It was another close one, but the favourite episode of Season 5, based on comments from yesterday’s post is the fantastic two-parter, “You Better Shop Around!” (Part 1 and Part 2).
Thanks to everyone for contributing! Season 6 will be posted on Saturday. I’ll be taking a little break tomorrow!
Season 5 was arguably the show’s peak season. It was at the height of its popularity, and the fan base was growing ever larger. It also started developing some of its more “cartoonish” elements that would be heavily featured in later seasons.
With Steve Rhodes gone, the show introduced a new character, Jefferson D’Arcy, played by veteran sitcom actor Ted McGinley, from Happy Days and The Love Boat, among others. Jefferson didn’t appear until halfway through the season, but soon became a beloved character in his own right.
Other landmark moments during this season include the first appearance of Psycho Dad (Al’s favourite show) and the first mention of his “four touchdowns in a single game.”
This season also saw the show’s first attempt at a spinoff, “Top of the Heap,” which ultimately did not go over well.
Notable Guest Stars in Season 5:
-Pamela Anderson (Baywatch) and former wrestler Becky Mullin as fantasy girls in Al’s dream in “Al…with Kelly.”
-Dr. Joyce Brothers as the judge in “Sue Casa, His Casa.”
-Ian Ziering (Steve Sanders in 90210) as “The Kid” in “The Unnatural.”
-Dan Castellaneta (Homer Simpson) as Pete, a gay man that befriends Al in “The Dance Show.”
-Model and Baywatch actress Tia Carrere as Kelly’s rival in “Kelly Bounces Back.”
-Gilligan’s Island actress Tina Louise (Ginger) as Miss Beck, the casting director in “Kelly Bounces Back.”
-Television host and veteran actress Rhonda Shear as Brenda, a neighbour who has the hots for Al in “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy?”
-Sabrina the Teenage Witch actress Beth Broderick (Aunt Zelda) as lawyer Miss Penza in “And Baby Makes Money.”
-Blues guitarist B.B King as a street performer in “Look Who’s Barking.”
-Comedian Cheech Marin and the late, great Catherine O’Hara as the voices of Buck and his girlfriend in “Look Who’s Barking.”
-Professional football player Bubba Smith as Spare Tire Dixon in “All Night Security Dude.”
-Matt Leblanc (Joey from Friends) as Vinny Verducci, Kelly’s boyfriend in “Oldies but Young ‘Uns” (and “Top of the Heap.”)
-Jerry Mathers (Leave It To Beaver) as himself in “You Better Shop Around, Part Two.”
-Armin Shimerman (Star Trek Ds9 and Buffy the Vampire Slayer) as Mr. Lovejoy, a dog breeder in “Buck the Stud.”
Memorable Episodes and Moments:
We’ll Follow the Sun - The Bundys attempt to go on a road trip, but are thwarted by a traffic jam.
Al….with Kelly - Al tries to enjoy his time away from Peg, but a sick Kelly keeps demanding his attention.
The Unnatural - Al is replaced by a more professional softball player during the championship game.
The Dance Show - Peggy meets a gay man while out dancing with Marcy, and Al befriends the suspicious husband.
Kelly Bounces Back - Kelly invents the “Bundy Bounce” for a TV commercial audition.
Married…with Aliens - Al is visited by sock-stealing aliens.
Wabbit Season - Al attempts to grow a vegetable garden but is tortured by a pesky rabbit.
Married with Who - Marcy discovers she has married a man named Jefferson after a wild banker’s convention.
The Godfather - In one of Ed O’Neill’s favourite episodes, Al discovers Kelly is dating an older man with connections to local government.
All Night Security Dude - Al gets a job as a security guard at Polk High, and the football trophy is stolen under his watch.
You Better Shop Around - In this two-part episode, a heat wave forces the Bundy family to move into the supermarket.
Don’t see your favourite? Check them out the full list here.
Now it’s your turn! What is your favourite episode of Season 5? Share in the comments and the winner will be announced tomorrow!
WARNING: IF YOU JUST TYPE A QUOTE, IT WILL NOT BE COUNTED!
AND IF YOU GIVE ME AN EPISODE FROM A DIFFERENT SEASON, I WILL REVOLT.
After yesterday’s post where we discussed our favourite episodes from Season 1, two winners emerged as the victor! Yes, it was a tie!
Your two favourite episodes from Season 1 are Nightmare on Al’s Street and Have You Driven a Ford Lately?
