Amanda Bearse Slammed Married With Children For 'Misogyny' But What Does The Rest Of The Cast Think?
Highlights
- The actors from Married... With Children had successful careers following the show's finale.
- Some cast members, including Amanda Bearse, have called the show misogynistic.
- The show had its share of controversy and problematic storylines.
The Married... With Children actors all had interesting careers in the years following the sitcom's final episode, and they still work in the industry today. It was clear from the start that the show would be a hit and that's exactly what happened. After the pilot episode aired in April 1987, Married.... With Children lasted for a decade. The show made stars out of Ed O'Neill, Katey Sagal, and Christina Applegate.
While the sitcom still has numerous fans, things weren't always great behind the scenes. The Married... With Children cast fought at times, and some of the actors have also explained their real thoughts about the show that was once such a big part of their lives. Here's what Married... With Children cast member Amanda Bearse said about the sitcom and whether other actors agree with her.
What Did Amanda Bearse Say About Married...With Children?
There are some shows that push boundaries and feature more than one offensive episode. One good example is It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia. The sitcom's cast often talks about the controversy that has followed the show since the beginning.
While Married... With Children is of course a sitcom about a family and might not seem offensive at first glance, it does have some upsetting moments. Although the show focuses on the relationship between Al and Peggy Bundy, Amanda Bearse's character is also important. She played Marcy Rhoades, who is friends with Peggy and lives on the same street.
Marcy's love life is a big part of the show and she has two husbands: Steve Rhoades and Jefferson D'Arcy. However, Marcy's passion for women's empowerment is her main character trait. She runs an organization FANG, which stands for Feminists Against Neanderthal Guys.
Bearse played her famous character a few more times: in 1990's The Earth Day Special and the 2001 sitcom Nikki. While the actress is beloved for this role, she has shared that she didn't think that Married... With Children was a very kind show to women.
In 2022, Page Six reported that Amanda Bearse called Married... With Children "misogynistic." She said she was glad that she starred in the sitcom because she became a director afterward. The actress said she “is very grateful for that show for many reasons — mostly because it gave me my second career.” According to her IMDb page, Bearse directed episodes of Dharma & Greg and Mad TV, among several others.
When Bearse talked to Page Six about Married... With Children, she said, “It was a very misogynist show. To me, there were some episodes and storylines that I really wasn’t a fan of … there is a bit of cancel culture around it, which to me is not inappropriate.”
Do The Other Married... With Children Cast Members Agree The Sitcom Is "Misogynist"?
As it turns out, Amanda Bearse isn't the only cast member from Married... With Children who feel this way about the '80s sitcom.
In 2017, Katey Sagal said the series is "misogynistic," according to Us Weekly.
The actress was interviewed for the AOL Build series and said, "It was when I really, clearly understood that my job as an actor was to interpret the material. It’s not necessarily my belief system. My belief system has nothing to do with being an actor. You know, I was hired to play a part … The women were portrayed completely exploited on that show. That was part of Al Bundy’s thing — he liked hot women, and they showed them all the time.”
The actress commented that in her mind, although Married... With Children is a "satire," some viewers felt that wasn't the case.
Sagal also said in her interview with AOL, “And so, people would ask me questions like, ‘Is this what you think? I mean, how can you be on a show like this?’ And I was really clear that I don’t believe in censorship, and I also believe that it’s my job as an actor to interpret the material — it’s not my belief. If you’re asking me, do I think women should be portrayed in a misogynistic way, in an exploited way, of course I don’t think that. But playing Peg Bundy had nothing to do with what I thought. That was my job.”
Amanda Bearse and Katey Sagal made similar comments about the sitcom, but the other actors don't seem to have said anything along those lines.
It's definitely easy to understand why the actresses made these comments about Married... With Children. Many episodes revolve around Al Bundy complaining about his wife Peggy and acting as if his life would be much better if he wasn't married to her.
For example, in the season 1 episode "Al Loses His Cherry," Al thinks about having an affair. Even the main plot of the pilot episode, which focuses on Al wanting to skip hanging out with his wife and neighbors and go watch baseball, focuses on how much he dislikes his family life. The show continues in this vein. In the season 11 episode "Crimes Against Obesity," Al insults several women because of their size.
In 2016, Meghan Markle said in an interview with The Toronto Star that Married... With Children didn't have storylines that were nice to women. She explained that her father worked in Hollywood and was a lighting director on Married With Children and said, “I saw how the women were objectified, and I knew I didn’t want to be looked at like that.”
Of course, while these episodes feel awkward and problematic, the Married... With Children cast did cherish their time playing their famous characters. The sitcom made several cast members famous.
In 2014, Ed O'Neill was interviewed by Capital & Main. He is often asked about the fact that he starred in two sitcoms about families.
O'Neill compared Modern Family and Married... With Children mentioned how the tone of each show was very different. He said, "Married with Children was a little bit more outrageous – a little bit more crude comedy, and [Modern Family] is a little bit more classy — I hate to use that word, but a little more realistic. Married With Children sometimes really got into a cartoon type of thing. And, of course, on Married With Children, [Al] was never getting out of that marriage, so that was kind of a sentence (laughing). And he was younger. I should say, I was younger."
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