Peggy Turns 300 is the 19th episode of season 4 of Married... with Children. also the 76th overall episode in the series. Directed by Tony Singletary and written by Katherine Green, The episode first premiered on FOX on March 25, 1990.
Plot[]
Bud and Kelly are in the kitchen, doing homework and yet not getting the answers, as Bud is trying to figure out "what is the first derivative of kinetic energy with respect to velocity" (it is momentum) while Kelly is more frustrated, trying to figure which animal says "Quack". Peggy comes down in a fancy looking black dress and tries to get the kids to stop doing their homework so they can pay attention to her, though they seemed to have forgotten that its her birthday. She tells them that Al at least remembered her birthday, but Bud tells her that they would have gotten her something, but point out that if she starts to look like their neighbor Mrs. McKelvey she doesn't want another birthday, but she quickly points out that Mrs. McKelvey is 50. Peggy tells them to just wait until she remembers their birthdays are, which Kelly points out that she was born in February, making her "an aquarium"
Bud then asks Peg where Al is taking her, telling him that she's hoping for the Beef Trough, as its their place. Al, wearing a red shirt underneath his jacket and a big grin on his face, tells Peggy that she's looking amazing and she'll knock them out at the bowling alley. Disappointed and surprised as the fact he would choose to go bowling for her birthday, Peggy becomes even more annoyed when she finds out that Al didn't even know it was her birthday in the first place and tells the kids that Peg is sitting in the front seat and to put away their homework. The reason he's bowling tonight is because his friend/bowling rival, Puggy Weaver, is leaving the neighborhood and he has been training for this night by "avoiding anything that could hurt me. Red wine, red meat... red heads." He then tells the kids that they are needed this night to record and document this night, as Al mentions "Too many great Bundy moments have been lost for lack of a camera". Peg jokes that they had a camera on their honeymoon, but Al kept beating the flash. He then keeps telling the family to hurry up so they can head to the alley, telling Peg to go push start the car and ignoring her pleas that it's her birthday.
At Jim's Bowl-A-Rama, the Bundys start walking in, with Bud and Kelly recording and Al directing them. Coming in with Peg's arm intertwined with his, he tells them to widen out. Then hearing that Peg was in the video, he tells them he's wants a re-shoot without Peggy. Bud obliges and then Al gives his opening monologue:
Al admiring the plaque that will soon be his
Hi! I'm Al Bundy at Jim's Bowlarama. Feelin' good. Feelin' spry. What have we here? A plaque which denotes the highest game in Bowlarama history. A plaque which will soon read "Al Bundy". [to camera] Yep, Al Bundy, Al Bundy, brave, courageous and bold. Long live his fame and long live his glory and long may his story be told.
He then ask for a still pictures and Kelly takes out a camera, only to blind herself with the flash. She tries to tell her dad that she's now blind, but Al ignores her and tells the family its time to bowl, while she continually calls out for help and staggers around blindly through the alley.
As the Bundys get their lane ready, a man in a blue bowling shirt makes a sarcastic remark about Al's smell, before Al points out its Puggy and that he didn't recognize him with his fist out of his nose and comments about his moving out of town with "the wife, kids, and the three hundred pound hooker you see every Friday after work". He then tells Puggy that he's there to give him a going away present; him breaking his bowling record. He tells Peg to unzip, thinking he meant for her to take off her dress, but then points out he meant unzip his bowling ball bag. He then brings out his bowling ball and seeing a spot on his ball, calls Peg back and uses her dress to clean that spot.
Al bowls, doing his "STEEE-RIKE" remark and knocking down pins. Kelly, noting that its going to be a long night asks Peg if she should get a couple of beers for them, before changing her remarking saying it was meant for her and she would get ice cream with gummi bears for herself. Puggy tells Al that he's got a long way to reaching 256, but he comes back, commenting that its not an issue for his wife's weight. As Al continues bowling, Peg comes up and tells him that she's bored and Al tells her that there surely is something she can do, which she comments "I just can't decide. Let's see... tennis, baccarat, chamber music. Say, those two gentlemen scratching their behinds might be having a poetry reading" , but Al still reminds her that she should just bowl. She comments that there is nothing sadder than a woman bowling by herself, but then suddenly Marcy, in a bowling shirt is seen behind them, cuddling with a black bowling ball. Peggy, seeing her, goes up to greet her and gets an overenthusiastic hug from Marcy, who then tries to cover up the fact that she's doing this to meet men, now that she's divorced from Steve. She even points out that she met two guys last week, but they both left together. Peg then sarcastically points out that while dating a doctor or lawyer is nice, nothing beats a bowler, as two overweight men with beer bellies and half eaten sub sandwiches in hand walks past them.
