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Miss DeGroot was the mean-spirited librarian who worked at the Oak Wood library Al Bundy used to frequent as a child, who appeared in the Season 3 episode of Married... with Children titled "He Thought He Could".

Miss DeGroot was played by veteran comedic actress Lu Leonard, who appeared in numerous Three Stooges shorts during the 1940's and 1950's.

Description[]

Miss DeGroot worked at the Oakwood Library for years, even beyond the expectancy of her life, especially considering her weight and that she would put half a jar of sugar into each cup of coffee. She had also noted that she was eligible for retirement in 1985 but stayed on, believing that she would finally confront Al and see the failure that he has become.

Miss DeGroot was also known for her intense dislike of Al Bundy, which upon her own admittance was unusual due to the fact he was a mere child at the time. Her hatred of Al, and desire to get him in the end, caused her to continue to work at the library for years afterward, waiting for the day when she finally got her revenge.

When she is first introduced in 1957, she had red hair and wore a light brown dress, but when Al is confronted by her in 1988, the only difference is that she has grey hair.

As Al noted, Miss DeGroot and the library is where he "first learned that redheads can kill ya". His hate for fat women may also stem from her, as he kept noting how fat she was when thinking about her and how he would mock her weight as a child.

Background[]

She is first introduced during a flashback to 1957, when a 9 year old Al Bundy and his friend visit the library. As Al goes to check out a small stack of books, Miss DeGroot greets him by calling him "The Devil Boy". She informs him that she will not let him check out the books because he is constantly late with returning books and never having the money to pay the overdue fees. He promises that he'll return them on time, but she tells him that he never follows through on anything and tells "Make a promise, keep a promise". He mocks her by responding with "Yeah, yeah, bake a pie, eat a pie".

Little engine

Miss DeGroot in 1957, allowing a young Al to borrow The Little Engine that Could in the hope that he'll learn responsibility

Al informs her that he needs to check out the books, as he has a book report due the following day. Miss DeGroot tells him that he may only take one book from his stack of books. Believing that it is unfair, he tells her "Hey, be fair! Can you eat just one pig?", which offends her, causing her to stand up and call him a horrible boy. She continues to tell him that he will never amount to anything and wishes that he ends up being a failure for the rest of his life. She also scolds him for keeping his hand tucked in his pants, calling it a filthy little habit.

To try and teach Al a lesson, she allows him to check out a single book, The Little Engine that Could to see if he could learn responsibility and return the book. She makes him promise to return it, which he agrees to, but she believes his words are meaningless. She then tells that he has 3 days to return it to her and if he doesn't, she'll be waiting for him.

However, Al forgot to do so, and the book stayed with him for all these years, eventually ending up in the attic of the Bundy residence and rediscovered when the family was doing spring cleaning in 1988. Al's neighbors, Steve Rhoades and Marcy Rhoades are horrified after seeing him nonchalantly toss the book into the trash can. They tell him that books are important for the mind and that he needs to do the right thing and return the book.

Al tells his family and neighbors about his last encounter with Miss DeGroot and that it left him feeling too afraid to go back. Steve reassures Al not to worry, as medical science says she must be dead after all those years of such unhealthy living. Despite Steve making a rational observation, when Al goes to return the book he is shocked to find Miss DeGroot is still alive and well. Mrs. DeGroot greets her old enemy by telling him he owes $2,163 in fines. He is shocked to hear that he is being charged an outlandish fee for an overdue book, but Miss DeGroot points out that if he didn't ignore the overdue notices sent to him, he wouldn't be in this situation. She then reminds him that he had originally promised her that he would return it within three days, but did not follow, just like she knew he would do. Al tries to bribe her by offering a doughnut that just mysteriously disappears, but she mocks him and believes that her educated guess that he would be a failure in life was true.

Al tries to convince her that she was mistaken about the book being late and that she was out the day he returned it, but she reassures him that she is always at the library and would have remembered it being returned by him. After Al insist that it is on the shelf, they both go over to look at the nearby shelves. Following a failed attempt to distract her, Al then shoves the ladder that Miss DeGroot was resting her foot on and quickly reinserts the book on the shelf as she tries to regain her balance. He then pulls it out from the shelf and acts like the books had been there the entire time. DeGroot calls him a liar and believes he planted it there, but he smiles and believes that there is no way she could prove it as he gives her the book and walks out.

Back at the Bundy Residence, Al convinces his family that he simply apologized to DeGroot and paid a small fine to settle everything. He then tells his family "You can't do wrong doing right". Al turns on the television to watch some evening news, but as it turns out, the story was about Al. The news anchor chose to cover a story about a person with the most overdue book in the public library system trying to sneak it back in to avoid paying a fine. It then showed footage of Al caught on the library's security camera, shoving the ladder DeGroot was using and then quickly sneaking the book back on to the shelf. The anchor identifies Al by name and in her opinion, calls him "a true piece of human garbage", as Al's family and neighbors express their disgust for lying to them. The family resorts to wear paper bags over their heads in public, leading to Al choosing to pay the fine, knowing that it will break them financially, but at least they can hold their heads up in public again.

Later, a humbled Al comes to pay the fine, and Miss DeGroot actually commends Al for his stunt, saying people are now much more serious about respecting library books and paying their overdue fees. She calls him "The Freddy Kreuger of the library system" for causing people to be afraid of being late with their library books. She picks up a box and starts to put various items in it, as she explains to Al that she has been working at the library for 44 years and was eligible for retirement 3 years ago. She further explains that the only reason she stayed on for that long was to nail Al and she was finally able to do so. As she beams with pride and joy, she compares this moment to how Sheriff Pat Garrett finally killed the western outlaw, Billy the Kid.

She tells Al that it is now her final day at work and that if it had been any other person who had an overdue book, she would have offered amnesty. But for Al she truly hated the 9 year old boy who never kept his promise and mocked her for being fat. She goes on to brag that as she leaves the library for the last time, the joy of knowing Al grew up to be the loser that she always believed he would become will be more valuable than the gold watch she received as a retirement gift.

Al goes into a tirade about how men like him face failure every day and will never have their glory days again, ending with "the fact I have not put a gun in my mouth, you pudding of a woman, makes me a winner!"

While taken aback at first, Miss DeGroot brushes it off and says he will always be a loser if he cannot keep his promises. Al agrees with that, and says he is going to start keeping old promises, where he is shown pilfering the sugar jar, intending to pour it into the fuel tank of her car just as he promised to do as a child.

Appearances[]

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