Why Fox Banned This ‘Married… With Children’ Episode for More Than a Decade

MARRIED...WITH CHILDREN, Katey Sagal, Ed O'Neill, 1987-1997. — Columbia Pictures Television/Everett Collection

What To Know

The Married… with Children episode “I’ll See You in Court” did not air during the show’s original run.
Fox pulled the episode due to its controversial content involving secret motel recordings.
The episode eventually aired on FX in 2002, after changing TV standards made its content less shocking.

For a show that loved pushing buttons, Married… with Children still managed to have one episode that went too far for Fox, at least at the time. The Season 3, Episode 10 installment, titled “I’ll See You in Court,” was produced in 1989, and while the Bundys were already shocking some viewers in the late ’80s, the episode never aired on Fox during the show’s original U.S. run. Instead, “I’ll See You in Court” was briefly known as the show’s lost episode, though it eventually aired on FX on June 18, 2002, years after Married… with Children had ended its original run.

Let’s find out why the episode didn’t air and why it eventually was released.

What happens in “I’ll See You in Court”?

The episode follows Al (Ed O’Neill) and Peggy (Katey Sagal) Bundy as they try to add some excitement to their marriage with a night at the Hop-On-Inn motel. But once they get there, they discover that guests have been secretly recorded in their rooms. They find out that their neighbors, Steve (David Garrison) and Marcy Rhoades (Amanda Bearse), were some of the guests who ended up on tape. Eventually, the Bundys and the Rhoades decide to sue the motel.

Why did Fox pull the episode?

Married... with Children D. Faustino, C. Applegate, A. Bearse, E. O'Neill, Buck, T. McGinley, K. Sagal, 1987-1997

Columbia Pictures Television/Everett Collection

The timing made the episode especially risky. Around the same period, Married… with Children was already facing public backlash from Terry Rakolta, a Michigan mother who objected to the show’s sexual humor and began contacting advertisers. Time reported in March 1989 that several national advertisers had pulled commercials from the sitcom after Rakolta’s letter-writing campaign. That controversy followed the Season 3 episode “Her Cups Runneth Over,” in which Al and Steve went to a lingerie store to find Peggy’s favorite bra, which was being discontinued. With the show already under pressure, “I’ll See You in Court” was apparently too much for Fox to air at the time.

When did “I’ll See You in Court” finally air?

The episode did not disappear forever. FX eventually aired “I’ll See You in Court” on June 18, 2002, more than a decade after it was made. That is why the episode is often listed with Season 3, even though its first U.S. airing came years after the original series finale. By 2002, TV had changed a lot. Cable sitcoms and adult animated shows had pushed the boundaries much further than network TV had in 1989. What once seemed too controversial for Fox no longer felt quite as shocking and Fox decided to air the episode for longtime fans.