Al starts talking to the camera and gives another speech:
Frame eight. With grim determination, Bundy picks up his ball. All he needs is two more strikes and eight little pins and a certain porkpie's record is history. Oh, there is no joy in Pug-ville. Mighty Bundy shall strike out.
Puggy, enjoying Al's screw up
Puggy, annoyed at the fact his record is now on the verge of being destroyed, calls him "shoemeister" and tells him to hurry it up. Suddenly, Peg comes up to Al and informs him that she's rolled 4 strikes in a row, trying to drag him away from his lane, but Al doesn't seem to care and tells her to go away as he doesn't want to kill her on her birthday. As he's about to bowl, Peggy call him "Honey" which causes him to tense up and loose focus, making him able to hit only seven pins. Puggy gets up and is now excited, smugly telling Al, "A two-four-ten split. You'll have to pick 'em all up and bowl a strike if you want to break my record." An extremely angry Al looks back at Peg and asks he what did she want, with her telling him that she now just wanted to wish him good luck, before he tells her to get away from him.
He is able to make the seven-ten split and now just has to make a strike to break Puggy's record. Al then asks Bud and Kelly to get ready to record his victory, though Kelly once again blinds herself with the camera flash. He finally bowls and with hope in his voice, he says "STEEE-EEEE-EEEEE...." before the sound of all the pins crashing can be heard and then finishes with "--RIKE!" as the the crowd heads over to congratulate Al, boasting that he's bowled 257 and his life was not for nothing now, while Puggy walks off in frustration. Al then drops to his knees and starts to cry, saying that nothing can ruin this moment, until he hears Peg saying "STEEEE-RIKE" and the crowed ditches Al to see "the broad in the gown [who] just bowled six strikes in a row"
Marcy is talking to Peggy, reminding her that she's bowled six strikes in a row and then wonders how much more closer she is to breaking the record. Al suddenly comes up to her and tells her that they can go home now, but Marcy tells him that she's so close to breaking the record that Al just broke no more than a few minutes beforehand. Bud then comes up and points out to Al that she's only 3 more strikes away from breaking the record and Kelly tell him to look at the camera, but ends up blinding herself again. Peggy then comes up to Al and jokingly asks him how funny it would be if she broke his record, with him saying it would be "the icing on the tombstone"
Bud turns the camera to Al and asks him if he has any advice for tomorrow's loser, and Al tells him that he hope someone records his reaction at the reading of Al's will and then tries to calmly point out that this streak of luck is going to end soon, as Peggy has a sixty average "just like in high school", but as she's heard making strike after strike during the interview, he eventually gets mad and tells Bud to get out of his face with the camera. He goes up to Peg , trying to convince her that it's her birthday and they should be doing something better than this, like her rubbing his back back at the Bundy house, but Peg is taking pride in the fact that she's made 8 strikes in a row and is about to break his record.
As Bud comments about how much close they are to seeing his record broken by Peg, Al mentions he has a plan and tries to convince Peg that he has money riding on her, in the hope that she's miss. But unfortunately for him, she makes it, with Marcy coming up to her and announcing that she's made a new record of bowling 270 at this point, making Al nervous while thinking he can just come back every night until her record is finally broken. Peggy then comes up to Al, saying that she's just 3 balls away from playing a perfect game, but she's really nervous and needs Al to help her. He tells the audience:
"All right, everybody. We have a woman working on a perfect game here. She's a little nervous. Now I want quiet. That means no comments about her shaking hands, her draining strength, or how her outdated dress hardly fits anymore, on this, yet another birthday. Go ahead honey. Bowl"
As a nervous Peg tries to prepare, Al keeps reminding the people to be absolutely quiet. As she's starting to bowl, Al deliberately runs up behind her and screams, freaking her out, but luckily for her, she's is still able to make yet another strike. Marcy, seeing what Al just did, grabs him by his ear and yanks him aside, telling him that she's on to him and his tricks to ruin Peggy's game, referring to him as "Satan's toejam". She then continues:
"Can't you let this woman have one night of joy? She has so little. She's married to you. You've seen her children. And now, for one fleeting moment, she has a chance to bask in the sun, instead of... [indicates Al's underarms] ...reeling from the moons. Now, go encourage her".
Al goes up to her, but suddenly tells her that the kids were killed in an avalanche, which doesn't seem to bother Peg and Marcy massages her, reminding her she's almost close to victory. Al seems to be accepting the inevitable defeat, saying "Well, can't beat a three hundred game, I guess. What the hell, I never really liked bowling anyway. The twenty years of practice were just getting me ready for what I really like to do... Lying on a lawn chair in the backyard, letting the buzzards pick at my eyes." Bud seems to now think that Peg won't make it, but then she's heard screaming "STEEE-RIKE!" again, and now she's just one strike away from a perfect game, which gets Marcy excited enough to kiss Al on the lips.
