History YMMV / MARRIEDWITHCHILDREN

* BestKnownForTheFanservice: The image of Heather [=McCoy=] tied to lockers and naked but for a towel is quite iconic even though who didn't watch the show.

* BrokenBase: To date, fans still debate over if Steve Rhoades or Jefferson D'Arcy was the superior husband of Marcy and the funnier source of comedy.

** The entire end scene of "Hot Off The Grill" was an absolute gut-buster, but the biggest example of this trope in that scene was the part where Bud warns Steve that Aunt Toonie's ashes were in grill the burgers were cooked on. He smiles, takes a huge bite, relishes in getting back at the woman for not leaving her estate to Marcy, [[PetTheDog tries to warn her]], but lets her eat it when she tells him to shut up.

** The episode "The Dance Show" centers around Peggy regularly going out to a lounge where she dances with a man she met there. However, when the man's husband comes to complain to Al about how Peggy is essentially stealing his husband, Al is at first weirded out, but then comes to appreciate him because they can talk about sports and the guy's a good cook. Eventually Al feels sorry for the guy and they go to the lounge where Al convinces Peggy's dance partner to go back to his husband, and appreciate what he has or he'll lose him forever, and will have no one to to blame but himself, and the couple decides to talk through their issues and make up. At the end, Al dances with Peggy and tells her that her dreamy guy was "a homo." Although the episode features some gay stereotypes, as well as the casual use of the word "homo," it also does show the guys as a regular couple who's going through a rut, and shows that they are together because they genuinely love each other.
** One episode has Al's football bros from high school returning to defend the team's honor, and one of them has since come out as a transwoman. The character is played by a cisgender man in a dress and there's an upskirting scene that definitely wouldn't fly today, but it's made clear that the guys' confusion is the punchline, not her gender. Thad and Peggy's greeting show that Thad's personality is the same as it was during their school years, and her patience with Al's confusion is clearly because of their friendship. Once she proves she's still game to play football, none of the guys treat Thad any differently than they always did ''except'' the episode's antagonist, the only person in the episode to treat her gender as an insult, and she decks him. The closest thing to a truly transphobic joke is Al, champion of maleness and manhood, being squeamish about Thad's penectomy while also making it clear that he doesn't think Thad's identity as a woman should ''demand'' she transition medically, which is remarkably progressive even into the 2010's. The ending also has Thad happily hooking up with a member of the opposing team, with the boyfriend even saying dating her is better than the fact that they won.

** The character Jim Jupiter from "Dead Men Don't Do Aerobics" who touted himself as "the healthiest man in Chicago" who later [[spoiler:died after just ''two weeks'' of adapting Peg's unhealthy eating/smoking habits]] looks worse given the backlash over many controversial fad diets and eating disorders, including [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orthorexia_nervosa orthorexia]] which Jupiter could be looked at as suffering from.

** On the season six episode, "The Egg and I," Al screams, "I don't wanna be on ABC!" when he rants about his taxes and the possibility of cameoing on a TV show to pay it off. Years later, Al Bundy (or rather, his actor, Ed O'Neill) is now on the ABC sitcom, ''Series/ModernFamily'' (the actress who plays O'Neill's wife on ''Series/ModernFamily'' -- Sofia Vergara, even mentioned on ''SNL'' that it's every Colombian immigrant girl's dream to move to America and marry [[ActorRoleConfusion Al Bundy]]).
** In "Kelly Bounces Back" Kelly wanted a job standing in a store window (albeit as a mannequin). By the time she gets that job in "Driving Mr. Boondy", she hates it.

** One early episode has Steve going to a banker's meeting where they were trying to find out a way to get rid of the penny. Nowadays, there is a stronger ongoing argument in favor of eliminating the penny in the United States and many other countries. In fact, the penny was taken out of circulation in Canada in early 2013.
** Real life example but [=S6E8=]'s episode "God's Shoes", has Al try to market "toe-shoes." This gets shot down as a stupid idea. Five years later the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vibram_FiveFingers Vibram FiveFingers]] gets released to the market.

