Recap / Married With Children S 1 E 1 Pilot

• Actually Pretty Funny: Hearing Marcy talking about how her and Steve don't want their future children exposed to sports, Al quips "You gonna neuter him, too?". This makes Al break into laughter, as does Peg (who had told him not to snarky comments to them prior to Steve and Marcy's arrival).
• Early-Installment Weirdness: A lot of things changed that are put on display
  • Al and Peg are pretty decent parents. Peg tells Bud to stop bullying Kelly and took the initiative to meet a guy Kelly was seeing and assures Al he's a good kid. Al is understandably concerned about the kid given what he's heard.
  • Al tried to be polite to the fat woman, but only got rude because she wouldn't stop blaming him because she wasn't a size 7 like she claimed.
  • Both attractive and unattractive women frequented the shoe store. Al just had the misfortune of being stuck with the unattractive ones while Luke got the attractive ones.
  • Al is the one wanting to have sex with Peg.
• Driven to Suicide: Steve reveals that Marcy's mother had three husbands who all died. Marcy confirms they were suicides, implying this trope unless her mother made it look like suicide.
• False Reassurance: Kelly tells Al her boyfriend's sore isn't a herpes sore, he just fell asleep with a cigar in his mouth.
• Free-Range Children: The kids are allowed to go out unsupervised, and from Peg's dialogue this seems to happen every night after school, yet neither Al or Peg seem to mind. When Marcy asks where the kids are, Al just responds "Don't know".
• Henpecked Husband: From their initial conversation it's made clear Steve is one of these.
• I Just Want to Have Friends: Peggy invites the Rhodes' over because they have no friends in the neighborhood. Al is perfectly happy to be left alone.
• Toxic Friend Influence: Played with but averted. At first Steve and Marcy are happy and loving, but walk out fighting after talking with Al and Peggy. However it's made clear the peace is only because Steve goes along with Marcy's demands, so all Al really did was get him to stand up for himself.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Bud 'plays' with Kelly by sneaking up on her and pretending to slit her throat while calling her a commie. Peg's only reaction is to tell him to stop without much concern.