I want to direct everyone’s attention to the original post where we discussed how this series would work and how to participate. Some people didn’t understand the assignment, so this is just a refresher and to also catch those who may not have seen it the first time around.
I will make a post for Season 2 tomorrow!
I ran out of photo space in my post yesterday about the front entrance, so here’s a mini post on the coat closet, located next to the Bundy’s front door.
There are often various jackets hanging on the five hooks mounted to the door and is either full of coats on the inside or very empty, depending on the episode. When Kelly and Bud are children, the closet is used as a height tracker. (Tried to find a picture of this but couldn’t). More often than not, Al uses it as a hiding spot. (Pics 1, 5 and 6).
My main question about the closet is how on earth Al and Peg managed to get busy in there at the end of the episode “Dial B for Virgin.” (Pic 7). It looks hella cramped. We can see in Pic 6 he can barely stand up straight in there. But maybe there’s a secret tunnel like in the garage. 🤪
As we all know, Al built his own private bathroom in Season 3, complete with his beloved Ferguson toilet.
Since the bathroom was attached to the garage, I was going to talk about it in my last post, but after noticing a few things that made my head hurt, I realized it needed its own post.
First of all, unless I’m sorely mistaken, the only time we see inside the bathroom is when Peg “redecorates” it. (Pics 1, 2 and 3). I would have loved to see what it was “supposed” to look like before she touched it (and afterwards when Al forced her to change it back). We catch very tiny glimpses in some of the later episodes when Al and members of the No Ma’am crew walk in or out of there (Griff’s No Ma’am initiation in Season 9, for example, or the Bingo episode) but you can’t see very much. These scenes are featured in pics 4, 5 and 6.
When Al is renovating, we can see that the bathroom is supposed to be on the left side of the door (or if you were exiting through the house, the right side). See pic 7 for ref. And the episode with Peggy’s decoration skills reflects this. (See pic 8 as Al is about to enter the bathroom).
But then things start going all screwy. For one thing, the bathroom is added during Season 3. But in Season 4, in the episode “Oh, What a Feeling”, the bathroom doesn’t seem to be there at all. (See pics 9 and 10). And then, in Season 6, suddenly the bathroom is on the other side of the garage! This is shown in the episode If Al Had a Hammer. (Pic 11). Ok, so that episode was part of his dream, therefore that would make sense if it was in a different spot. HOWEVER. The bathroom would remain on this side of the garage throughout the rest of the series. (Pic 12 from Season 7, Pic 13 from Season 9, pic 14 from Season 11). Based on the tiny glimpses of the interior that we see in the episodes I mentioned earlier, it looks much smaller than when it was on the other side of the door.
Of course, since the hammer episode was part of Al’s dream, maybe when he woke up, he realized he liked the bathroom much better on the other side of the garage and moved it! I think that will be my head canon from now on to soothe the headaches.
Did anyone notice any other wonky things with the bathroom?
Arguably, the garage was one of the most important spaces in the Bundy house. Why? Because it was where Al kept his beloved Dodge, of course!
We first see the garage in Season 1, during the episode for Al and Peg’s anniversary. (Pics 2 and 3). The brown car there is supposedly Peg’s car but it looks an awful lot like the car they would later use for the Dodge. (I could do a whole other post on the cars, honestly). We can’t really see a heck of a lot in this scene, other than a few cluttered shelves, various junk and coils of rope hanging on the wall. (I ain’t making the obvious joke here. You can infer it yourselves).
Later on, we get a nice view of the whole garage in a Season 4 episode. (Pic 4). I love the creepy doll in the box, the bag of dog food (or maybe fertilizer?) and the view of their driveway outside the garage door. (Damn. Does Al trim the hedges himself? Or is that Steve and Marcy’s handiwork? They look nice!) The shelves are still cluttered, but it’s an organized kind of clutter, which I can relate to.
The more I see of this garage, the more I realize how freakin’ huge it is, especially for an attached garage. It has a window (a big one, too!) and room for two cars. Plus lots of shelves and storage space. We can see all kinds of stuff in the background over the years. In pic 5 from Season 1, we can see a ladder and the red charcoal grill that would reappear famously in Season 4, Hot Off the Grill. (LOVE this detail)! There’s also an old manual lawnmower and some candlesticks (pic 6), an ironing board (pic 7), a dartboard on the door (pics 1 and 8), a “No Gambling Allowed” sign (pic 9), a shelf with cassette tapes that looks awfully familiar (pics 10 and 11 - separate post coming for that), a sun-shaped wall decoration that definitely hung in my parent’s shed (pics 12) and an electric fan (pics 8 and 13), among many others. I also like all the little details behind Al in pic 14, including the random lampshade and the pink suitcase. (Kelly’s or Peggy’s? Maybe it’s Bud’s!)
