Line #20 Heartwarming/MarriedWithChildren


1	You probably wouldn't expect this show to have heart-warming moments, considering how much BlackComedy and KafkaComedy it has (it ''was'' written as a TakeThat against the 1980s sitcoms that were warm and wholesome, which is why its original title was, ''Not The Cosbys''). However, there are moments that show that the Bundys do care about each other, despite being miserable and wanting nothing more than to either kill each other or leave and strike out on their own under assumed identities.
2	---------------------------------------------------
3	* From "Get the Dodge Out of Hell": When the car wash loses his prized Dodge, Al becomes hell-bent on getting it back, despite the rest of the Bundys wanting to get a new car. At the end of the episode, we see why Al was so determined to get his car back -- he keeps a picture of his family in the trunk.
4	** Which is immediately coupled with the [[OscarBait Emmy Bait]] message: "For Your Emmy Consideration."
5	* From "So This Is How [[Music/FrankSinatra Sinatra]] Felt": Jessica Hahn[[note]]a model and actress best known for her sex scandal with televangelist, Jim Bakker, in the 1980s. Hahn was also the wife of the show's co-creator, Ron Leavitt, until Leavitt died in 2008[[/note]] made a guest appearance as an amazingly hot "shoe groupie" who was obsessed with Al and wanted nothing more than to have amazing sex with him. Al says no. Repeatedly, but he doesn't understand why. When he tells Peg about it, she says, "It's because you really do love me". His response? "[[MyGodWhatHaveIDone Oh my God]], that ''is'' it!"
6	** Not just then, but every single time Al has had a chance to cheat on Peg, he turns the woman down. When he's still aroused because of the other woman, he'll bring Peg right upstairs.
7	* From "She's Having a Baby: Part 2"[[note]]During the Peggy pregnancy storyline at the start of Season 6[[/note]], Peg brings up how a wave machine can be relaxing for the baby in the womb. But Al had his eyes on a new socket set he saw advertised. Since he only has enough money for one or the other, Peg assumes toward the end that he bought it. Instead, he comes home with the wave machine.
8	* From "Rites of Passage": Bud's 18th birthday is shaping up to be [[OnePersonBirthdayParty pathetic]]. No girls want to spend time with him, his sister gives him a present that mocks him and his mother is planning a party fit for a six-year-old, complete with a horse and a clown (the latter of whom turns out to be a [[MonsterClown psycho who stabs stuffed animals]]). After Peg, Kelly and Marcy leave the room Al tells Bud how they're ''really'' gonna spend his birthday: Al's gonna continue a longstanding Bundy tradition and take Bud to the nudie bar, where Al cheats dancers out of tips and starts a massive bar fight. At the end of the episode, Al and Bud are broke, bruised and battered but have finally had a great father-son moment. Al is especially proud of his boy for how well he fought, including cheating as a CombatPragmatist by bashing a chair over the head of a guy who offered the "rookie" a free shot.
9	* From "Build a Better Mousetrap": Al is trying to catch an elusive mouse, finally resorting to shooting at it. Peggy had taken the children outside, but when she hears the gunshots, she immediately runs back to the house, calling to make sure Al wasn't injured. It's a BIG departure from her usual snark.
10	* When Al and Peg attend their high school reunion in "Married..with Prom Queen", Peg tells Al she lucked out when she married him and asked him if he felt the same way.
11	--> '''Al:''' Was the go-go dancer in our class?\
12	'''Peg:''' No.\
13	'''Al:''' Then I married the prettiest girl.
14	* When they celebrate their 16th wedding anniversary in "Sixteen Years and What Do You Get", Al plans to get Peg a very expensive watch, but the kids tell her so Peg goes all out hiring a chef and a violist for the evening, and gets Al a new set of power tools. Unfortunately, this of course means Al can't get the watch, and Peg is angry when he comes home with nothing, and Al in turn is angry when he figures out ''why'' he couldn't buy it, and storms off to the garage. The last few minutes of the episode are a long AwLookTheyReallyDoLoveEachOther as Al tells Peg what ''really'' bothered him was that she thought he didn't try, Peg admits he really must love her if he's stuck by her for 16 years despite how miserable he is, and Al reveals while in the garage he was working on an improvised gift, and used his new tools to install his car's stereo system in hers for her. Right on cue, "their song" comes on, and they dance.
15	* When Al finds Marcy at his bar and, rather than snark at her as per usual when she's at her lowest point, he has a comforting and unusually mature talk with her about how alike they really are.
16	* For all their snarking and snapping at each other, Kelly has at least two [[BigBrotherInstinct big sister]] moments where she warns Bud of a girl's bad intentions. In "What Goes Around Came Around," Bud doesn't listen and ends up humiliated, but rather than ditching Bud, Kelly takes out her revenge on the girl in question by stripping her down to a towel, chaining her to a wall of lockers with a banner that reads, "DON'T MESS WITH A BUNDY!", and tying the towel to a rope attached to Buck's leash. Kelly then calls Buck to her just as school starts and everyone enters.
