The show is set in Chicago and follows the lives of Al Bundy, a former high school football player turned hard-luck women's shoe salesman; his lazy wife Peggy; their pretty but dim-witted daughter Kelly; and their smart-aleck son Bud.

[5] In the show's pilot episode, actors Tina Caspary and Hunter Carson played the roles of Kelly and Bud Bundy, respectively.

A re-casting was done and all of the scenes in the pilot with Carson and Caspary were re-shot with David Faustino and Christina Applegate playing Bud and Kelly Bundy.

[8][9]: 66  Creators Ron Leavitt and Michael G. Moye were told by Garth Ancier and other Fox executives "to be as outrageous as they could be, doing the sort of material the Big Three would never allow on the air", wrote Daniel M. Kimmel in 2004.

In 1987, Howard Rosenberg of the Los Angeles Times praised the casting of the Bundys, found the character development of the D'Arcys lacking, and warned viewers: "The satire is heavy-handed.

In an interview for a special commemorating the series' 20-year anniversary in 2007, Katey Sagal stated that part of the problem the series faced was that many areas of the country were able to get Fox only through low-quality UHF channels well into the early 1990s, while some areas of the country did not receive the new network at all, a problem not largely rectified until the launch of Foxnet in June 1991 and later the network's acquisition of National Football League rights which led to several stations across the United States changing affiliations.

Another problem lay in the fact that many of the newly developed series on Fox were unsuccessful, which kept the network from building a popular lineup to draw in a larger audience.

In its original airing debut, Married... with Children was part of a Sunday lineup that competed with the popular Murder, She Wrote and Sunday-night movie on CBS.

Daniel M. Kimmel reflected on the show in 2004: "It had achieved a cult status as a somewhat tasteless family sitcom that was so well written and acted that some actually saw it as dark satire of modern suburban life rather than simply an unending stream of sex jokes.

"[25] Poniewozik concluded about the characterization of the show: "Zestily lowbrow and sex-obsessed, Married was dedicated to the classical ideal that unhappy families were more interesting than happy ones... and a lot funnier.

[26] In 1989, Terry Rakolta from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, attempted to lead a boycott[25] of the show after viewing the episode "Her Cups Runneth Over".

[27] Offended by the images of an old man wearing a woman's garter and stockings, the scene in which Steve touches the pasties of a mannequin dressed in S&M gear, a homosexual man wearing a tiara on his head (and Al's line "...and they wonder why we call them 'queens'"), and a half-nude woman who takes off her bra in front of Al (and is shown with her arms covering her bare chest in the next shot), Rakolta began a letter-writing campaign to advertisers, demanding they boycott the show.

[9]: 68  Fox pulled the episode titled "I'll See You in Court" (in which the Bundys attempt to improve their love life by having marital relations in a different setting).

[34] Fellow Senator Joe Lieberman (D-CT) also strongly criticized the sitcom, after having walked in on his stepson and young daughter watching an episode one evening in late 1993.

In an interview many years later, Lieberman would specifically cite Married...With Children as the impetus for his becoming a vocal opponent of pop culture and the entertainment industry throughout his Senate career.

[41] The Sony DVD box sets from season 3 onward do not feature the original "Love and Marriage" theme song in the opening sequence.

On August 27, 2013, it was announced that Mill Creek Entertainment[43] had acquired the home media rights to various television series from the Sony Pictures library including Married... with Children[44] with the original theme song "Love and Marriage" sung by Frank Sinatra.

The roles in this sitcom, created for family watching, are played by Ani Lupe, Satenik Hazaryan, Ishkhan Gharibyan, Suren Arustamyan and other popular Armenian actors.

The elder son of Garnik and Ruzan – Azat, continues to look for a new job, a young man appears in the life of Marie, who is trying to win the girl's heart.

The remake used the exact translated scripts of the original series (which already substituted localised humour and in-jokes for incomprehensible references to American TV shows not shown in Germany, as well as some totally different jokes) and just renamed places and people according to the new setting.

[96] The Original Married... With Children ran on TV-6 Russia in the late 1990s and early 2000s (before the closing of the channel) in prime-time basis, broadcasting the episodes from seasons 1–11.

The end of the pilot episode shows Al breaking into their apartment and stealing their TV to replace the one he lost betting on Vinnie in a boxing match.

[105] Ed O'Neill revealed plot details for the proposed spin-off in 2016: "Bud is now grown up and living in the old house with some of his buddies, but they're all bust-outs, they aren't working.

It was further revealed that Sony Pictures Television had been working on the animated series for over a year and waited until they had closed deals with the cast before presenting it to networks and streamers.

After a string of misfortunes, the Bundys move to the cheapest home in Dumpwater, FL – a small house with a sinkhole front yard.

As they get to know their Latin neighbors, war with HOA snobs, & yuck it up at their community pool, Al is desperate to be a big shot but continually gets fleeced in Florida – where the weather is sunny, but the people are shady.

The full version of "I'll See You in Court" can only be seen on the DVD release Married... with Children: The Most Outrageous Episodes Volume 1 and the Mill Creek Entertainment complete series collection.

[110] Following its acquisition by Nexstar Media Group and rebrand to NewsNation, the network indicated it would start rolling off its non-news programming as those contracts expire to expand news coverage.

[citation needed] In July 2024, Cozi TV acquired the rights to the show along with The King of Queens and began airing on August 5, 2024.

The expressway entrance shot was taken from the 1983 movie National Lampoon's Vacation featuring the Griswolds' green family truckster with a northeastward view of the Dan Ryan/Stevenson junction southwest of the Loop.