Post in the comments if you notice any other neat things.
Another nice touch: The card table seen in pic 4 was used again in Season 7, with Bud’s fraternity. (Pics 15 and 16). Al knocking it over with the car is one of my favourite scenes of all time.
All right, so let me address the elephant in the room: The bathroom that Al adds on to the garage during Season 3. I was going to talk about it in this post, but after reviewing the episodes while doing research, my headache returned in full force as I made a few discoveries about that bathroom and the layout of the garage. So I will be saving that for my next post.
(Prepare for aggravated ranting).
The basement makes its first appearance in the Season 7 episode, Till Death Do Us Part, when Al decided to bulk up. Before that, we had only seen the characters enter the basement door and disappear into the mysteries beyond…or, in Al’s case, trip over the busted stair and fall down screaming. (An off camera gag that started early in the first season).
The Bundy basement is unfinished and contains a lot of the normal junk you would find down in a basement. In Pic 1, we see an old bike, a workbench covered in various items, papers on the floor, a shelf on the wall full of cassette tapes, and a pile of cardboard boxes. There’s even a doll-size couch, which makes me think it was a childhood toy of Kelly’s. There’s old picture frames hanging on the wall by the stairs too, which continue to show up in the future.
In the later seasons, Bud spent a lot of time down in the basement, especially starting in Season 10, when he moves down there to get some privacy. In these episodes, we get to see even more of the space, including an old rocking horse, seen in pics 2 and 3. (I do think it’s sweet the Bundys held onto old childhood toys), along with a green bench, a set of shelves and a dartboard. (Seen best in pic 5). And of course, a lot of Bud’s furniture from his bedroom follows him down to the basement (his bed, desk and shelves, from the looks of Pics 6 and 7).
I do have to give a shout out to the set designers/builders for incorporating the brick wall from upstairs into the basement. Excellent attention to detail! You can see it best in the first pic, but it’s visible in most of the others too.
The corner over beyond the stairs is the part that remains least consistent throughout the years. It was basically an open space with random junk the first few times we saw it (pics 1, 3 and 4) but by Season 11, there was a set of shelves back there, a grey cabinet of some sort (likely Bud’s wardrobe), the workbench from the first photo (likely moved to accommodate Bud’s desk), and, most perplexing, a laundry tub? Or is it a sink? We know their washer and dryer is upstairs thanks to my previous insane posts. So my best guess is that it’s a sink. You can see all these details in Pics 8-11.
Of course, by Season 11, there was also a secret tunnel to the Jiggly Room down there, but I’ll just chalk that up to the absurdity of the show by that point. (And maybe assume Al was having another crazy dream. He did also get swallowed up by a tornado in that same episode). See the last two pics.
And now a game of Where’s Waldo. See if you can find the following objects:
-A globe
-A fuse box
-A Webster’s dictionary
-A watering can
-A dilapidated ladder that you just know Al hurt himself on more than once
-The Crazy Achmed satellite dish box (I frickin’ love this detail, btw)
(Is there a furnace? Am I blind?)
Nothing has given me more of a headache than this tiny part of the Bundy House that was barely shown onscreen.
We catch glimpses of the hallway from Al and Peg’s room in the early seasons. There’s a window on the wall outside their door with white curtains. (Same side as the window in their bedroom! Good job, set designers!). You can see it clearly in pics 2 and 3. We also see a door that appears to have stickers all over it, with a theme that led me to believe for the longest time that it was Kelly’s room. (See pics 4 and 5).
But then…..Season 7 rolled around and changed that, as we see it’s actually Bud’s room. Want proof? Let’s look at the window at the end of the hallway outside both his and his parents’ room. You can see it in Pic 6, which is from the first episode of Season 7. It’s the same window from pics 2 and 3. Furthermore, when we finally get to see the hallway in all its glory in the season 7 episode, Wedding Show, Bud enters the room directly across from Al and Peg’s. (See pic 7).
However, the pictures on his door don’t match the pictures we’ve seen before. (Pic 6 shows this). And in the Season 7 finale, they’re back to the skull pictures we’ve seen in the past. (Pic 8, with the lovely Vanna White). So….huh??