17	** Also during that episode, Al has been invited to speak at the dance to present an award. Instead, he uses the opportunity to go on a lengthy tirade against marriage. However, after spotting a teacher repeatedly hitting on Peg, Al hits him in the head with the microphone.
18	** And as the guy collapses, Peg looks up at Al with this utterly adoring, grateful smile. You can just tell she's thinking, "That's my guy."
19	** In the episode where it was Al and Peggy's anniversary, Peggy only wanted for Al to tell her he loved her. When he wouldn't she asked Kelly if she and Bud tell each other that they love each other and Kelly responds with yes. She states that one of the reasons they do is because it takes some of the sting out of their insults back and forth.
20	* As cited above, the very fact that no matter how much they may have tormented each other, any outsider who dared to mess with them had hell to pay--in the "Labor Day" episode when they're stuck in traffic and bitching at each other, Al tries to cheer them up by singing, which of course, only makes things worse. But when a guy in another car yells at Al to shut up, the rest of them instantly join in with the singing. Things escalate until they're all fighting their counterparts in the other family.
21	* At the end of "Radio Free Trumaine", after April dumps the both of them, Bud and [[HuskyRusskie Nikolai]] go off to get a beer as friends.
22	* In [[EpisodeOnAPlane "The Gypsy Cried"]] at the end, Al and Peggy are singing "I Got You Babe" looking very goofy and happy.
23	* In an episode where a Peeping Tom has been making his way through the neighborhood, spying on everyone--''twice''--except for Peggy, leaving her feeling [[ArentYouGoingToRavishMe undesirable]]. Al tries to restore her self-esteem by disguising himself as the peeper. Unfortunately, it gets him caught and beat up by the enraged group of vigilante women who've been victimized by the guy. After Al gets out of the hospital, Peggy sweetly thanks him for trying to make her feel better.
24	* There's a quick one in "A Taxing Problem". Al can't bring himself to cut off Peg's hair, even though [[ItMakesSenseInContext doing so will get him the money he needs to get out of trouble with the IRS.]]
25	* A little moment in "His Casa, Sue Casa". Al and Peggy are in the house when they hear the sound of a car crash. Peggy goes to look out the window and is visibly and genuinely relieved that the kids are okay.
26	* Even as terrible a mother she usually is, Peg has moments of being loving towards her children. One episode has her mentioning how both she and Kelly cried on the latter's first day of school (which was soon relieved when Kelly discovered boys and Peg discovered daytime television) due to how much they would miss each other.
27	* When a homosexual shows up on Al's doorstep to complain that his husband is running around with Peg, Al is initially taken aback, but ultimately has a perfectly nice conversation with the man and the two spend a pleasant evening together. Al even becomes genuinely angry on the man's behalf and tells his husband off--"You've got a terrific guy at home waiting for you!"
28	* In the final episode of "Breaking up is Easy to Do," after Al goes back to his apartment, miserable at the fact that he's too old (and poor) to attract younger prettier women like he always wanted, Kelly and Bud are happy that Peggy now has a rich boyfriend, and a likely eventual stepfather. However, when he tells them he'll make them get jobs so they won't spend his money, they try to tell Peg that he's not as good a man as she thinks he is. However, Peg doesn't really care since she will get to be a rich man's TrophyWife like she always wanted, but then he says that he'll make her be a regular HouseWife, since he won't allow her to spend any of his money on a maid. When Peg tries to discuss this with him, he says that as a wealthy man, he basically can marry any woman he wants, but someone like Peg, a middle-aged woman with no skills, will die alone when her looks finally fade away forever. Bud and Kelly promptly kick him out on his ass, showing that for all her flaws, they still love their mother. At the very end, Peg and Al decide to make amends and patch things up.
29	* Marcy and Steve Rhoades's relationship, was actually surprisingly ideal in the early seasons. It was based around compromise, understanding, and being happy with each other. If not for the Bundy's corruption, they almost certainly would've had a long happy marriage.
30	* You know, for a family of malcontents, Bud and Kelly were surprisingly obedient and loving towards their parents. Whenever one of the parents was in trouble and the other seemed blase' about helping them, Kelly or Bud would always ask "What about mom?" or "What about dad?" Or whenever Al was wheelchair bound it was always Kelly or Bud pushing him or feeding him or getting him his juice. Or when Peggy thought that Al was cheating on her with the Shoe Groupie, the look of the kids faces show that they were mad at their father on their mother's behalf.
31	** They're surprisingly tender with each other sometimes, even when neither one of them has been wronged by the outside world. At one point, Kelly fires an insult at Bud first thing in the morning and it hits Bud dead-center in a way it usually doesn't; when Bud doesn't say anything back, Kelly looks back at him, asks if she took it too far, and when Bud communicates that it was, ''she hugs him and apologizes''. For all the snarking the Bundys do in the comfort of their own home, it's always been affectionate.
32	* Al and Marcy bonding in "At The Zoo" over Steve's laziness. It's especially sweet given how Al while Al bounces back and forth between being friendly and antagonistic towards Steve, he's consistently antagonistic towards Marcy but is willing to dole out sympathy as he understands her situation.
