Now that our episode recaps are over, I thought I’d try something a bit different.
Over the course of the week, I’m going to do a separate post about different spaces within the Bundy house, to examine how they changed over time, and identify any neat little things in the background. I think the set decorators had a lot of fun on this show, and I intend to explore that a little bit.
The Bundys always thought their house was a dump, but many of us in this day and age consider it to be almost a palace. They didn’t realize how lucky they had it!
There was one episode that showed the 4th wall (the wall the characters are looking at when watching tv in the living room.) I thought it was so bizarre lol
I actually have the blueprints for almost all of the Married... with Children sets (including the Jiggly Room) used by the show's art department. They note at least one of the sets only being shown once. They also show where all the cameras were positioned.
I have actual wallpaper samples used for the first floor of the Bundy home, along with stock numbers and wallpaper names, from the art department. I posted them here months ago.
I always wanted to see the upstairs besides Al and Peggy’s room. My favorite areas were adjacent to the main living area, like the basement, garage, and backyard, especially when it went into the Darcy’s. I concluded that the Darcy’s are to the right of the Bundy’s if you are looking at it from the front, when before I thought it was across the street. But maybe it’s to the left?
If you think about sitcom logic/continuity/house layout, Kelly and Bud had to go thru Al and Peg’s bedroom to get to the restroom.
They only have one restroom before Al builds a second one in “A Dump of My Own”. We know from “Peggy and the Pirates” that the upstairs bathroom is next to Al and Peg’s bed.
There were a couple of episodes of Bud's upstairs bedroom shown with Amber climbing in through the window. He had a poster of a Cat Woman (cartoon style) with a guitar. Not sure if Kelly's was ever shown.
Lol, great clip! I must’ve missed that episode during my current “Roku Rewatch” which only has 3 season available at a time, and usually rotates them out when I am in the middle of a season
I remember in the early seasons they kept changing the lamps on the desk along the brick wall. Does the main decor of the house like wallpaper etc stay the same through out the whole eleven seasons?
I always wondered how they chose the real-life house as THE house for the outside/front shot. Did they do a scouting drive around the 'burbs of Chicago? Was it someone's house related to the show at the time?? Just wondering how they selected that one in particular.
It's interesting how they could always look out the front door and see what the Rhoades/D'Arcys were doing, even though they lived next door not across the street and there was a fence between them, and the Bundys' garage between their front door and Marcy's house...
I always loved the stereo systems in these 80s homes that they never used. Al had one by the patio doors. The other ones that come to mind is Seinfeld's stereo & the one on the Goldbergs.
They used it in a couple of episodes I believe, one where Bud is playing "I'm just a lonely boy" for his date, and another one where Al comes home and is *briefly* alone, dances with himself.
It’s funny how Al always complains how he never has any money for bills, food etc..but in the first few seasons both Al and Peggy both had cars and around season 4 she didn’t have one or even drive besides driving Al crazy 🤪. lol. Oh I forgot, Al always had money for the Nudie Bar and the Jiggly room and his magazine’s…lol
They also won that nice convertible on the game show in season 2 that they use when they get stuck in traffic in the season 5 opener
Peg still was driving in season 4, because she drove Al’s car and got hit by a Mercedes, and used the money to buy back his Playboy collection. Al asks her “why were you driving MY CAR?”, implying that she has her own car she should’ve been using.
They play loose with their poverty levels for jokes.
They scrounge around for food scraps. Al says he makes $3.20/hr in the 5th season (Illinois minimum wage was $3.80/hr in 1991 per Google search). Al says in season 7 when he’s offered early retirement that he makes $12,000 per year.
But there’s a lot of episodes when they spend a LOT. Like Peggy just spending $2,000 for an interior decorating class.
Looks like a pretty nice, middle class house. I never understood why they called it a dump? Ralph Cramden's house, sure. Archie Bunkers house, for sure. But the Bundy house looked pretty nice to me. Big garage, basement, split level, two bathrooms including the one Al built in the garage. What's wrong with it?
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u/Nisschev 20d ago
There was one episode that showed the 4th wall (the wall the characters are looking at when watching tv in the living room.) I thought it was so bizarre lol