If we look at the scene from Wedding Show in pics 1 and 7, I concluded that Kelly’s room is that door that we see at the end of the hallway behind Al and Peg. Because there’s no other door on the same side as Bud’s bedroom. There’s just a chest of some sort with a lamp along that wall. Unless her room is around the corner back there, near the top of the stairs, meaning there likely is a joint bathroom between his and Kelly’s room, as I had predicted before.
So what’s the door at the end of the hallway there? Well, I had an epiphany while writing this post. Because I’m pretty sure that door should be connected to Al and Peg’s bathroom back there. My guess it’s a linen closet or perhaps they DID only have one bathroom for a while and that’s how the kids accessed it?? And then they added the one in the garage and later one between the kids’ rooms? I don’t know anymore.
BUT THEN. Everything is thrown out the window (pun intended) once more during Season 11 when we see the hallway again during the Bundy Thanksgiving episode. (See pics 9, 10, and 11). There’s the window we see outside Al and Peg’s bedroom all the time, with corresponding artwork and furniture. All of a sudden, that room across the hall has turned into Kelly’s room after all, and Al and Peg’s bedroom is suddenly a linen closet. Oh, my aching head.
My best guess is that the director was hoping we wouldn’t notice that particular part of the hallway is what we see outside of Al and Peg’s room and it’s meant to be a different section than what we’ve seen before (most likely closer to the stairs). Let’s face it, normal people wouldn’t notice these things, but I’m a weirdo, so….
Or….Kelly moved into Bud’s old room once he went down to the basement (and Mama Wanker finally left). But that doesn’t explain the linen closet!
At least the carpet is consistent with what is on the stairs. And there’s more nice artwork on the walls. (And zero wallpaper!)
This post really went off the rails, but I hope people find it as amusing as I did, and I’m sorry if you have a headache now.
We took a good look at Al and Peg’s bedroom in my last post, so now let’s direct our attention to more of the upper floor in the Bundy House.
Bud’s bedroom was featured a few times in the later seasons of the show. We can see that he’s got a fairly decent sized room, with a twin bed, shelves, matching dressers and nightstand, and relatively tame wallpaper compared to the rest of the house. His room is decked out with posters (mostly of rap stars and scantily clad women, besides the famous Wags the Perplexed Pup poster in pic 5) and he appears to have a keyboard. Was Bud a…budding…musician at some point?? We know he was a star rapper so maybe he played a little keys too. He also has a portable TV (so that’s where the one from the kitchen disappeared to!). You can see all of these features in the first 5 pics of my post.
There appears to be a camera….set up by the window….(oh dear!) in Pic 6. There’s also a hockey stick and soccer ball in Pic 7, suggesting Bud played sports at some point.
He also has a phone on his nightstand (you can see it in the first pic). I believe Kelly had her own phone too. Boy, Al and Peg sure were generous parents!
In Season 10, Bud moves down to the basement and Peggy’s mom moves into his old room. You can see this change in the Season 10 Christmas episode, “I Can’t Believe It’s Butter.” See pics 8-10. It’s clearly the same room (check out the wallpaper) but Mrs. Wanker certainly wasted no time making it her own. I almost did a separate post just on this newly decorated room, the details are outstanding. (Pictures of desserts on the walls. A fridge with a sign that says “Orders to Go.” A DAMN DISPLAY CASE OF FOOD). She also gets a bigger bed than what Bud had, but I guess that goes without saying.
Kelly’s room was only featured in one episode, and we didn’t get to see it until the very last season. We also didn’t get to see very much of it, unfortunately. I have posted everything we can view in pics 11-13. Her walls are a light purple shade (no wallpaper for her), she has a comfy armchair, shelves with stuffed animals and some kind of…vase or lamp…and various paintings on the walls. Honestly? It doesn’t look very Kelly Bundy to me. I wish we could have seen her room when she was a teenager. It likely would have been covered in posters of metal bands and other cool stuff.
(Also, the outside shutters on her window are green. Again, don’t recommend looking at a picture of the exterior of the house right now).
One last thing I need to mention: The ensuite bathroom attached to Bud’s room. You can see it best in the first and last pics. The door to it is visible in many of the other pictures too. Contrary to what was said in the Season 3 episode, “A Dump of my Own”, the Bundys did not have just one bathroom before Al built another one out in the garage. It would have been super awkward for Bud and Kelly to traipse through Al and Peg’s bedroom every time they needed to answer the call of nature or take a shower. So it makes more sense that Bud and Kelly had their own bathroom. My guess is that it also attached to Kelly’s room, a la Brandon and Brenda Walsh’s shared bathroom in Beverly Hills, 90210.
