0824  -  Assault and Batteries

From Variety:


Married ... with Children Special 3-D Episode
(Sun. (8), 9-9:30 p.m., Fox), 5/9/94 

Filmed in L.A. by ELP Communications for Columbia Pictures Television.
Executive producer, Michael G. Moye; co-executive producer, Katherine
Green; producers, Stacie Lipp, John Maxwell Anderson; co-producer,
Larry Jacobson; supervising producer, Kim Weiskopf; director, Sam W.
Obender; writer, David Castro.
 
Cast: Ed O'Neill, Katey Sagal, Christina Applegate, David Faustino,
Amanda Bearse, Ted McGinley, Jan Hoag, Jean Speegle Howard,
BiffYeager, Cynthia Frost, Craig Benton, Brian Reddy, Gary Simpson,
Cheech Marin.
 
By RICHARD S. GINELL

An often devastatingly funny show like "Married ... With Children"
doesn't need gimmicks like 3-D to give it an extra boost. But networks
being networks, Fox dug up this old idea from the 1950s, grafted it
onto a typical episode, sold special 3-D glasses at 7-Eleven outlets
and touted the show as if it were some kind of breakthrough. In the
end, though, it was the lovably irresponsible characters and writer
David Castro who carried the half-hour -- not the promotion.
At best, the 3-D effect was slight. Effects like rain falling outside
the Bundys' doorway and a Frisbee flying toward the viewer made little
impact.

More to the point, this episode, as directed by Sam Obender, was
another free-swinging example of how this show plays upon our everyday
frustrations and blows them up as far as the writers' sadistic
imaginations can take them. Here, our hapless career shoe salesman Al
Bundy (Ed O'Neill) has his heart set once again upon watching an
allegedly rarely shown John Wayne movie ("Hondo") on the tube. But
that terminal couch-potato wife of his, Peg (Katey Sagal), makes him
go to the store to exchange batteries.

At the store, of course, Murphy's Law runs amok. Everything that could
possibly delay Al from getting back home in time for the pic happens
-- including a computer shutdown that locks everyone in the store.
That provokes another of Al's periodic Howard Beale speeches exhorting
the rabble to overthrow the computer age, accompanied by a funny
flashback to a simpler time before electronics (with everyone from the
cast in Wild West period costume).

The Bundys' feather-brained, promiscuous daughter, Kelly (Christina
Applegate), and would-like-to-be-promiscuous son, Bud (David
Faustino), have little to do in this episode other than entertain
their dog Buck, who gets some typically wry lines via the voice of
Cheech Marin. Their pseudo-feminist neighbor, Marcy (Amanda Bearse),
and her kept husband, Jefferson (Ted McGinley), also make peripheral
appearances firmly in character.