History Characters / MarriedWithChildren

* BigEater: Peg does nothing all day but sit on the couch stuffing herself full of Bon Bons, and yet she never seems to gain a pound. Peg also mentions she eats at fast food joints such as Burger King and Denny's frequently while leaving no money left for her children or Al to eat.

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Only appeared in a few episodes from season 1 before disappearing for good. He gets mentioned as working elsewhere in Season 9's "Pump Fiction" but remains offscreen.

* ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Only appeared in a few episodes from season 1 before disappearing for good.

** She's constantly sounding off about women's rights but identifies as a Republican and looks down on the less fortunate, including women who are on welfare or going through hard times.

* CoolLoser: In the earlier episodes, he was somewhat nerdy and (according to Kelly) repellent to girls, but had the confidence and the wits to go against whatever barbs she threw at him. Plus, he did have more girls interested in him and the occasional date.

* LousyLoversAreLosers: PlayedForLaughs with Al Bundy, who is most of the time deliberately avoiding having sex with his wife Peggy, and on the rare occasion they do have sex, Peggy will end up disappointed with how quickly and terrible he is in bed. Soon her mocking him for his "[[SpeedSex 5-second sex]]" became a RunningGag that got more and more {{exaggerated|Trope}}, such as lasting ''two'' seconds after a stay in the hospital.

** A shrill, whiny, strangely two-syllable, plaintive cry of "Al...!"

%%* DeadpanSnarker

* {{Fanboy}}: Of music and theatre plays.

%%* StraightMan: To Al.

* TeensAreShort: Even though he was in his early 20s when the show ended, he still remained his teenage height of 5'3". It wasn't planned, as David Faustino just stopped growing at that height, in the early episodes he was a fairly average sized preteen.

* SchoolyardBullyAllGrownUp: [[FutureLoser How the mighty have fallen...]]

%%* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist

* ActionGirl: It's usually not her first option, but Kelly is most certainly her father's daughter, and was shown in numerous occasions pummeling people who incurr her wrath.

* {{Malaproper}}: Such a common feature of her dialogue that fans call them "Kellyisms" and have assembled a list of them [[http://www.bundyology.com/kellyisms.html here]].

* HollywoodDateless: The show plays Bud up to be a gross, repugnant troll of a guy... but he's gotten laid a fair amount, by a fair amount of women, but most of that is swiftly ignored.

* GruesomeGrandparent: Surprisingly averted. Although Al generally can't stand him, he actually seems to like Al just fine, to the point where he held a shotgun in Al's back to force Al to follow through on the proposal he made to Peg while drunk.

* OverprotectiveDad: Al regularly pummels Kelly's boyfriends. Justified in that Kelly's dates (most of them; the early episodes had Kelly dating a lot of nice, normal guys, more-or-less) really are the kind of scumbags that no sane, competent father would want near his baby girl. He doesn't even get angry or fly into a rage over it. He just calmly and dispassionately beats the hell out of them and shows them the door(after hitting them with it first).
** He also tells off the older woman whom he thinks is having an affair with the underage Bud, calling her a "cradle-robbing pervert" and brings in the cops to arrest her. It's the wrong woman, unfortunately, but the right reaction.

* TheUnfavourite: While neither Bud nor Kelly were well looked after by their parents, Bud seems to have been the more neglected given Al's OverprotectiveDad act towards his daughter. Although even Bud is subjected to this a few times.

* OverprotectiveDad: Surprisingly averted. Although Al generally can't stand him, he actually seems to like Al just fine, to the point where he held a shotgun in Al's back to force Al to follow through on the proposal he made to Peg while drunk.