He calls the kids over and asks the kids if they both realize what they are watching now, before pointing out that what they are actually watching is the Bundy Curse:
"The Bundy Curse. It's what keeps us from being happy. There's no point in fighting it. It's what separates us from the ordinary losers. They can have their moments. But not us... Never us."
Al taking the fetal position after Peg's game
As he continues on, he points out that as Peg is not a Bundy by blood, but rather by marriage, and therefore, she is, in fact, part of the curse, and Al, Bud, and Kelly are cursed with this legacy. They then put their hands together and give a weak and depressing "Whoa Bundy!". Finally Peggy bowls and as the ball travels in slow motion across the lane, Al starts to freak out, Bud records the event on the camcorder and yet again Kelly blinds herself, but out of nowhere, Peggy knocks down all but one pin, shocking everyone in attendance. Seeing this, Al drops to his knees and cries tears of joy, knowing that he can finally bowl again, until he starts seeing that remaining pin shake and Al tries to plead for it not to fall, but ends up doing so, causing Peg and everyone else there to jump up and cheer Peggy on, while Al walks away disappointed. Peggy, now surrounded by the crowd calls out to Al saying that she needs him, but he is now in laying in the fetal position on one of the chairs.
Back at the Bundy house, Al is sitting on the couch, grinning and holding an imaginary remote in hand. On the TV, a news report is on, where "a tragedy was narrowly averted today, when a man returning home from a bowling alley, where his wife just bowled a perfect game, raced into a burning building, saved a family of ten and the family dog, Winkie" before revealing that Al is the one who rescued the family and telling the reporter that he did it because "I guess I've always been a winner. And winners are always there at the winnin' time" . The reporter then points out that people wanting to nominate him for mayor, which Al indicates he might take, since he's a winner, as a crowd cheers "Bundy! Bundy! Bundy!"
Al, now back on his couch, is still grinning and giving a thumbs up. Meanwhile, the rest of the family is standing behind the couch, with Kelly wondering why is Al watching a blank TV screen, before Bud reveals that Al finally snapped and is having a mental breakdown. Peg, holding her new trophy, seems indifferent and points out that it doesn't take much brain power to sell shoes anyway, before they leave the room to put her trophy away.
Al "Icky" Bundy talking with Roy Firestone
Back on the TV, the program has changed to ESPN's SportsLook with Roy Firestone who is now interviewing Al "Icky" Bundy, dressed up in a football uniform, revealing that he "re-wrote the record book on both offense and defense" and is now a future hall of famer. Roy points out that Al is still wearing his uniform 3 months after the season ended, but Al takes pride in pointing out how the girls love seeing him wear it everywhere. Roy then gets serious and asks him about Peg bowling a perfect game and if it in anyway affected him, which he then answers:
"It might have affected me Roy if I didn't have anything else in my life. But, you know, between the NFL, the endorsements, of course being knighted by the Queen of England, but what the Hell, let the little lady have her own little moment in the sun."
Roy finishes up by asking Al, what is one word that would describe him. He takes a moment to think about it and answers, "Winner". Finally, Roy sums up Al to viewers:
"Al Bundy. Husband, Father, football player, bull fighter, aviator, and inventor of the seven day underwear. Truly, the complete man."
Al finally losing his mind
He thanks Al, with Al revealing that its actually Roy's money that got him on the show. Back to reality, Al still sitting on the couch is looking at the blank TV, showing he's going crazy and then a close up of Al's insane grin is shown, revealing that he truly has lost his mind, all for the sake of believing he truly is a winner.
Guest stars[]
- Michael McManus as Puggy
- Michael O'Guinne as Bowler
- Garrett Glaser as Himself
- Roy Firestone as Himself
Quotes[]
- Al: Now, as we all know, my good friend, Puggy Weaver is leaving the neighborhood. So this is my last chance to break his alley record in front of his sweating, pork-like little face. I've been training for weeks. Avoiding anything that could hurt me: Red wine, red meat... [bitterly, after a brief pause] red heads.
- Peg: And those energy draining showers. [grinning]
- Al: Hehe, behind every successful man is a woman who didn't marry me.
- Al: Now, you, my children, have the important task of recording my victory for posterity. Too many great Bundy moments have been lost for lack of a camera.
- Peg: Well, honey we had a camera on our honeymoon. [smugly] You just kept beating the flash.
- Al: Well, if you recall I was doing fine until you came in the room.
- [Al is sitting next to Bud and wiping his mouth after Marcy kissed him on the lips as an insult for trying to ruin Peg's perfect game]
- Al: Kelly, come here. [she comes over and sits next to Al, as he puts his arms around them] Now, kids, do you know what you're witnessing here?
- Bud: A perfect game?
- Al: No. No. The Bundy Curse. That's what keeps us from being happy. There's no point in fighting it. It's what separates us from the ordinary losers. They can have their moments. But not us. Never us.