Of course, there’s one episode that totally destroys the image of the layout I have in my head of the upper level of their house, but I’ll discuss that in more detail when we talk about the upstairs hallway. Stay tuned!
In Part 2 of exploring the Bundy bedroom, I want to chat about the carpet. It appears to be pink (or…dusty rose?) for most of the series. (See pics 1, 2, and 3). But take a look at pic 4 from Season 11. It looks almost brown. It’s either the lighting or the angle (and hey, this is a pretty cool overhead shot), or they got new carpet between Seasons 7 and 11. Then again, it does look pink once more in pic 5, which was also from Season 11, but filmed before the episode from pic 4. Anyone confused yet? Ok. I’ll shut up about the carpet now.
Two more main features I’d like to discuss before moving on to other things:
-The TV set. Al and Peggy have a TV in their room in the first season, which is seen in pic 6. (And Al acknowledges it by asking Peggy if she wants to watch Carson). We also see it in Season 4 when the roof is leaking (pic 7) and Peggy even mentions he broke the TV antenna so they can’t watch it. The TV is back in Season 7, when Al sees Coco on a talk show (this is the episode in pic 3. You can see the TV in the corner). But in Season 11, Peggy asks Al if she can get a TV in their room and in exchange, Al gets twin beds.
Conclusion: The TV kept breaking and Peggy kept begging Al to get a new one in there.
-Their ensuite bathroom. We really only catch glimpses into it from their bedroom, we never get to see the whole thing. The best views are in pic 8, where you can see shelves or a medicine cabinet, along with a linen basket, and pic 9, where it shows more art on the wall, a towel rack and what appears to be a sink or basin (maybe. I can’t really tell).
(I’m going to discuss their bathrooms more in depth in another post. Yes, that’s a sentence I never thought I’d write).
Other fun things in the room:
-The pink bench at the end of their bed. (See pics 4, 5, 9 and 10 for best views). It’s a constant feature…except when it mysteriously turns blue (pic 7) and when it disappears occasionally (pics 1 and 3).
-Peggy’s vanity. Also stays mostly consistent through all appearances. (See pics 6, 11, and 12). She’s got a big, beautiful mirror and likes to put flowers and candles on the surface. Oh, and the mirror doubles as something else too. (See pics 13 and 14).
-The weird light fixture on the wall by the window in pics 15 and 16. Speaking of the window, it’s lined with pink curtains, which also stay fairly consistent throughout the seasons. (Pics 1, 3 and 16 show this). They have a nice view out their window (pic 17) and even some nice shrubbery lining it outside (pic 18).
(Do I recommend looking at a picture of the exterior of the house right now? Absolutely not).
-Their dresser and nightstands seem to be a matching set. (see pics 1 and 2).
Well, that’s everything, absolutely nothing else weird or out of the ordinary to see….wait. What is that on the edge of the first pic on the right hand side? Is that….another door?? But…it’s on the same side as the window. I mean, I’m assuming it’s supposed to be their closet, but…make it make sense!! 🤯
Please add any other things you notice in the comments!
Ah, Al and Peg’s bedroom. Home of the wink, wink, nudge, nudge. And by that, I mean the ol’ 30 second bump and snore.
The bedroom was first seen in the second episode of the first season. (Thinnergy). And for the most part, it doesn’t change all that much throughout the series. Blue and pink seem to be Peggy’s preferred colours, at least for this room.
The wallpaper, bed frame, and the lamps on their nightstands are particularly consistent. (My parents had the same lamps in our living room growing up). Al and Peg have what appears to be a double bed, and they seem to only own one style of sheets and bedspread. The blue set with pink flowers is seen pretty much in every bedroom scene. Though by later seasons, it looks like they gave it a good wash and got matching pillow cases. (See pics 1 and 3 for comparison). You can take a good look at the bed and bed frame in pics 1, 4 and 5, and the wallpaper in pretty much all of them, but especially pic 2.
The pictures on the walls mostly remain the same…EXCEPT the pictures above their bed. In the first couple of seasons, they have paintings of birds in the frames. (See pic 6). Later on, it changes to….I don’t know what, exactly. I’ve tried to zoom in and get a better look, but I can’t figure it out for the life of me. (Take a look at pics 7 and 8 and see if you can help me).
What I DO know is that a), the two pictures disappeared in Peggy and the Pirates and were replaced by one giant painting of a ship, FOR THAT EPISODE ONLY. (Pic 9). The next time we see their bedroom later in the season, the ship is gone and we’re back to the two pictures again. Which makes me think the pirate episode might have been all a dream on Peggy’s part.
