulcer-ridden that he dies from all the stress of living his life. According to his family funeral plans in the episode "Death of a Shoe Salesmen" he would be buried next to his favorite television actor Fuzzy McGee. When his wife Peggy dies sometime after, she will be stacked face-down on top of him much to the dismay of how he originally wanted his burial. In the episode I Who Have Nothing according to his will, he'd be buried with all his prized football possessions, and would only leave to his only begotten son Bud, his worthless Joe Nuxhall, baseball card. To the rest of his family, he'd leave a picture of him, posing in his jersey with his football, that would read "To My Beloved family Have a nice life!"
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Al Bundy". http://www.bundyology.com/bal.html. Retrieved on 2008-08-26.
[edit] External links
- Al Bundy Blog - latest Married… with Children news
- The Bundy Principle - media notes inspired by Al
- A tribute to Al's Ferguson
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