Love and marriage, love and marriage. Go together like a beloved 1980s sitcom and an animated revival.
Some 25 years after the show first went off the air, the iconic ’80s sitcom Married… With Children is coming back in animated form. Even more surprisingly, the entire original cast — Ed O’Neill, Katey Sagal, Christina Applegate, and David Faustino — are all on board the project to reprise their roles as Al, Peggy, Kelly, and Bud Bundy.
According to Deadline, the project is currently being “pitched to networks and streamers.” The show is being overseen by one of the producers of Family Guy:
The new take on the 1987 Fox sitcom is written by Family Guy executive producer Alex Carter, who serves as showrunner. Sony Pictures Television, which owns and distributes the original series, has been working on the animated project for over a year and closed deals with the quartet of Married… with Children stars before taking it out.
The original show, which ran on Fox for 11 seasons, depicted the lives of the tumultuous lives of the working class Bundys. In its time, it was about as edgy as network shows got, although that was a very different time in TV history. (Still, some of its jokes would surely not fly today — NO MA’AM anybody?)
This is not the first attempt to continue the Married … With Children TV universe; a few years ago David Faustino tried to launch his own spinoff show called Bud about his character moving into his old parents’ house after getting a divorce. The other original actors were not involved with that series because of their busy schedules; an animated show would be much easier for them to create in between their other projects.
The original run of Married… With Children is currently available to stream on both Hulu and Peacock. Deadline speculates that either site could potentially be interested in the new show as it would make the reruns they already license even more valuable and appealing to customers.