Married... with Children
In 1989, Michigan housewife Terry Rakolta organized a boycott against this family insult comedy, deeming it offensive, raunchy and sleazy. Curious viewers tuned in, agreed with her—and kept the show on the air for over 10 years. Shoe salesman Al Bundy (like the show, he spent his career stooping as low as possible) was crude, saddled with an oversexed wife and disappointing kids, and Ed O’Neill—one of the best character actors on TV—played him to whiny perfection. Like the Simpsons, the Bundys were really a twisted mirror of TV’s instant-gratification culture, an illustration of deadly sins—lust, sloth, greed—suitable for a medieval morality play. 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.
A - F
- The Abbott and Costello Show
- ABC's Wide World of Sports
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents
- All in the Family
- An American Family
- American Idol
- Arrested Development
- Battlestar Galactica
- The Beavis and Butt-Head Show
- The Bob Newhart Show
- Brideshead Revisited
- Buffalo Bill
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer
- The Carol Burnett Show
- The CBS Evening News with Walter Cronkite
- A Charlie Brown Christmas
- Cheers
- The Cosby Show
- The Daily Show
- Dallas
- The Day After
- Deadwood
- The Dick Van Dyke Show
- Dragnet
- The Ed Sullivan Show
- The Ernie Kovacs Show
- Felicity
- Freaks and Geeks
- The French Chef
- Friends
G - M
- General Hospital
- The George Burns and Gracie Allen Show
- Gilmore Girls
- Gunsmoke
- Hill Street Blues
- Homicide: Life on the Street
- The Honeymooners
- I, Claudius
- I Love Lucy
- King of the Hill
- The Larry Sanders Show
- Late Night with David Letterman (NBC)
- Leave It to Beaver
- Lost
- Married... with Children
- Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman
- The Mary Tyler Moore Show
- M*A*S*H
- The Monkees
- Monty Python's Flying Circus
- Moonlighting
- MTV 1981-1992
- My So-Called Life
- Mystery Science Theater 3000
N - S
- The Odd Couple
- The Office [American]
- The Office [British]
- The Oprah Winfrey Show
- Pee Wee's Playhouse
- Playhouse 90
- The Price Is Right
- Prime Suspect
- The Prisoner
- The Real World
- Rocky and His Friends
- Roots
- Roseanne
- Sanford and Son
- Saturday Night Live
- Second City Television
- See It Now
- Seinfeld
- Sesame Street
- Sex and the City
- The Shield
- The Simpsons
- The Singing Detective
- Six Feet Under
- 60 Minutes
- Soap
- The Sopranos
- South Park
- SpongeBob SquarePants
- SportsCenter
- Star Trek
- St. Elsewhere
- The Super Bowl (and the Ads)
- Survivor
T - Z
- Taxi
- The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson
- 24
- The Twilight Zone
- Twin Peaks
- The West Wing
- What's My Line?
- WKRP in Cincinnati
- The Wire
- Wiseguy
- The X-Files
- Your Show of Shows