** In one episode, Peg mentioned the new series "Oprah After The Show-prah". This was years before they really did make a Oprah After The Show series on the Oxygen Network.

** Season 1's 11th episode "Nightmare on Al's Street" has Peg mention that Al can't attend Chicago Cubs games at Wrigley Field anymore because he once interfered with a ball that ultimately kept the Cubs out of the World Series. This is pretty much the description of the real-life Steve Bartman incident in the 2003 National League Championship Series, the round right before the World Series (with the only major exception being that Bartman isn't banned from Wrigley - rather, he just really wants to avoid the spotlight).[[note]]For what it's worth, the Cubs themselves never held any grudge against Bartman and once they finally did win in the 2016 World Series, Cubs owner Tom Ricketts gifted Bartman a championship ring.[[/note]]

** In "God's Shoes", Al learns the reason Series/KnotsLanding was never cancelled is because God loves that show. 18 months later, the show would air its last episode.

** The show attracted a similar following in right-wing circles in general, complete with the GOP-leaning ''National Review'' praising it for its alleged conservative values, which is also quite surprising given the number of jokes aimed at the expense of Republicans and conservatives in general (to the point Marcy, Al's snobbish ArchEnemy, is stated to be a registered Republican). Ironically, when the show was originally on the air, the mainstream right considered it immoral trash (as illustrated by Terry Rakolta's boycott against the series during the third season, which [[StreisandEffect ultimately]] [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity backfired]]).
** Plenty of times, you will see Peg on lists of "Great/Best Television Moms". While Peg is indeed a great source of humor and certainly easy on the eyes, she is shown to be a ''dreadful'' mother. Aside from ignoring Bud or Kelly whenever either is sick or upset, she is known for giving dubious advice, regularly starving them and openly mocking them. Even when they were younger, incidents of her neglectful or otherwise lackluster parenting include putting makeup on Kelly when she had the chicken pox and sending her off to school and leaving ''Buck'' to babysit Bud instead of an actual sitter. This is lampshaded in-universe as well by both of them on occasion.

* OnceOriginalNowCommon: In a world with crude shows that live to make censors and MoralGuardians cry like ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', and ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'', it's hard to believe that ''this'' show and the early ''Simpsons'' pretty much started the trend of censor-pushing sitcoms.

* AccidentalAesop: Seeing how aimless and unsuccessful Al's and Kelly's lives all are shows the value of a good education. Al thought he could coast through life on his football talents, while Kelly thought she could do it on her looks. When Al broke his leg and lost his scholarship, he didn't have any other skills and had to spend the rest of his life kowtowing to fat women at a SoulSuckingRetailJob. The Bundy Curse ruined Kelly's attempts at being a GoldDigger, and when her sex appeal landed a high-paying job, she was fired on her first day due to her illiteracy.

* SignatureScene: Al's hilariously crass yet accurate explanation of how advertising and marketing for companies work in "Kelly Breaks Out".

* CreatorsPet: Seven, the BrattyHalfPint Wanker cousin who joined the cast in season seven. Apparently inspired by the popularity of [[Series/FullHouse Michelle Tanner]], the execs pushed forward with a kid-friendly character in a completely non-kid friendly environment. Being unable to put him in a scenario of slapstick and sadism that the rest of the cast went through, he ended up doling out much of it and was hated for it. Plus, the fact that the episode that introduced him is named "The ''Magnificent'' Seven" was a hint to how much he was to be this trope.

* TheScrappy: Seven, who was intended to become a permanent addition to the cast. However, the fans (and writers[[note]]who realized that the show's humor became very uncomfortable when a child was around[[/note]]) didn't like him at all, and, before season seven closed out, he went the way of Chuck Cunningham on ''Happy Days'' (climbed up the stairs and never came down again). Later episodes have Seven's face on a milk carton (even though it was implied that his parents didn't want him back, which is why they left him with the Bundys) and no one noticing or caring that he's gone.

