Al Bundy
Al Bundy | |
---|---|
Bud Bundy (son) | |
Relatives | Jebediah Bundy (grandfather) Joe Bundy (uncle) Stymie Bundy (uncle) Addie Bundy (aunt) Heather Bundy (aunt) Stymie Bundy II (nephew) Sheila Bundy (cousin) Iggy Bundy (cousin) Lester Bundy (cousin) Seamus McBundy (ancestor; deceased) |
Al Bundy is a fictional character and the protagonist of the American television series Married... with Children,[3] played by Ed O'Neill. He is a misanthropic, working-class father of two who is portrayed as a tragicomedic figure. He laments his lot in life, but nevertheless stands by his family, displaying wit, self-sacrifice, and resilience in times of crisis.
He and his wife
Character history
Al Bundy was born on November 7, 1948, in Chicago, Illinois. He was a star fullback on the Polk High School Football team. However, his impetuous marriage to high-school sweetheart Peggy Wanker (Katey Sagal), and a broken leg prevented him from attending college on a football scholarship. His favorite song is "Anna (Go to Him)".
Al and Peggy have two children:
Al lives in a suburb of Chicago and is the proud owner of a 1970s Dodge Demon. 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. There is a running joke throughout the show that Al makes minimum wage. Despite Al's hatred of his job, its only redeeming feature in his opinion is the fact it gets him out of the house and away from Peggy.
In one episode, Al is offered
Throughout the series, Al is continually saddled with massive debts caused by everything from the various disasters he becomes involved in to his wife's extravagant spending habits. However, he never appears to miss a
In flashbacks, it is revealed Al's mother may have been an
Most of the show's
Al is also frequently described as being careless about hygiene: he is often told he smells bad. He is often seen leaving restrooms, even public ones, with a newspaper tucked under his arm, to the sound of a toilet flushing. A running gag is that Al showers and brushes his teeth as rarely as he has sex, which is extremely infrequent, as he continually rejects and avoids Peggy's advances.
Al is disliked by most of his neighbors, except for
Despite being a somewhat phlegmatic and slow person, Bundy has a sarcastic and
In another episode, Al's Dodge turns up missing and the only reason he wants it back is to recover an item in the trunk. The item turns out to be a family photo of Al, Peg, Kelly, and Bud together. This suggests his distaste for them is spawned merely by his disappointment in his extremely poor quality of life.
Al dislikes obese women and cannot stop himself from insulting them to their faces with one-liners, a behavior he has engaged in since he was a child. He also hates his job, the prospect of having sex with his wife, and his feminist neighbor Marcy.
He loves
Like all Bundys, Al is profoundly selfish, and is repeatedly depicted engaging, along with the rest of his family, in criminal activity in attempts to get rich such as robbing a group of tourists at gunpoint, demanding their jewelry, scamming the elderly by posing as an elderly female psychic, and attempting to write off his stolen car as worth millions of dollars.
Another episode, "Damn Bundys", featured Al selling his soul to the devil (Robert Englund) in order to lead the Chicago Bears to the Super Bowl[6] as the oldest rookie in NFL history; Al scores the touchdown and ends up in hell with his family and neighbors for 300 years. In real life, O'Neill, a college football standout, tried out for the Pittsburgh Steelers in 1969, the first season of Hall of Famers Chuck Noll and "Mean Joe" Greene, but was cut in training camp, leading to O'Neill re-enrolling at Youngstown State University and starting his acting career there.[7]
In the Season 10 episode "Dud Bowl II", a scoreboard at Polk High's football stadium was to be dedicated to Al, but Marcy had arranged for it to instead be named after Terry Bradshaw (who says later in the episode he never played football while attending Polk High) out of malice; but after hearing from Kelly how much it would mean to her father if the scoreboard honored him, Bradshaw decides to let the scoreboard to be named after Al. Al did not know this and he arranged to have Jefferson and Bud blow up the scoreboard.
He is a fan of
Politically, Al appears to have mixed views with a somewhat conservative outlook (various episodes depict him as mocking Rush Limbaugh, whereas others show him as a huge fan of John Wayne, in particular his movie Hondo). He is an ardent admirer of President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and he often battles his feminist neighbor Marcy, but his views on economic issues appear to be more left-leaning as he has displayed a populist disdain for the wealthy, including leading a violent protest against a proposed law that would tax beer, but not wine.
Al also has an encyclopedic knowledge of sports trivia, which usually demonstrates how he has little interest in anything else. He does however serve his country by joining the Army National Guard in which Al receives the "Bronze Dumpster" for service during a garbage strike.
Bundy's favorite magazine is Big'uns, though an early episode used an issue of
Al's talents include
Reception
Al Bundy had a highly positive reception. Much of the praise went to O'Neill's portrayal of the character.
In 2009, Time magazine named him among the 10 most memorable fathers in television history.[10] In 2014, BuzzFeed listed Al Bundy as the 10th greatest TV dad of all time.
References
- ^ "MWC fox promo – Desperate Half Hour & How To Marry A Moron". YouTube. Retrieved 2 July 2023.
- ^ "Fox May Events: Married with Children Series Finale". IMDb. Retrieved 2 July 2023.
- ^ a b Mosley, Walter (February 16, 2003). "I'm Still Living in Al Bundy's America". The New York Times. New York City. Retrieved January 15, 2011.
- ^ Bravo's 100 Greatest TV Characters listal.com Accessed 2/21/2020
- ^ Rich Eisen (March 9, 2016). "Ed O'Neill Reveals How He Landed the Role of Al Bundy on Married with Children". The Rich Eisen Show (Podcast) – via YouTube.
- ^ "Best pop culture moments in Chicago Bears' history". NFL.com. Retrieved September 13, 2012.
- ^ "Ed O'Neill Biography". Bundyology.com. Archived from the original on November 19, 2007. Retrieved November 9, 2007.
- ^ "Profile: 'Al Bundy' Gets Serious: Actor Ed O'Neill Sheds 'Married' Character for ABC Dramatic Movie". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved May 11, 2012.
- ^ "Bravo > 100 Greatest TV Characters". Bravo. Archived from the original on July 17, 2007. Retrieved March 21, 2013.
- ^ "Top 10 TV Dads" Time, September 18, 2009.