My list of messed up/stupid things about Married with Children
1. The addition of Seven was a dreadful decision by the producers/writers. Not only was it a clichéd attempt to add fresh momentum to the show and new plot lines via a new character, but Seven was terrible as such a vehicle. He was about as useless as Maggie on the Simpsons as far as being interesting and plot generation. He essentially just got in the way.
This is also what happened when another show tried this clichéd tactic. The Fresh Prince of Bel-air did this with Nicki.
2. They insulted Al repeatedly and heavily for how little he made in income. I recall even Al ragged on himself about it(via self-pity and mentioning he was broke when the kids wanted money or presents), yet he was able to take care of three people, have a car, a computer, a dog and a two story house. Just stupid.
3. Peggy was an extremely beautiful woman yet this is logically stupid because she was presented as sitting around all day eating bon-bon's, doing no housework and in one episode with Jim Jupiter, she was shown to be very averse to exercise, so logically she should have been a fat pig.
4. They acted like Bud was an ugly gargoyle, when he was actually very handsome.
5. It was an extremely stupid decision by the producers/writers to write Katey Sagal's pregnancy into the show. Then even more stupid to make Marcy pregnant at the same time. All they had to do was make some excuse for why she was away. Like say she was visiting relatives in Wanker county, like I think they ended up doing later on for some reason or other(probably because Sagal got pregnant again)
6. It was real messed up how the show viciously, viciously made fun of shoe salesmen. As far as I am aware, they never explained what's so bad about being a shoe salesman other than specifically with Al, he sold shoes to fat women(which even that wasn't always the case like with the shoe groupie).
Even worse, Al wasn't just a shoe salesman. He was actually the store manager!
7. It was stupid and amazingly self-indulgent for the producers to let Amanda Bearse play both Marcy and her identical cousin who is a lesbian. Even more ridiculous given that Amanda Bearse really was a lesbian.
8. It was messed up how Al would beat up Kelly's boyfriends for no reason. And then he always won as if it was automatically the case a forty year old man could really beat up twentysomethings that easily. Not to mention his behavior was illegal assault.
9. It was very weird how they insisted on giving Al an African-American co-worker/friend. They did it three times, finally landing on Griff. Before that it was some dude I cant remember(I think his name was Dexter) and of course Aaron.
One wonders why the powers that be on the show were so insistent on doing that, and why It didn't work out with Dexter and Aaron.
10. It was messed up how Al claimed Marcy had no breasts when she actually did have fairly decent sized ones. She looked to be rocking a (B) or even C-cup as was shown several times when Amanda was scantily clad.
11. It was messed up how Christina Applegate refused to date any African American males(nor Middle-Eastern or Asian), but was willing to go out with the scuzziest, nastiest, drugged up losers as long as they were white. I think all her dates were white males other than one Hispanic named Carlos.
I would say in my view that Applegate was likely racist but it's her business if she wants to date only her own race. You can't tell people who they are to be attracted to. But it was messed up how her character refused to have anything to do with Aaron, who was very handsome and respectable, but she was willing to go out with guys that were drugged up criminals or hooligans. I often wonder if the producers refused to have her date African-American males(as well as no Asians or Middle-Easteners) or if she demanded that be the case from the producers or whoever was in charge there.
Although to be fair, David Faustino never had an Afro-American girlfriend either(or any other race but Hispanic)as far as I know, but at least he dated high, high quality girls who weren't trash.