And b), after Al and Peg’s bedroom wasn’t seen at all during Seasons 9 and 10, the set decorators messed up a bit when they brought back the set for Season 11. Take a look at the pictures above their bed in pic 10 (Season 7) and pic 11 (Season 11) and try to spot the difference.
Other pictures include a creepy clown or doll or something (see pic 12) and a charming lake in pic 13, next to their bed. (Maybe to remind Al of fishing).
Part 2 is coming tomorrow. We’ll discuss the mysteries of the carpet, the ever-disappearing TV set, their ensuite bathroom, and the other fun features of the room.
The stairs in the Bundy house saw a lot of action, from Buck snoozing on the landing to Al carrying Peg up them after purchasing a blonde wig. They even survived Peg’s mother, though just barely!
The stairs are carpeted and are a deep brown colour. (See the carpet up close in pics 2 and 3). The wallpaper pattern is the same as the one in the living room by the entrance to the kitchen. You can get a really good view of it in pics 4 and 5 (but it’s visible in almost all of them).
Lining the walls are photos that change periodically. In pic 4, you can see a picture of a little boy on the wall just behind Kelly’s head (I’ll choose to believe it’s Al as a kid) and then later on, it’s a photo collage, either the same one that is sometimes seen in the living room or one that’s very similar. (See pic 5, also behind Kelly’s head). There’s also these huge circular wall decorations. I don’t know what to call them - are they plates? Mirrors? Pictures? You can see them in pics 1, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 9. They stay the same through all 11 seasons, as far as I can tell.
At the bottom landing, there’s some rather nice framed paintings on the walls (see pics 6, 7 and 8), and these also stay consistent. There’s also a small bookshelf with cupboards on the bottom landing, which you can see in full view in pic 11. It usually has knickknacks or a plant on top of it. (Zoom in on pic 6. There’s a book with a skull and crossbones on it. Treasure Island, maybe? Or a book about death for Al?)
Fun Stuff:
-There’s a grandfather clock on the top landing. You can see it in pics 5, 9 and 10. I don’t think it works, however.
-There’s also a window at the top. In the early seasons, this had a pink curtain over it. (See pics 9 and 12).
-Pic 13 gives us a first person view from the stairs, coming down into the living room. We get to see….light switches. And a bunch of terrified men. (Plus, a bit more of the front entrance, which I will also be covering in a future post).
-The actors have said that the stairs don’t really go anywhere except to a dead end and that Christina and David used to put graffiti on the stage wall up there.
Now the basement stairs are a different story, but that’s a post for another day….
Any other thoughts on the stairway?
Yes, the Bundys have a laundry room. Though I doubt it was used very often!
When I first started watching the show, I didn’t initially realize that the little room behind their kitchen was a laundry room. I thought it was just another way to get into their backyard as there is also a set of sliding doors back there. (See pic 1 and 9).
But then I noticed the green washing machine and dryer. You can really see the full setup in pic 2, including laundry soap and….an ironing board! See pics 3 and 4 for more views. Peggy uses the washer when Marcy spills fish on her dress in the Season 1 finale, Johnny B. Gone. (See this clip: https://youtu.be/dOV8apVRJ-8?si=sLgHpobkk45dmb6k)
Back to the ironing board. You can see it again in pics 5, 6, and 7. I doubt Peggy used it to iron Al’s shirts, though I could see her and Kelly using it on their dressier outfits.
Fun stuff:
-There’s a dustpan hanging on the wall in pics 6 and 8.
-The plants are back in pics 3 and 4.
-Guess what? Not only is there a set of sliding doors back there…but there’s a hidden back door too! Al and Jefferson come through it in this scene. https://youtu.be/j4CyjonOgn0?si=U8z_UC4u9fDNyN2g
I guess you can sort of see it in the background of some of the pics (pic 10, for example), but honestly, it blew my mind the first time I saw that episode.
Why are there so many doors?? They have a set of sliding doors off the living room too! I’m going to do a post on the back yard and I can already feel the headache starting….
What are your thoughts on their little laundry room? Was it more common to have a laundry room on the main floor back then? They were always in the basement where I grew up.
Not much cooking or eating went on in the Bundy kitchen but it was still well-used!
Highlights:
The first thing to note about the kitchen is the greenery that lines the top of the cabinets. Like, what even is that? Was it alive? Fake? Was this a decorative trend during the 70s and 80s? See pics 1-4 for the best views.