** The episode "The Dance Show" centers around Peggy regularly going out to a lounge where she dances with a man she met there. However, when the man's husband comes to complain to Al about how Peggy is essentially stealing his husband, Al is at first wierded out, but then comes to appreciate him because they can talk about sports and the guy's a good cook. Eventually Al feels sorry for the guy and they go to the lounge where Al convinces Peggy's dance partner to go back to his husband, and appreciate what he has or he'll lose him forever, and will have no one to to blame but himself, and the couple decides to talk through their issues and make up. At the end, Al dances with Peggy and tells her that her dreamy guy was "a homo." Although the episode features some gay stereotypes, as well as the casual use of the word "homo," it also does show the guys as a regular couple who's going through a rut, and shows that they are together because they genuinely love each other.

** The episode "Crimes Against Obesity" has Peg point out that if fat people can't tolerate being called fat (a totally different matter from being insulted for being fat) then their social skills need serious work.

** Bud could barely think about anything but sex, and the only reason he didn't have hundreds of partners like Kelly is that he tended to turn women off. It didn't stop him from trying to have as much of it as possible, making the only real difference between he and Kelly their success rates. And in fact, at the time, sitcom men were typically portrayed as having a new sex partner every week (just see ''Series/{{Seinfeld}}'' as a prime example. But Kelly was endlessly made fun of for her "sluttiness" and was the topic of endless jokes about her sex and dating life.
%%** As stated before, the French is one of the biggest targets on the show. Given their strong alliance with the U.S. and other events that have improved their reputation, making fun of them today is much harder to swallow.

** In "Teacher's Pet", Bud is dating his very attractive teacher. Once Al, of all people, learns of the whole thing, he does the right thing and calls the cops to have her arrested. While the scene never loses hilarity due to Al accusing the wrong woman, thereby making Bud look like he slept with an old woman, and the hilarious cracks he makes at her age while chewing her out, this is surprising due to the fact both DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale and TeacherStudentRomance are defied given the time period. While the former is still present, if not as frequently, the latter would continue to be portrayed as romantic [[{{Series/Friends}} in]] [[Series/SavedByTheBellTheCollegeYears many]] [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer shows]] after this one before the power dynamic came under scrutiny.
** As mentioned above, Al Bundy defends the presence of violent comedy saying he's never done anything overly violent himself despite having grown up on the sorts [[note]] To be fair, most of the time he resorts to violence is because someone else instigates him [[/note]]. This type of issue has become increasingly scrutinized more than ever with people actively seeking out things from older popular TV shows to be offended by, with even WesternAnimation/SouthPark comparing it to the MoralGuardians trend from the 80's. Many of the supporters saying that they grew up listening to these jokes and haven't let it shape their world views because they know the line between laughing at a funny joke and cheering on the rhetoric.

* ValuesResonance: In "Teacher's Pet", Bud is dating his very attractive teacher. Once Al, of all people, learns of the whole thing, he does the right thing and calls the cops to have her arrested. While the scene never loses hilarity due to Al accusing the wrong woman, thereby making Bud look like he slept with an old woman, and the hilarious cracks he makes at her age while chewing her out, this is surprising due to the fact both DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale and TeacherStudentRomance are defied given the time period. While the former is still present, if not as frequently, the latter would continue to be portrayed as romantic [[{{Series/Friends}} in]] [[Series/SavedByTheBellTheCollegeYears many]] [[Series/BuffyTheVampireSlayer shows]] after this one before the power dynamic came under scrutiny.

* StrawmanHasAPoint: Al's fight with the MallSanta in "It's A Bundyful Life" is joked about as a case of NeverMyFault. While Al could've asked him to tone it down in a more polite fashion, he never actually threatened the MallSanta so trying to punch Al for it was both an act of aggression and highly unprofessional since he was dressed as Santa in front of kids. Al punching the guy in the stomach was simply him acting in self-defense, and while the kids were upset realizing he wasn't the real Santa, the other guy should've been blamed when he escalated it far beyond what was necessary.

