List of Married... with Children characters

This is a list of characters in Married... with Children. The show revolves around Al Bundy, his wife Peggy, children Kelly and Bud, their next-door neighbor Marcy, and her husband Steve Rhoades—who leaves in Season 4 and is eventually replaced by Jefferson D'Arcy.

The creators of the show named the "Bundy" family after their favourite professional wrestler King Kong Bundy, though some fans mistakenly believed that the name was derived from serial killer Ted Bundy. King Kong Bundy once appeared on the show as Peggy's hick inbred uncle Irwin, and again appeared as his wrestling persona, since "NO MA'AM" (National Organization of Men Against Amazonian Masterhood, a fictional club depicted on the show) were big fans of the wrestler.

The Bundy's next door neighbors Steve and Marcy Rhoades were named after another pro wrestler, Dusty Rhodes.

The head of the Bundy family, Al Bundy (Ed O'Neill) is doomed to fail in all aspirations because of the "Bundy curse." Once a promising fullback for fictional Polk High School (his proudest moment in life was scoring four touchdowns in a single game), he was on his way to college on a scholarship until he impregnated his girlfriend, married her, broke his leg, and ended up a shoe salesman at "Gary's Shoes" in the "New Market Mall", located in an incorporated area of suburban Chicago. Al often spends time attempting to recapture his glory days, but is usually undermined in spectacular fashion by frequent bad luck and poor judgment. He considers his family to be the cause of his failures, and his resentment of them (and fear of having sex with his wife) provides much of the show's humor. However, Al is still devoted to them, given that he protectively beats up Kelly's boyfriends, once threatened a male stripper that "if my wife loses anything in your pants, so will you," once gave his entire paycheck to Bud to enjoy his 18th birthday at the "nudie bar," and holds down a lousy job to put food on the table (which, ironically, there is not much of in the Bundy household). Despite his yearning for "the touch of a beautiful woman," he always passes on those rare temptations, once explaining, "I actually kinda like my family."

He frequently goes to "nudie bars" and strip clubs with his friends. The most prominent nudie bar was a place called "The Jiggly Room" which was featured during the series final four seasons. The only thing that seems to consistently put him in the mood for sex with his wife is watching her do manual labor, which very rarely happens. It is mentioned in a Season 5 episode, aired in 1990, that Al is 43. Al has extremely severe foot odor, prefers the escapism of television and bowling over his dysfunctional family, and life of drudgery and starvation (as Peggy refuses to cook, she claims that she is allergic to fire, despite the fact that she smokes) and is often seen in his trademark couch potato pose—seated on the sofa with one hand stuck under the waistband of his pants.

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