They have a round dinner table, lots of cupboard space, and a bar/breakfast nook (trying to distinguish between American/Canadian terms here, lol). The bar has two raised chairs and consistently has a telephone placed upon it. There’s a little bookcase next to it. Yup, the Bundys owned quite a few books. (The bar area can be seen in the first 4 pics, along with pics 5 and 6. The bookshelf can be seen behind Bud in pic 7).
The floor pattern changed at some point between Season 1 (pic 5) and Season 5 (pic 3).
There’s wallpaper in here too! (Pics 8 and 9 show it the best). And fun lighting fixtures. (I think there’s lights above the bar as well). See pics 1, 5, 8, and 9 for best views of the lights.
The fridge is brown and as far as I can tell, stayed the same through all 11 seasons. They also have a stove (appears to be gas) and….a dishwasher!! (See pics 8 and 10). Peggy famously cooked burgers in the toaster (pic 2) and by later seasons, they had a toaster oven. (Pic 8). I know they get a microwave in Season 11, but I’m not sure if they end up keeping it!
Someone in a previous post mentioned the small, portable TV they had in the kitchen that they never used. You can see it in pics 6, 9 and 11.
Fun stuff:
-There’s a set of shelves built into the bar with yet more knick knacks on them. (Pic 12)
-They own a set of French Onion soup bowls. The same set I own, from the looks of it. (Al eating something FRENCH??) (see pic 2 - you gotta zoom in).
-They own the same cute salt and pepper shakers with mushrooms printed on them that my parents owned. (Pic 11).
-They have a calendar on the wall in later seasons!And I think it doesn’t change once it’s there, lol.(Pics 13 and 14).
-Yes, there is the laundry room that attaches to the kitchen and contains a second set of sliding doors out into the yard. You can see it in most of these pictures, including behind Al and Peg in pic 15. That’s for a separate post, though!
-Finally, let’s examine the last picture. Are those RECIPE BOOKS behind Peggy?? Is that a fruit basket on top of the fridge? (If not, what the heck is it??). What is the gadget on the counter behind Al’s arm?
What do you like best about their kitchen? Is there anything I missed?
One of my favourite things about the living room is all of the little details you can see in the background. For the most part, a lot of these remain the same throughout 11 seasons, but there are some things that change or shift around.
Wall Decorations
Peggy very clearly likes to hang things on the walls….leaving hardly any surface bare!!
In the first picture, we can see that she even hung stuff above the doors into the backyard. She seems to really like framed photos and paintings, plates, and little knick knacks. The same style can be found on the walls surrounding the staircase and leading into the kitchen. (See Pic 2)
There’s also the light sconces on the brick wall, along with what I think is supposed to be a barometer or a clock (my grandparents had something similar). (See Pic 3).
Shelving and Drawers
There’s a chest of drawers in the corner by the stairs. Scroll through pics 4 to 7 to see the various things that sat atop of it. A lamp, a framed photo collage, and a plant are the most consistent items. By Season 11, the family photo from Al’s Dodge was now displayed there. (See pic 8).
The other chest of drawers was located next to the garage door, and also had photos atop of it (including the framed collage from the other table), various knick knacks, but most often, Al’s trophies (assuming they are from his football days, though some could be baseball and bowling too). Sometimes his trophies moved throughout the room (see pics 9-13) but as early as Season 1, they were located on this table.
There’s a large shelving unit in the back of the room by the back sliding door, which holds a record player and records, a stereo, plants, vases and knick knacks. (And occasionally, a framed photo of Peggy). In some pics, it appears to hold books as well. Pics 1, 9, 10 and 12 give the best views.
The Desk
The desk along the brick wall had a telephone during the first season (Pic 14) but eventually had various lamps, stationery items (I swear there’s an inkwell in one photo), bill holders, and other unidentifiable objects. See pics 3, 11 and 15 for more views. In Season 10, the Bundys get a computer (see pic 16) but by Season 11, it’s gone again (see pic 17). Maybe it moved down to the basement with Bud?
Finally, I have to mention the plants. It seemed someone in the family had a green thumb, unless the plants were fake. Check out the plants behind Al and Steve in pics 14, 15 and 18 and the tree by the front door in Pic 19! These would disappear by the later seasons, though smaller plants were always in the background somewhere.
And of course, there’s the greenery that lines the ceiling in the kitchen, but that’s for another post.
Finally, let’s take a look at the photos in the background of Pic 13. Who do we think is in them?
