Abe Benrubi Joins the Bundy Breakdown Thursday, October 29th!

Thursday, October 29th at 6:00 PM Pacific (9:00 PM Eastern), Abe Benrubi is joining us live on the Bundy Breakdown Zoom.

Hey Bundy Club fam… I have some really fun news. My old friend Abe Benrubi is coming to the Bundy Breakdown. That is right… the big man who played Cousin Jimmy, the groom who came looking for whoever slept with his bride, is sitting down with us live this Thursday, October 29th.

If you just did your homework for our Joey Lauren Adams night, you already know the setup. Janey picked Bud for one last fling before she married Jimmy. Twelve episodes later, Jimmy showed up at the Bundy house wanting a name, and Bud spent the whole half hour trying not to be it. Abe is the reason that episode is so much fun to watch. He is genuinely scary and genuinely funny at the same time.

And here is the part a lot of you may not know. Cousin Jimmy was not his first time on our set. Abe actually showed up a season earlier, uncredited, in one of the strangest scenes we ever shot. We are going to get into both.

How Our Zoom Watch Parties Work

We pick the episodes and tell you which ones ahead of time.
You watch them on your own time.
We go live on Zoom with me and the crew for discussion, stories, and questions.

It is like a book club… but for Married with Children episodes.

Who Is Abe Benrubi?

Abe Benrubi was born October 4, 1969 in Indianapolis, Indiana, and went to Broad Ripple High School there. If you watched TV in the ’90s, you know him even if you do not know his name. He is the guy you never forget once you see him.

His first big role was Larry “Kube” Kubiac, the giant, always hungry, surprisingly sweet bruiser on Parker Lewis Can’t Lose, which ran on FOX from 1990 to 1993. Right after that he became one of the most familiar faces on one of the biggest shows on television: Jerry Markovic, the desk clerk on ER, starting in the very first season and showing up in more than 130 episodes all the way to the series finale in 2009.

On the movie side, you have seen him as Bubba in Twister (1996), Thor in George of the Jungle (1997), Mose in Kevin Costner’s Open Range (2003), and Dennis in Without a Paddle (2004). Fun story: he landed Open Range because his part had been cut out of Costner’s previous movie, The Postman. He also starred as bartender Ben Thomasson on Men in Trees, and he has popped up on everything from The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer to Bosch.

And then there is the voice. Abe has been a regular on Robot Chicken for years, doing everything from Darth Vader to Optimus Prime, and if you play World of Warcraft, Diablo or Heroes of the Storm, you have heard him there too. In Heroes of the Storm, he is the voice of Diablo himself.

How Abe and I Go Back

Abe and I go all the way back to Parker Lewis Can’t Lose. Back in its first season, I did a special appearance on Parker Lewis in an episode called “Musso & Frank,” which aired October 28, 1990. I played kind of a hybrid of myself and Bud, and Abe was right there in the main cast as Kube. Both shows were on FOX on Sunday nights, so crossing over was a natural thing to do.

Here is a deep cut for you: Andrea Elson guest starred in that same Parker Lewis episode, and a couple of years later she played Heidi in “The Wedding Show,” the episode that set up Cousin Jimmy’s story. Small world back then.

So when Married with Children needed a huge guy to scare the life out of Bud, it made total sense that it was Abe. I have not seen him in way too long, and I am really looking forward to catching up and hearing what he remembers from his time on our set.

The Episodes Abe Benrubi Was In

Two appearances, two completely different characters. Do your homework on both of them.

“She’s Having My Baby (Part 1)” (Season 6, Episode 1)

The Season 6 premiere, which aired September 8, 1991. Marcy and Jefferson come over to announce that Marcy is pregnant, and Al is thrilled, not for them but at them, because as far as he is concerned Jefferson’s life is now over. He is still laughing when Peg tells him the Bundys are expecting too. Bud and Kelly are not exactly excited about a new sibling either, and they make sure Al knows it.

That is where Abe comes in. In Al’s nightmare about the new baby, the kid shows up as a giant, full grown Bundy in a diaper, and that baby is Abe. He is uncredited, and blink and you might miss who it was, but once you know, you cannot unsee it. At the time he was starring as Kube on Parker Lewis over on the same network.

A couple of fun facts for the Zoom: this episode was watched by about 29 million people, the biggest audience the show ever had. And the whole pregnancy storyline it kicked off was later revealed to be one of Al’s nightmares at the end of “Al Bundy, Shoe Dick,” the Traci Lords episode we broke down earlier this month.

“Wedding Repercussions” (Season 7, Episode 25)

This is the main event. It aired May 16, 1993, and it picks up the story from “The Wedding Show” (Season 7, Episode 13). Cousin Jimmy is back, he is enormous, and he wants to know who slept with his wife before the wedding. His plan, if nobody confesses, is to go up and down the block beating people up until somebody does. The answer, of course, is Bud, and Kelly spends the whole episode threatening to tell him.

Abe plays Jimmy completely straight, which is exactly why it works. Watch the scene at the front door where he towers over Bud, and keep an eye on Bud’s face. Al also gets one of his all time great speeches in this one, explaining that the Bundy name was built on lying, owing money, and beer.

Both wedding episodes were written by Arthur Silver and directed by Gerry Cohen. Abe is not in “The Wedding Show” itself, but watch it first anyway. The two play like a two parter with half a season in between, and if you came to the Joey Lauren Adams night, you are already halfway there.

What to Expect Thursday

We will break down the best moments from both episodes and give Abe plenty of room to tell stories from our set and from everything he has done since. Bring your questions. Whether you want to ask about playing Cousin Jimmy, getting stuck in a diaper for Al’s nightmare, his Parker Lewis days as Kube, his years on ER, or what it is like to be the voice of Darth Vader on Robot Chicken… this is the night to ask.

It has been way too long since we have been in the same room, even a Zoom room. These nights always turn into something bigger than an episode breakdown, and I think this one is going to be a blast.

Join Us Live

This one is for members. Premium members get the Zoom link closer to the event, and the replay will be available afterward for anyone who cannot make it live.

Elite Slouchers and Slacker Starters can come on video and on the couch, Bundy Lurkers can lurk as attendees but won’t be part of the Zoom. 10 random Freeloaders will be invited to this Zoom.

Do your homework, watch the episodes, and come with questions.

See you Thursday, October 29th at 6 PM Pacific.

Join the party and get your Zoom access here: bundyclub.com/join

Whoa Bundy.