33	* Al and Marcy have a bonding moment in "Hot Off The Grill" late in the episode, as Marcy spends the whole time feeling miserable over the death of her aunt, which Steve doesn't console her for due to his hatred of said aunt. It makes for a contrast to Al's usually antagonistic attitude towards Marcy.
34	* Peggy asking the kids to teach her about sports so that she can watch games with Al and understand what's going on, instead of him ignoring her.
35	* In "No Ma'am", after losing bowling night to Ladies' Night at the alley and losing the Nudie Bar to its conversion into a coffee house, one of Al's friends suggests "playing Bon Bon toss" with Peg; even after losing every weekly joy in his life to the advancements of feminism, Al fires back an insult at his own bowling teammate's wife and ''immediately'' jumps to throw hands to defend Peg's honor.
36	* Al gets dragged away from the church he's started to avoid paying taxes by Peg, who's demanded that he take her out for her birthday, complaining the whole time. The next day, at a service, Marcy embarrasses him in front of his congregation by displaying pictures of their evening--dancing, dinner, a Broadway show, and lastly, a stop at the "[[LoveHotels Rock 'Em, Sock 'Em Motel]]", with Al ''genuinely enjoying himself'' the entire time.
37	--> '''Marcy''': "There you have it. Your leader, on a date, with his wife, and '''''deeply in love '''''!"
38	--> '''Congregant''': "Say it ain't so, Reverend Al! Tell us you were with a hooker! Or at least a guy dressed like one!"
39	--> '''Al:''' ''(tearfully)'' "...I have ''sinned''!"
40	* In “If Al Had a Hammer,” Al talks to his deceased father (looking up at the heavens) about achieving the Bundy men’s dream of building their own room. Kelly asks who Al is talking to, and Peg responds that it’s Grandpa. Kelly, in a truly adorable moment, looks up, gives a wave, and softly, sweetly says “Hi, Grandpa.” Even Peg can’t suppress a smile.
41	* In "Oldies But Young 'Uns", Al is driven to the limits of insanity trying to find the name of a favorite song from his youth that he heard on the Oldies radio station which eventually drives him to a music store famous because the owner can identify any song just by the customers atonally humming the tunes they can recall from their half-remembered youth... and the guy can't name the song Al wants ''because he's never heard that particular song''. Falling to his knees, Al finally reaches the point where he begs God for either death or answers (or alcohol), and whatever PowersThatBe up there apparently sees that Al is really on the knife's edge this time, so the next song on the jukebox just happens to be the song Al was looking for. And playing from the beginning allows him to remember the songs' name. Turns out it was [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWiP8XnczSI Anna (Go To Him)]], the original Arthur Alexander version.
42	* In the episode where Al gets a Lincoln town car on loan from a car dealership, he happily takes the family out for a drive. Cue several minutes of them cheerfully enjoying themselves, laughing and clapping, even though in true Bundy style, Al deliberately runs a stop sign, nearly running several pedestrians over, which of course, makes the family laugh even ''more''.
43	* Kelly was a complete DaddysGirl. Whenever she thought that Al was becoming suspicious of her true (slutty) nature, she would panic, and proclaim that she was a good girl to her daddy. Not wanting to ruin her reputation in his eyes.
44	* "Ship Happens, Part 2": After being stranded at sea for so long, Al opts to swim for it on the chance of finding help. Naturally, once he's gone, the group gets rescued. After two days of being missing, a water-logged and ragged Al walks through the front door. Kelly and Bud immediately hug him, with the former excitedly shouting, "Daddy!"
45	* "How to Marry a Moron": Al wasn't too happy with Kelly falling for Lonnie and wanting to marry him, until finding out the guy is a member of the family behind Weenie Tots. However, he gets apprehensive after spotting Lonnie at the Nudie Bar, saying his daughter deserves more respect than this. Some further perks mollify Al, but upon learning Lonnie made a pass at Marcy (on the wedding day, no less), he immediately puts a halt to all this with Peg's full support. Upon learning the rest of Lonnie's family condones and engages in such adulterous behavior, Al is disgusted and stresses the importance of the sanctity of marriage ([[HypocriticalHumor albeit still getting his digs in at Peg]]).
46	* Al's response to Bud and his teacher's relationship in "Teacher Pets". When Bud suspects his teacher is attracted to him, he lets him believe it to humor him since it makes him feel better about himself. When he finds out that not only is it true, but the two slept together, he drops everything to put a stop to it. He calls the cops on her, but not before chewing her out for taking advantage of the power dynamic. In true ''Married With Children'' form, the fallout hilariously makes things worse because the teacher had just been replaced that same day, so he unwittingly got the wrong woman arrested while making his son look like he slept with a woman old enough to be his grandmother, maybe even his great grandmother. Considering this episode aired in 1992, when both DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale and TeacherStudentRomance were glossed over, with even female students being cheered on for dating their male teachers, this was a very admirable gesture on Al's part. Even more so is how, up until the misunderstanding, he (correctly) believed the teacher was very attractive, which is another DoubleStandard in its own right, and Al still vocally disapproved of it.

Context Heartwarming / MarriedWithChildren