Married with.....Children Autograph pick-up

[Gucd231]

I am a huge MWC fan and buff, who came across this signed piece on Ebay a few months ago by chance. The story I got from the seller was his friend and wife visited the studio for a live taping of the show back in the 90's. The "GARAGE SALE" sign was given to them on the set which they were able to get signed by the entire main cast (at the time). The seller believed it was a prop from the show's set that was given to the couple after the show. The seller listed the item for the original owner so I could only go by what I was being told deciding to purchase or not. I was able to get the seller to relist the piece at a higher BIN price which he agreed to, an absolute steal in my opinion given the provenance. When it arrived it came with a photo album which contained about 19 original photos taken on the couples trip.

I think the best part was doing some leg work trying to find out as much as I could about the items and the special time these fans/studio audience had that day. I wanted to know why this tapping was so special and why it looked like a meet and greet in most of the photos taken. Turns out it was the final taping of Season 4, episode #23 entitled "YARD SALE". I remembered the episode since it featured "Bundy Land", but I didn't realize it was the final episode of the 1990 season, which is a good reason for all the fan's bombarding the set. From cast interviews I believe they worked out all the scenes during the week and did 2 takes on Friday's in front of a live audience. With those two taping's they splice a complete show based what the exec. producers liked. The shows usually aired on the following Sunday in this case it taped on Friday May 4th, 1990 and aired Sunday May 13th, 1990. What's funny is "garage sale" as well as "yard sale" is mentioned in the dialogue between Al and Marcy early on in the episode.

I've never seen the studio set quite like this before. In the photos all of the cast is still wearing the clothing they taped in while signing the cardboard sign. It looks like Ed O'Neill was first to sign in black Sharpie with an "Al Bundy" inscription. I also see a red ballpoint pen being held by the fellow as well as Amanda Bearse and Christina Applegate using it to autograph the sign. Amanda signed "Best to" someone, not sure but looks like John. It also appears that David Faustino who inscribed "BUD" used the same black pen (felt tip maybe) as Katey Sagal. The sign itself has a company logo "Jar-Co inc." on it, which I found ZERO information on. If they made it specifically for the show or not I'll probably never know unless another pops up...... I don't believe it was though. What I'm curious about is did the studio audience have any idea of the show's plot for that day's taping? The seller was located in Tennessee, assuming the couple came from there was the trip planned or by chance during a vacation? I will say I can't find another single person holding that garage sale sign in any of the photos if in fact it was a promotional item. It could also lend a hand that it was brought there by the couple. I just find it hard to believe they traveled to the show with a cardboard sign to get autographed but who knows except them? I have heard the show gave away pins and bumper sticker's to audience members on occasion. I've watched that episode at least 10 times and I couldn't spot the sign anywhere.

In any case I am super stoked to be the new owner of this piece. I plan on having the sign along with some other neat MWC artifacts I've picked up framed and displayed together. Please feel free to comment on any of this or even your own experience with the show.

I decided to blur out all of the faces of fans who were on the set that day, even though these photos were taken over 25 yrs ago.




















To the far left you will see Michael G. Moye who was an excutive producer on the show. I don't think the couple had a clue as to who he was. In my opinion he and the late Ron Leavitt were comedic geniuses.


Sitting on the picnic table is the actor who played the male bimbo and wanted to buy Al's dead parrot.


In the far right you can spot the actor who played the sleazy disco guy that walked off with the attractive blonde after Marcy bought him dinner.

[Gucd231]

I was hoping with a few views some of the veteran members would have made a comment or two. I would have loved to discuss the piece or even others personal accounts of attending the show. Oh well, thanks again to whomever gave a look.

[AlphonseLeBundiac]

There is a chicken.

[ARMAN]

Woah! This is so cool! Dont get dicouraged there is not as many active members here and those that are dont come here daily Not sure if any active members ever saw the show live

[AlFan]

Thanks for sharing your story, great writing and showing respect blurring out pictures, great bye for you, I am almost a bit jealous, what a nice item it is, unfortunate as a resident of the Netherlands I never had the opportinity to attend a show,
am also a collector of a few items its one of the best shows of the last decades !

[Dr. Shoe]

That is a very cool item. Thanks for sharing the pics. Actually, I’m also pleased to see some of the crew wearing their varsity MWC jackets because I own one of those! Mine may be in the pictures. I never got to see a taping.

[Gucd231]

Thanks everyone for the kind words. It's great to hear from some of you, as arman stated there doesn't seem to be much traffic here, at least in this section.

Wow! ALfan the Netherlands, that's awesome! Does MWC have a big following there? What kind of "items" are in your collection?

Dr.Shoe I did notice the black leather jackets, I would kill for one of those....Congrats to you! How did you come across something like that?

I was very fortunate to stumble upon the item. I was 15 when this lucky couple attended the show. It also didn't help I was on the east coat in NY making it impossible to attend.I actually started getting really into the show a few years ago as I was asked to design and build a trading card for a collector that was themed for the show. Since then I have been collecting things here and there, mostly autographs of the main cast members.

-Steve

[Dr. Shoe]

I got it on eBay. A lot of people on here had been looking at it. The seller finally dropped the price and I did the “buy it now” option. The seller told me he was a set dresser for three seasons. I love the jacket and it fits me really well.

Shoe Dick actually has a screen-worn Polk High jacket.

[Gucd231]

That's just awesome man. I did see a jean style jacket withe the MWC logo embroidery as well as a name on the front recently on ebay. I couldn't match it up t o anything the crew would have worn even though it was mentioned that the jacket was from a crew member. It may have just been a fan jacket someone had made up for themselves.

I wonder how much stuff is still out there?

[Dr. Shoe]

There’s an eBay thread on here where people post if they find interesting things. Comment on there are then you’ll get notifications.

[marriedaniac]

This is amazing! These behind the scenes shots are rare and hard to come by. Not being American - and being too young for most of it - I never got to go to a taping. Thanks for posting!!

As for the sign, I think Al mentions "the sign out front"? So we probably never saw it in the episode.

[ButterWanker]

Thanks for sharing this!

[Gucd231]

A pleasure to bring it to light so many years after the encounter. Thanks so much for commenting!

[Shoe Dick]

This is one of the most amazing things ever posted on this forum! Such a rare look into the show! May I ask how much you gave for it? With this evidence of them all signing it, it should be worth a LOT of money!

Oh, and Married... With Children was huge pretty much all over Europe, it is more popular here now than it is in the US.

[Gucd231]

Thanks Shoe!

It's certainly a prized piece in my collection, thank you so much for the kind words. I was lucky enough to find the auction within a few minutes of it's listing and chat with the seller. The auction was started at $50, he ended up revising the auction to a buy-it-now for $100 after we agreed I would purchase it immediately. As for it's actual value I have no idea since it was never had a chance to be bid on.


I thought I may have had break with finding a little more out about the sign. I was watching the Season 8 episode "get outta dodge" and in the early scenes Al and Jefferson are at the kitchen table with a beer in hand. On the table is a FOR SALE sign very similar to my GARAGE SALE sign above. However the Jar-Co mark is not found on it like mine......still searching for more info on it!