* TearJerker:
** For a [[RuleOfFunny really hilarious sitcom,]] only one episode was awfully sad, and that episode was "Requiem For A Dead Briard", where Buck dies, but comes back as Lucky. Despite this, the episode did have a few funny moments, like Ben Stein in a chicken suit (and how he died after a bald man shot him), Peg's mom eating Kelly's new pet bird, Don Novello's appearance as his ''Saturday Night Live'' character Father Guido Sarducci, and Buck being reincarnated as the new dog, Lucky. But Kelly's heartbreak at the beginning of losing Buck will tug at the heartstrings of anyone who's ever lost a pet.
** Al reflecting on Kelly's childhood in "One Down, Two To Go" after the latter [[StatusQuoIsGod temporarily]] moves out, set to "Daddy's Little Girl". It's mostly PlayedForLaughs, but it can still tug on the heartstrings, especially the end shot of Kelly's smiling face on top of a drawing of a heart.

* SeinfeldIsUnfunny: In a world with crude shows that live to make censors and MoralGuardians cry like ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'', ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', and ''Series/ItsAlwaysSunnyInPhiladelphia'', it's hard to believe that ''this'' show and the early ''Simpsons'' pretty much started the trend of censor-pushing sitcoms.

** And Creator/KateySagal for those who didn't catch the show during its first run, and only found out recently that the voice of Leela on ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' and the actress who plays Gemma Teller in ''Series/SonsOfAnarchy'' is the same actress who played Peg Bundy.

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Al is a classic example of an UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist but his life is just so horrible that after a while you can't help feeling sorry for him, more so than the series writers probably intended.

* UnpopularPopularCharacter: Al is probably the biggest loser ever in-universe, but try telling that to the studio audience. Each of the main characters were typically greeted with applause upon entering as the seasons wore on, but Al was first. Most notably, one episode had Al making a sandwich out of toothpaste, and when he appears to comtemplate eating it, one audience member can be heard clearly (and sounding genuinely concerned) saying "Don't do it, Al..."

** The theme song (which is a real song. It's called "Love and Marriage" and it was sung by Ol' Blue-Eyes himself, Music/FrankSinatra) is replaced with a [[SoundtrackDissonance cheery, instrumental soundalike]] song in the Hulu broadcasts and on the DVD release. Hulu eventually got the rights to use "Love and Marriage" straightened out, but the filler themesong still shows up on an episode here and there. The show's really just not the same without the original theme.

** Making Al a fan of ''Psycho Dad'', a show that is about an ultraviolent lunatic who's also a "durn good pa", that eventually goes off the air because the star becomes disturbed by the kinds of people who like his work.
*** The show attracted a similar following in right-wing circles in general, complete with the GOP-leaning ''National Review'' praising it for its alleged conservative values, which is also quite surprising given the number of jokes aimed at the expense of Republicans and conservatives in general (to the point Marcy, Al's snobbish ArchEnemy, is stated to be a registered Republican). Ironically, when the show was originally on the air, the mainstream right considered it immoral trash (as illustrated by Terry Rakolta's boycott against the series during the third season, which [[StreisandEffect ultimately]] [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity backfired]]).

** Creating NO MA'AM (National Organization of Men Against Amazonian Masterhood), a group of slovenly losers who do little more than drink beer and complain about their wives. Whenever they get the idea to try and assert their masculinities, they usually end up in jail, publicly humiliated, or both.

** The show attracted a similar following in right-wing circles in general, complete with the GOP-leaning ''National Review'' praising it for its alleged conservative values, which is also quite surprising given the number of jokes aimed at the expense of Republicans and conservatives in general (to the point Marcy, Al's snobbish ArchEnemy, is stated to be a registered Republican). Ironically, when the show was originally on the air, the mainstream right considered it immoral trash (as illustrated by Terry Rakolta's boycott against the series during the third season, which [[StreisandEffect ultimately]] [[NoSuchThingAsBadPublicity backfired]]).

