0807  -  Take my Wife, Please


Synopsis:  Marcy puts Peg, Bud and Kelly’s Halloween plans on hold, offering them $500 to come 
impersonate The Village People at her party of women who murdered their husbands.  Meanwhile, Al 
comes home disheveled from Halloween at the mall and wishes he was dead.  In no short order, Death 
(who bears a striking resemblance to Peg) comes to "collect" Al, but Al wimps out.  Death makes Al 
a deal, if the family says that they need Al for any reason before midnight, Al can live.

Thoughts:    Good show for the most part.  It would have been terrific if not for the continuous 
repeats of YMCA played during the most of the show.  I especially like the delayed audience hoot 'n' 
holler for Ed O’Neill when he walks in his RIDICULOUS dinosaur costume.  Once the hood came off, you 
could time the audience perfectly.  The scene where he comes in and crabs about his hate of Halloween 
(to only Buck no less) is great and it leads right into the introduction of Death.

	Death and Al’s own bit of sparring is great.  Death recounts on her past jobs such as Elvis 
and Lincoln and takes every chance that she can to tease Al about his future.  "Lets just say you’ll 
need a lot of sunblock.  SPF 1,000,000!"  Death always would follow up one of her lines with "Just 
Kidding... maybe!"  It gets predictable but it’s still funny.  Marcy having the rest of the Bundy’s 
dance repeatedly to YMCA dressed as The Village People like I’ve said gets old after the second go 
around.  Other then the unruly audience who make their own comments to themselves and seeing Bud 
nearly attacked by a woman, (who could bring new meaning to the phrase "Big Bertha"), there isn’t 
much to say other then Marcy’s silly green dress* and the fact that the real Village People make an 
appearance at the end.	 

	Every cast member is showcased in the show and nobody gets short changed or underused 
(with small exception of Jefferson).  Katey Sagal pulls double duty as Peg and Death and her Death 
scenes with Al are great, and other than her appearance, Death shares none of Pegs habits (other 
than tormenting Al).  Good job, Katey.  

	The plot has a great balance between the A story (Al and Death) and B story (Bundys at 
Marcy’s ), in fact the two of them are connected perfectly and one story depends on the other.  
An excellent job on that part, too bad it wasn’t done more often in the show.  	

Rating:  7 shoes out of 10.  Cut YMCA down and it would have been far better.  Not a fan of The 
Village People myself, they could have at least ended the show with a different song.  Village People 
fans will probably enjoy this episode immensely.

*  Not intended to be mean spirited, but Marcy’s green dress shows off a good reason why Al always 
calls her chicken, her little twig legs.  Other examples of this are in "Dead Men Don’t do Areobics" 
and "Johhny Be Gone".


Quotable Quotes:

Peg (to Bud):  "Alright now, lets review this years Halloween Strategy.  This is the Miller House.  
The Miller’s give away nice, healthy fruit, so naturally we will be egging the Miller House."

Kelly:  "Never spray poison into each others mouths and play Twister.  People were dropping like flies."

Marcy:  "Surely you’ve heard of The Village People?  They were huge!  They sold millions!  And they just 
called collect and said they can’t make it!"

Al  (Coming home from work in a dinosaur costume and seeing only Buck):  "Oh how I hate Halloween!  
Ask me how much I hate Halloween." (Buck doesn’t do anything but sit)
Al:   "More then that!"

Kelly:  "What's a record?"  
Bud:  "For you, a second date."

The Village People come into Marcy’s house and introduce themselves.
Cowboy:  "By the way, sorry about the Dodge out front."
Kelly:  "Why did you hit it?"
Cowboy:  "No, I'm just sorry about it."


*** By the way, this review was constructed from memory of the show, I apologize if some of the 
quotes are a little off, when I get the chance to see the episode again, I may be able to correct 
some of what might be wrong