Married...with Children: The Complete First Season

Crude, mean-spirited yucks went mainstream with the debut, in 1987, of Married...with Children, a vicious rejoinder to the domestic tranquility that ruled the primetime sitcoms of the era in series such as The Cosby Show and Family Ties. The Bundys--put-upon shoe salesman Al (Ed O'Neill), layabout housewife Peg (Katey Sagal), slutty teen Kelly (Christina Applegate), and horny preteen Bud (David Faustino)--are as unlikely a family as the Cosbys or the Keatons, but their distaff version offers up a paragon of dysfunction. Marital insults fly--Peg can't cook, Al is lousy in bed--and the kids are ignored, forced to eat from the dog's bowl for sustenance. Still, for all its tastelessness, MWC has precious little comic bite, falling back on overdone stereotypes and overplayed plots--Peg maxing out credit cards, Al missing the big game--shellacked with a coating of juvenile sex jokes and flushing toilets (a sound effect deployed with such glee that you'd think the producers invented it). Presenting the entire first season--all 13 episodes--with remastered image and sound, this set captures a vital moment in TV history, a new low for the bar. Whether you actually find it entertaining will depend on whether you think the bar needed to be lowered. Optional. (M. Johanson)