These are what we call the 'YMMV items.' Things that some people find in this work. We call them 'your mileage might vary' because not everyone sees these things in the same way. This starts discussions in the trope lists, a thing we don't want. Please use the discussion page if you'd like to discuss any of these items.
Fat women, at least in Al's view. The fat women would snark back, at least.
The French. No one ever had anything nice to say about them.
Oprah and other talk shows. They also seem to have some severe hatred for Phil Donahue; Al sees him almost like a traitor in the shows Battle of the Sexes.
They hated Al right back. "Hundreds of organizations are claiming credit for the bombing of the Al Bundy Scoreboard including; The National Organization of Women, The National Organization of Fat Women, and the government of France." In addition, Al had to hang out with fat women/have his plans ruined by them more times than one can count.
Additionally, most of the depictions of the Deep South were straight out of Deliverance. Especially funny since the Bundys were pretty white trash themselves (and Peg's side of the family were a bunch of inbred hillbillies from Wisconsin).
One episode had Al trying to sell his car, and one of the interested buyers are two stereotypical Middle Eastern terrorists with a clock bomb, asking Al to give them the car and directions to the Sears Tower. This was cut in reruns in 1993 (during the first World Trade Center bombing) and 2001 (during the second one on September 11th), but is now reinstated.
The "It's A Wonderful Life" Christmas episode where Al's guardian angel is Sam Kinison, especially the part where Kinison is yelling to the heavens, "I'm coming home!" Who would've thought that would be a harsh reality?
The "Peg is pregnant" story arc after Katey Sagal's lost her baby. To retcon this, the writers had to make the whole thing Al's dream... which was, itself, Al's initial reaction upon hearing that Peg was pregnant.
Harsher in Hindsight: The season six Aborted Arc (pardon the pun) of Peggy being pregnant, followed by Katey Sagal losing her child to a miscarriage, and the entire storyline being made into an elaborate dream sequence.
Hilarious in Hindsight: 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, Modern Family (the actress who plays O'Neill's wife on Modern Family — Sofia Vergara, even mentioned on SNL that it's every Colombian immigrant girl's dream to move to America and marry Al Bundy).
See the Les Yay entry below, keeping in mind that Amanda Bearse in Real Life is an out-and-proud lesbian.
In "Sleepless in Chicago," Jefferson invites Al to a memorabilia auction. Al says he prefers to live in the present, only to then excitedly say, "Ooh, Dragnet's on!" O'Neil would be cast as Joe Friday on the short-lived 2003 remake, which also aired on ABC.
In the episode when Peg reveals she's pregnant, Peg says "Oh Al, isn't this a dream?" Al's response? "It better be!" Ten episodes later...
Bud is depicted as very unattractive and someone that only a woman with no standards would date or have sex with despite being played by the not remotely ugly David Faustino.
Marcy counts as the female equivalent, as Amanda Bearse wasn't really all that bad. For example, in the episode "The Egg and I", she shows off her body in lingerie; Al screams "I'm blind! My eyes, my eyes!" (and later, "Peg, I'm blind! I saw it again and saw darkness!") but the studio audience does Wolf Whistles.
Jerkass Woobie: As much as Al can be an utter jackass, you can't help but feel sorry for having a crap job, a sarcastic, manipulative wife, two kids who don't respect him, and an entire neighborhood (and possibly universe) who curses the day he was born.
Jumped the Shark: Surprisingly, Ted McGinley didn't ruin the show when he appeared on it as Marcy's second husband. However, the show did hit a wall when Seven (Peg's nephew) came over to stay with the Bundys. No one — not even the cast — liked the change, so they wrote Seven off as going missing after he walked upstairs. Later episodes would have his face on a milk carton, with no one around noticing or caring that the kid had gone missing.
Les Yay: Played for laughs between Marcy and Peggy in the episode "Live Nude Peg", when Peggy complains that she's lonely:
Peggy: It's been so long since someone touched me.
Marcy:(puts her arm around Peggy) Poor Peggy. I'm so sorry.
Peggy: You know, Marcy, that boyish cut really becomes you.
Marcy:(takes her arm away) Well, Peggy, there must be something you can do. With Al.
And then there were the moments involving Kelly. One episode involved Marcy and Peg getting tickets to a stage performance of The Jeffersons and dragging their husbands along with them. Al and Jefferson forced Bud and Kelly to go in their place, disguised as them. At one point during the performance, Marcy starts talking dirty to Kelly, who she thinks is Jefferson, and mentions what they could do while the lights are out. The play ends with this exchange.
Bud: I can't believe this actually worked. Mom was so convinced I was Dad, she actually picked my pocket during the show.
Kelly: What are you complaining about? At least you didn't get a hickie.
When Al joined a softball league and went on a road trip, he forced Bud and Kelly to fill in for him at the shoe store. They discuss the effects the job had on them:
Bud: I don't know what it is, but something about this job makes me want to start telling old high school football stories.
Kelly: Yeah? Well, something about this job makes me want to start reading Big 'Uns.
Memetic Mutation: Just try to convince ANY male on the Internet that Al Bundy is not a God among men.
Retroactive Recognition: Pamela Anderson (often appearing in Al's dreams as a nameless bimbo, as seen in "Al With Kelly and part two of the episode "Route 666"note the two-parter where the Bundys are stranded in a New Mexican town and discover that it may be a goldmine, Debbe Dunning, Milla Jovovich, Chip Esten, Giovanni Ribisi, Matt LeBlanc, Joey Lauren Adams, Kari Wuhrer, Eric Dane, Bill Maher (as the host of a game show called You Can't Miss), Keri Russell, Dean Norris... all before the roles that made them famous.
And Katey Sagal for those who didn't catch Married...With Children during its first run, and only found out recently that the voice of Leela on Futurama is the same actress who played Peg Bundy.
The Scrappy: Seven, who was intended to become a permanent addition to the cast. However, the fans (and writers) 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.
Seasonal Rot: Season seven when Seven was brought in to the Bundy house after being left by his parents was not liked by fans or even the cast. The show did return to its former glory in season eight, but, ratings-wise, the show took a nosedive (and things got worse when FOX changed its timeslot and other sitcoms like The Simpsons, Martin, and Living Single were becoming popular).
In syndication, and in later episodes, Queen's "We Will Rock You" and "We Are The Champions" were replaced with these.
The theme song is replaced with this in the Hulu broadcasts.
Tear Jerker: For a 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 SNL character Father Guido Sarducci, and Buck being reincarnated as the new dog, Lucky.
Unpopular Popular Character: 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.
