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Alphonse "Al" Bundy is a fictional character and the protagonist of the American television series Married... with Children, played by Ed O'Neill. He is a Misanthropy, working-class father of two who is portrayed as a tragicomedic figure. He laments his lot in life, but nevertheless stands by his family, displaying wit, self-sacrifice, and resilience in times of crisis.
He and his wife Peggy Bundy were rated the 59th best characters on television by Bravo. Bravo's 100 Greatest TV Characters listal.com Accessed 2/21/2020 In a 2016 interview, O'Neill said that he based his interpretation of Al Bundy on one of his uncles.
Al and Peggy live in Chicago and have two children: Kelly Bundy (Christina Applegate), a promiscuous, dim-witted blonde, and Bud Bundy (David Faustino), an intelligent but sex-obsessed and unpopular schemer named after Budweiser beer. Al works as a shoe salesman at the fictional Gary's Shoes and Accessories for Today's Woman in the fictional New Market Mall. He loses or quits the job several times throughout the series, yet always ends up re-hired.
Al has a sarcastic and cynical sense of humor, and he frequently makes Sardonicism observations. He is also often criticized by Peggy for his poor hygiene. Allegedly, Al showers and brushes his teeth as rarely as he has sex, which is extremely infrequent, as he continually avoids Peggy's advances.
Al is detested by most of his neighbors, except for Steve Rhoades and Jefferson D'Arcy; both are, at different times, married to Marcy Rhoades who is Al's arch-nemesis. In "Route 666", Marcy said that, when the neighborhood thought Al had died, they all started dancing and singing "Ding dong, the shoe man's dead" and called it a "cruel, cruel hoax" when they learned that Al had survived his latest misadventure. In another example of the neighborhood's distaste of Al during "You Better Shop Around", after he caused a city-wide Power outage during a heatwave, the neighbors show up at his house with pitchforks and torches. Other people barely acknowledge that he exists and, as a result, his name often ends up misspelled on paychecks, reserved parking spots, etc. (e.g., "Bumby", "Boondy" or "Birdy").
Politically, Al appears to have mixed views; various episodes depict him mocking Rush Limbaugh, whereas others show him as a committed fan of conservative icon John Wayne. He is an ardent admirer of President Dwight D. Eisenhower. He continually battles with Marcy, a staunch feminist, and even forms a misogynist group named "No Ma'am". His views on economic issues display a Populism disdain for the wealthy, including leading a violent protest against a proposed law that would tax beer, but not wine.
Al cannot stop himself from uttering insulting one-line joke to obese women, a behavior he has compulsively engaged in since he was a child.
He is often seen leaving restrooms, even public ones, with a newspaper tucked under his arm, to the sound of a toilet flushing.
Al loves bowling, and Strip club and regularly comments on both. His favorite magazine is the pornographic Big'uns. He enjoys watching sports on television with his right hand tucked into his waistband (he switches to his left hand on Sundays), and his favorite sitcom is the fictional Psycho Dad, which he always mentions.
Al's greatest life achievement was scoring four touchdowns in a single game while playing in the 1966 city football championship game versus fictional Andrew Johnson High School, and he constantly makes reference to it in comparison to the way his life has turned out instead. The episode, "Damn Bundys", featured Al selling his soul to the devil (Robert Englund) in order to lead the Chicago Bears to the Super Bowl as the oldest rookie in NFL history; Al scores the touchdown and ends up in hell with his family and neighbors for 300 years. In the Season 10 episode "Dud Bowl II", a scoreboard at Polk High's football stadium was to be dedicated to Al, but Marcy arranged for it to instead be named after Terry Bradshaw out of malice; after Kelly convinces Bradshaw to let the scoreboard to be named after Al, Al (unaware of this) arranges for Jefferson and Bud to destroy the scoreboard.
Al does have some talents, which are frequently referenced. He is an extremely gifted bowling and he always appears to win fistfights.
In 2009, Time magazine named him among the 10 most memorable fathers in television history. "Top 10 TV Dads" Time, September 18, 2009. In 2014, BuzzFeed listed Al Bundy as the 10th greatest TV dad of all time.
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