The Good

A well written show that still hits just as hard today.

The Bad

No Extras.

At 600 minutes Married with Children: The Complete Seventh Season continues the antics of the world renowned Bundy family. Whether Peg is out spending Al's Money, or Al is being propositioned by Vanna White at his high school reunion (yes, you have read that correctly), or Kelly is tooling around town on a motorcycle, this show never lets up in the rowdy and raunchy department. Don't think that Bud is left out either as he's still up to his scheming ways in order to get with the ladies. Let us not forget that a new member of the Bundy clan, Seven, makes his way into their lives when Peggy's side of the family simply decides to leave him with them. Always going out of its way to mess with the various taboos of our society, Married with Children showed no signs of letting up at all in this season.

A couple of the episodes that really grabbed my attention were "Old Insurance Dodge" which finds Al having his car stolen. He schemes the insurance company and soon enjoys riding around in a new car. Things get bad for our hero quickly when the police find his vehicle. "'Til Death Do Us Part" sees Al in trouble with everyone when he can't perform in the sack with Peggy. Suddenly, Al decides to get his body back to his prime in an effort to to rekindle the old Bundy magic.

People may not have always liked what Married with Children had to say or what it represented in regards to our culture, but I don't believe you can deny what a groundbreaking, funny and insightful show this was.

Features

No Extras came with this release.

Video

Full Screen. This show from 1992 looked pretty darn good. Sure the clothes and some of the styles look dated (although Christina Applegate never looked better!), I like how good a job Sony has done with the compression here. Sometimes these shows don't wear as well but I found that Married with Children's black, greens, whites and blues really have held up over the years. Good compression job, Sony!

Audio

Dolby Digital Stereo. What a surprise, the audio was top notch. Okay, that might be stretching things a bit but on the whole I thought that things sounded pretty good. Truthfully, they don't do a lot with the audio for a show like this. It's mainly the characters talking (or in this case being rude to one another), and then everybody laughs for one reason or another. I am always happy when I can hear things clearly and as far as this show is concerned I was able to hear everything just fine.

Package

The Bundy family (plus Seven) are presented on the front of this slipcase cover with a cake (that appropriately has a 7 on it) and some houses behind them. The back of the slipcase cover gives us more images from the show, a description of what this 7th season is about and technical specs. All 26 episodes are stored on 3 discs with packaging that contains more artwork for this show. Sony doesn't seem to do anything too special with their TV on DVD packaging but in this case I guess owning this show is good enough.

Final Word

I love the fact that Married with Children lasted for 11 seasons. In some ways this show was almost like a live action version of The Simpsons. While I think The Simpsons was a lot more tame, I think that the comparison is apt. Married with Children was steeped in humor. Everything about it was geared to make us laugh. Why it lasted so long and why the public embraced it as they did has everything to do with the universal truths it spoke to. We weren't just laughing at these characters, we were laughing at ourselves and who we are as human beings.

I think the idea that everybody comes from a dysfunctional family was never more true than it was here. That said, when we look back on our lives it seems that rarely do we recall that dysfunction being that bad but merely an aspect that informs who we are today. Married with Children: The Complete Seventh Season is, believe it or not, a nice walk down memory lane.

Married with Children was released .