- Kelly: But Mom's having a major moment now, and she's a Bundy.
- Al: [with a bitter grin] She's not truly a Bundy. See, your mother's just a Bundy by marriage. She's part of the Curse. [depressingly] But we are blood Bundys. We are truly doomed.
- [The three of them are now hopelessly depressed. Al solemnly puts his hand out to lead them in a cheer. They put theirs on top of his.]
- Al, Bud, and Kelly: [depressingly, as they barely raise their hands up] WHOA BUNDY!
Notes[]
Title[]
- The title of this episode is a reference to Peggy bowling a perfect game as well as her turning a certain age on her birthday.
Trivia[]
- The answer to Bud's homework question "What is the first derivative of kinetic energy with respect to velocity?" is momentum, while the answer to Kelly's homework question "What goes quack?" would be a duck.
- In season 9's Shoeless Al, Al and his Team will try to win the "Puggy Weaver Memorial Cup", indicating that he had died some point after this match. In that episode, it is mentioned that Puggy died during a waffle eating contest, trying to break a record by swallowing 8 waffles and Al and the members of NO MA'AM were there when he died.
- Roy Firestone, a sports commentator and journalists makes a guest appearance as himself at the end of the episode. He would make another appearance on Married...With Children a few years later, hosting a special called "Al Bundy's Sports Spectacular" in 1995.
- He had previously appeared with Ed O'Neill and Katey Sagal on The New Hollywood Squares in 1987, when Ed and Katey filmed the first three episodes together as Al and Peggy Bundy, before Ed portrayed himself on his last day there.
- Garrett Glaser who plays the news reporter that interviews Al during his fantasy was a real news reporter. At the time this episode was filmed, he was working as a correspondent for the entertainment news program Entertainment Tonight.
- Al's football jersey number in his fantasy is 51, which is different than his Polk High jersey which is 33.
- It is strongly implied that 51 might be Al's NFL uniform number
- Peggy implies that Kelly came out of her womb backwards, indicating she had a breech birth with her.
- Given that her birthday is somewhere in April of 1948, Peggy would be turning 42 in this episode.
- The plaque that Al stands to when he enters Jim's Bowl-A-Rama reads "Puggy Weaver - Bowlarama High Game - 256 - April 25, 1985"
- Starting with this episode, the still frame during the closing credits is changed, now featuring a picture of Al and Peg from season 4's couch gag and yellow text instead of white.
- Al explains the Bundy Curse to the kids for the first time in this episode.
- Al reveals that he had been bowling for over 20 years.
- Bud tells Al that the chances of Peg bowling a perfect game are a million to one (1,000,000:1). The actual odds are about 11,500:1 for an amateur level bowler, while the odds for a Professional Bowler's Association (PBA) bowler are about 460:1.[1][2][3]
Cultural References[]
- During Al's fantasized interview near the end of the episode, Roy Firestone calls him Al "Icky" Bundy. This is an allusion to the NFL fullback, "Ickey" Woods, who played for the Cincinnati Bengals from 1988 until 1991 and became a household name because of his end zone dance, which he named The Ickey Shuffle.
- Al distorts the well-known baseball poem "Casey at the Bat" when mocking Puggy.
- Al's line when standing next to the bowling plaque, "Al Bundy". [to camera] Yep, Al Bundy, Al Bundy, brave, courageous and bold. Long live his fame and long live his glory and long may his story be told." is a reference to the opening theme song to the Western television series, The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp staring Hugh O Brian.[4]
Locations[]
- Bundy Residence
- Jim's Bowl-A-Rama
- Apartment
- Sports Look set
Sets[]
- Bundy Living Room / Kitchen
- Bowling alley
- Apartment exterior
- Sports Look set
Goofs[]
- After having already made ten strikes in a row , Peggy scores three more strikes. But for a 300 perfect game, in bowling, maximum total strikes is 12.
- When Peg bowls her final and hits all but one pin, the sweep bar immediately comes down as Al laughs on, but when Al notices the remaining pin wobbling, the bar is no longer there. Also there are 2 pins lying down nearby when the last pin is wobbling, where originally, all of the other pins were clearly knocked down and into the pit.
- Kelly says her birthday is in February in this episode, but in a season 7 episode she says her birthday is November 27 and in the season 3 episode, "Life's a Beach", she tells Al and Peg that her birthday was sometime in May.
- Unless it's a brand new bowling alley, it would be rather hard to believe that a bowling center in metro Chicago would have a house high game of only 256.
References[]
External Links[]
Peggy Turns 300 at the Internet Movie Database- Peggy Turns 300 on Bundyology
- Peggy Turns 300 - First Draft Script on albundy.net
- Peggy Turns 300 - Transcript on Springfield! Springfield!
- #77 Peggy Turns 300 - MWC Podcast on Horrorphilia