** The show tends to attract fans from men's rights activists circles, who see Al Bundy as a hero standing up for traditional masculinity, not realizing that the show is ''parodying'' such notions by showing Al as a loser whose situation is as much a result of his own shortcomings as it is the result of women, fat people, the government, etc. The showrunners were well aware of this segment of their fandom while the show was on the air and mocked it by making Al a fan of ''Psycho Dad'', a show that is about an ultraviolent lunatic who's also a "durn good pa", that eventually goes off the air because the star becomes disturbed by the kinds of people who like his work.

** One episode has Al's football bros from high school returning to defend the team's honor, and one of them has since come out as a transwoman. The character is played by a cisgender man in a dress and there's an upskirting scene that definitely wouldn't fly today, but it's made clear that the guys' confusion is the punchline, not her gender. Thad and Peggy's greeting show that Thad's personality is the same as it was during their school years, and her patience with Al's confusion is clearly because of their friendship. Once she proves she's still game to play football, none of the guys treat Thad any differently than they always did ''except'' the episode's antagonist, the only person in the episode to treat her gender as an insult, and she decks him. The closest thing to a truly transphobic joke is Al, champion of maleness and manhood, being squeamish about Thad's penectomy while also making it clear that he doesn't think Thad's identity as a woman should ''demand'' she transition medically, which is remarkably progressive even into the 2010's.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: It wasn't the show's fault as they weren't told they were canceled till after the final episode aired, but this meant two of Season 11's episodes could've functioned as series finales had they not had the ResetButton ending. These two being "Stepford Peg" [[note]] Which instead of ending with Peg getting her memory back when Al tries to have sex with her could've ended with Peg being stuck the way she both ensuring LaserGuidedKarma for her and alleviating Al of the bane of his existence.[[/note]] and "Damn Bundys" [[note]] Which instead of ending with Al escaping Hell with it being ambiguous if it was AllJustADream could've ended with the Bundys and D'Arcys stuck with each other for all eternity.[[/note]]

** "Fair Exchange" has a French foreign exchange student played by Creator/MillaJovovich be more popular than Kelly and was at one point groped by a group of guys. Even though her character, Yvette, is supposed to be a high school senior like Kelly, Jovovich was at the time just ''thirteen.''
** In "How to Marry a Moron, Part II", Bud says that Kelly lost her virginity in 1979. It's stated in other episodes that Kelly was born in 1971. Do the math and puke. (And no, Bud doesn't sound like he's kidding.)
** Another last season episode, "Requiem For a Chevyweight" has a flashback to the Bundys in the 70s featuring a toddler Kelly and infant Bud. For some reason, they thought it would be funny to have baby Bud ''masturbating.''
** One episode found no better way to show Al as a loser than having him make a sandwich out of ''toothpaste''. When he appears to comtemplate eating it, one audience member can be heard clearly (and sounding genuinely concerned) saying "Don't do it, Al..."

** The theme song (which is a real song. It's called "Love and Marriage" and it was sung by Ol' Blue-Eyes himself, Music/FrankSinatra) is replaced with a [[SoundtrackDissonance cheery, instrumental soundalike]] song in the Hulu broadcasts and on the DVD release.
** Hulu eventually got the rights to use "Love and Marriage" straightened out, but the filler themesong still shows up on an episode here and there. The show's really just not the same without the original theme.

* ValuesDissonance:
** Even with the controversy of the show (or just plain BlackComedy of its nature), some elements of the show, given its genre and prime-time hours (and the basic cable channel it was on), wouldn't fly nowadays. Case in point, in the first couple of seasons, Peg smoked like a chimney. Also, even if it were for only a few episodes and with that blink-and-you'll-miss-it moments, Kelly wore a bomber jacket with a Confederate flag patch on it.

** "Baby Makes Money" features Charlie Brill [[spoiler: the doomed]] Uncle Eugene as a prison inmate. A few years later, he wound up completely fine as the Police Captain on ''Series/SilkStalkings''.