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Seven was the child of Zemus and Ida Mae Wanker, as well as the cousin of Peg Bundy, who eventually becomes his informal adopted mother. He appeared on Married with Children in a total of 12 episodes during Season 7.

Seven was played by former child actor turned grown-up actor Shane Sweet.

Relationships[]

Zemus Wanker - Zemus is Seven's biological father

Ida Mae Wanker - Ida Mae is Seven's biological mother.

Peggy Bundy - Peggy is Seven's first cousin and later on informal adopted mother. Unlike her other children, she favours Seven and spoils him and treats him significantly better than her own kids. She is shown cooking breakfast for him, while letting Kelly and Al fight over a single piece of Lucky Charms cereal.

Al Bundy - Al is hesitant to look after Seven as he was another mouth to feed. He then goes looking for Seven's parents and however upon his return, he lies to Peggy and the rest of the Bundy's that he didn't find them

Kelly Bundy -

Bud Bundy -


Background[]

Peggy's cousins Zemus Wanker and Ida Mae Wanker (played by Bobcat Goldthwait and Linda Blair) stop by the Bundy Residence for a visit and to introduce their youngest child. After some chatting, the couple tell Peg that they will be going out for a pack of cigarettes, without telling her of their true intention of drop off their son and leave him behind for the Bundys to take care of. After Al finds out that they had duped Peg, he screams out in horror as he realizes that he now has another mouth to feed (followed by Seven calling him "Daddy"). He eventually tracks down Zemus and Ida Mae and confronts them at the Paradise Trailer Park in Georgia. But after Al arrives back in Chicago and seeing how close Seven and Peg have become, he has a change of heart. He decides to tell them he was unable to find Seven's parents and begrudgingly accepts Seven as the newest member of the Bundy family.

In "Every Bundy Has a Birthday.", Peggy decides to enroll him in elementary school. While filling out the form, it is revealed that Seven does not know when his birthday is, so Peggy decides that they should celebrate it on Al's birthday instead. They take him to a local park, only to find out that a man named Philip has rented out the entire area for his son's birthday party. After nearly brawling with Al, Philip gives the Bundys a small patch near the trash cans for them to use. During their celebration, Bud, Kelly, and Al become jealous as they watch Peg spoil Seven with food and love, while the trio brag that Seven will never be a true Bundy, for he has not experienced the pain and disappointments like they have. After Seven tries to sneak over to rich people's party, Philip quickly throws him back in the Bundys and reminds them he needs to stay where he belongs. Suddenly, Al has a change of heart and defends Seven by declaring that he will reclaim the park for the people and eventually stars a massive brawl. Just as Philip's son is about to fight Al, Seven steps in and knocks the boy out. After seeing him fight, the kids are impressed with him and Al declares Seven an official Bundy.

He appeared on the seventh season of Married with Children in a handful of episodes, then disappeared without any explanation other than a quick mention by the D'Arcys that he showed up in their house and won't leave. They claim they want to rename him, and possibly begin taking care of him, but that's the last time he is referred to.

Despite Seven disappearing from the show without explanation after "Peggy and the Pirates", he is referenced a few mores times during Season 8 and Season 9:

  • In "Ride Scare" when the women that Al is working with for the rideshare program visit him at the Bundy residence, one of them says that she's going to get some milk from their fridge. As she hands the carton over to one of the other women, a close up of the carton is shown featuring a black and white picture of Seven under the "Missing" heading.
  • In "Kelly Knows Something", Kelly is studying for a sport trivia show. As she learns new information, it is visually shown going into one ear, while the the information she has now lost pops out of the other ear. One thing that "pops out of her ear" is an image of Seven after learning about the "Fearsome Foursome" .
  • In "No Pot to Pease In" the milk carton featuring Seven's face can be briefly seen on the Bundy's coffee table when Al tells his family to get in their "FOX viewing positions" to watch Pease in a Pod, just before Marcy informs them that it has been cancelled.

Reception among MWC viewers[]

It is well known that Seven was an extremely unpopular character among MWC viewers. Some of the reasons as to why he was unpopular range from Shane Sweet not being a great child actor, lacking talent and experience (as his only other acting credit at the time was a one time appearance on the NBC sitcom Cheers) to the character not being well suited for MWC, noting that he would have been better suited for a more family oriented show at the time.

For a large number of fans, the introduction of Seven was where the series did (or at the very least, came perilously close to) "jumping the shark", an idiom used to describe a point in time when a long running television show that is starting to have a decline in viewership has resorted to using an unbelievable gimmick in an episode or season in the hopes of maintaining its viewership. Despite its best intention, the gimmick often backfires, leading to subsequent episodes going downhill and the eventual cancellation of the show.

The term is reference to an episode of the television show, Happy Days where the character, Fonzie literally jumped over a shark while waterskiing during the show's fifth season.

Seven also represented other TV tropes, such as "Cousin Oliver", referencing the television show, The Brady Bunch, where a younger, cuter character appears with little backstory in order to boost ratings (essentially a form of "Jumping the shark"), as well as "Chuck Cunningham Syndrome", another Happy Days reference where a main cast character disappears from the show with no explanation whatsoever.

MWC cast member Amanda Bearse and David Faustino have also commented about the character in separate interviews. Both cast members noted that while they did feel bad for Shane Sweet being fired from the show at such a young age and hoped that he has found his place in the world, they also admit that he was not a good child actor and not a good fit for the show, especially when the cast was already well established by that season. [1][2] Bearse also admitted that the introduction of Seven was the point where MWC did in fact "jump the shark". [3]

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