The Bundy living room was a staple of the entire series, appearing regularly in pretty much every episode (with a few exceptions, mainly the ones when the Bundys were traveling, such as the second and third parts of the England episodes). Pic 1 is from Season 2 and Pics 6-7 are from Season 11 to show how little the set changed throughout the years. (With a few minor differences which we will cover in Part 2).
Highlights:
The Couch: The living room, of course, contains the famous couch (which remains the same throughout the series, though it was sneakily replaced by Kelly after she burns it down in the 8th season episode, Sofa So Good). Once in a while, it features some fancy throw pillows, but overall it remains fairly unchanged throughout 11 seasons.
The TV area: Along with the couch, there is an armchair on the viewer’s left, and a smaller white chair on the right. There’s a standard wooden coffee table (usually draped with Peggy’s magazines, a TV Guide, Al’s trusty remote control, and the occasional plant), and an end table on the left, which usually holds a lamp and sometimes a telephone.
The 4th Wall: Yes, the brilliant directors showed us the fourth wall twice during the course of the series. Along with the TV, we see a wood-panelled wall, two windows with green and white drapes, a large framed painting, and a small-tiered table with some sort of decorative ornament on it. Pics 8-9 show both scenes with the 4th wall.
The Floor: The floor appears to be hard wood, with a giant throw rug under the couch and coffee table and a smaller oval-shaped rug in the background that we definitely had in my house growing up. (See Pics 10-11).
The Walls: The walls are a mixture of brick, wood paneling and wallpaper. The wallpaper colour and pattern seems to stay the same throughout the series. There is a green pattern on the wall by the kitchen (see Pic 14) and a pinkish coloured pattern over by the garage door (Pic 13). There is also wallpaper on the staircase wall, but the stairwell is deserving of its own post.
Were there any other sitcoms from this era that depicted the fourth wall? (I think they did it in Big Bang Theory a couple decades later).
What are your thoughts on the overall look of the living room? It feels very retro 70s/80s to me, particularly with the brick and wood panels.
In Part Two, we’ll take a closer look at the living room decor, including pictures, furniture, plants, and various other knick-knacks.
Now that our episode recaps are over, I thought I’d try something a bit different.
Over the course of the week, I’m going to do a separate post about different spaces within the Bundy house, to examine how they changed over time, and identify any neat little things in the background. I think the set decorators had a lot of fun on this show, and I intend to explore that a little bit.
The Bundys always thought their house was a dump, but many of us in this day and age consider it to be almost a palace. They didn’t realize how lucky they had it!
What was your favourite part of the Bundy House?
Bud’s prison penpal Starla takes the family (plus the Darcys) hostage. Kelly ends up falling in love with Starla’s boyfriend, Lonnie.
Notable Guest Stars:
-Tricia Cast as Starla. She is best known as Nina on the soap opera The Young and the Restless.
-Chip Esten as Lonny. He is known for his appearances on Whose Line Is It Anyway and the series Nashville, among various other shows.
Fun Fact: Along with Johnny B. Gone from the first season, this episode takes place entirely in the Bundy’s living room.
Give us the bloopers: Outtakes from this episode were featured in a German special and can be found here: https://youtu.be/lBA9QE0jYe4?si=XtDu0RXm57uwa60B
Sad Fact: This is the beginning of the end, as the next episode is essentially the final one (with a random episode airing months later).
Al forms a surprising friendship with Marcy’s cousin Mandy, who happens to be a lesbian.
Subplot: Kelly and Bud try to set up a depressed Lucky with another dog.
Notable Guest Star: Not really a “guest” but Amanda Bearse plays Mandy, in a dual role.
Fun Fact: This episode aired 10 days before Ellen’s famous coming out episode. Amanda Bearse had come out publicly as a lesbian in 1993.
Filming Confession: This episode used a pre-recorded laugh track instead of the infamous live studio audience, due to the complexities of Amanda filming both roles of Marcy and Mandy.
Kelly gets a role in a children’s TV show after the original host has a breakdown.
Subplot: Fed up with Peg’s clinginess, Al experiments with various sleeping arrangements.
Notable Guest Star: Brandon Maggart as Uncle Dudley. He is best known for the Showtime series, Brothers.
Fun Fact: The guy who plays the court jester in this episode previously appeared in Season 4, “Fair Exchange”, as a nerd that dates Kelly.
Fond Farewell: This is the last time we see Peg and Al’s bedroom. (Though it wasn’t shown for all of Season 9 and 10).