Banned ‘Married… With Children’ Episode Is Now Available For Streaming

A season 3 episode of the Married… With Children sitcom series was banned in 2002 for being too racy. The episode was originally billed to premiere on Fox in 1989 but not aired until four years later and, even then, faced some scrutiny despite being available in other countries.

The controversial episode “I’ll See You In Court” was intended to air a month after the criticized “Her Cups Runneth Over” but was canceled due to the pushback on the initial release. Interestingly, the episode is now available for viewing on Hulu and other media after over two decades.

Why was it considered controversial?

By today’s standards, the banned episode 10— “I’ll See You In Court” is nothing extreme, but it involved a sex tape of Marcy and Steven in the hands of Al and Peggy. The Bundys tried to spice up their sex life by getting down at the Hop-On-Inn motel, where Marcy and Steve had their session on tape.

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The couple calls their neighbors’ attention to the recording, causing the Rhoads to assume the motel owner is the mastermind behind it. The men resort to violence with the owner, while the ladies choose a legal battle instead. Unfortunately, Al is embarrassed by his performance when the tape is shown in court, while the Rhoads get $10,000 in settlement.

A family values activist found the show offensive

The third episode, “Her Cups Runneth Over,” was quite focused on Peggy’s breasts as Al tried to find her discontinued bra at a lingerie shop. That part of the show involved a lot of boob jokes that offended many people, especially Terry Rakolta, a Michigan housewife and “family values” activist. Terry led a letter-writing campaign to show sponsors in a bid to defund them.

Her protest caused some sponsors to withdraw, forcing Fox to push the series to a later time of the day for a mature audience. However, Terry’s pushback made the news and drew more attention to the show—so much so that the rating spiked and increased Fox Network’s popularity. Regardless of the unexpected success, the network did not risk releasing “I’ll See You In Court” due to the reactions episode 3 received.