MovieChat Forums > Married with Children (1987) Discussion > The show became unwatchable when the aud...

The show became unwatchable when the audience started cheering.


Watching some pre-Jefferson reruns on Crackle. In one episode, Al walks into the room at the start of the show...and *GASP* the audience didn't act like drunk goons and start hooting and screaming. And get this, they only laughed at jokes that were actually funny! It's almost startling.

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I had no problem with the audience cheering and hollering. Sometimes you could hear them say things, which made it more real.

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The audience participation was especially bad because it made the show feel a bit like a caricature of itself. MWC when it started was way more low-key and cynical feeling instead being an out and out cartoon. Ed O'Neill pretty much said it best that somebody could simply say "boobs" and the audience would immediately howl and holler.

Another thing that I meant to add is that Married...with Children started as a biting satire. But the older that it got the more uncomfortable it got, because the viewers enjoyed things like NO'MAM way too much in a non-satirical or non-ironic way. This pretty much goes hand in hand to the increased audience participation. They didn't seem to understand that what we're watching is a satire and took things way to heart.

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I remember the episode where Al was about to eat a Tang sandwich and someone yelled out, "Don't do it, Al!" I thought that was pretty funny, but yeah, all the hooting and hollering gets annoying.

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the christmas episodes are examples how the series downgrades by the years, remember the early christmas episodes one where the mall santa claus had crashed in their backyard, another year the hilarious episode/spoof of the story where al is visited by his guardian angel, well, i just saw saw one of the christmas episodes in the later years, and the whole episode is about al and peggy sitting on the couch zipping through channels making unfunny remarks.. its like the series just continued to have these people in the living room every week but all jokes and stories were gone or repeated... its like the last years of the series should not be put on rerun, its kind of upsetting to see how once the funniest sit com ever turn into something so unwatchable you have to change the channel when people come over cause you won't be seen watching it.

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some kind of weather goddess inside n out,
a phenomenon i cant fight,
uses her powers to blow my mind,
when i decide to go,
creates a strong wind possesses my soul,
as i was about to scram,
snapped her finger and drew me back.

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"things that were actually funny" god forbid anyone to have a different humor than you. oh noo. they supposed to only laugh at what you laugh at smh.

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Could it be because it actually became funnier? ;)

I particularly found that the Jefferson years is where it really kicked into another gear. Even though the audience hollering is annoying, it was seen as edgey in the early 90s.

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Show never became unwatchable. You, OP, on the other hand, were never watchable in your whole life.

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I hated the audience on Happy Days but for this show I think it worked quite well.

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