Season 10 Episode 7: Flight of the Bumblebee

A Halloween episode in all but name, and the one where the series finally puts King Kong Bundy in the ring. NO MA’AM has the evening planned: the wives are supposed to be out at bingo, the snacks are bought, and the sport of kings is on television. Al swings open the front door mid-song and finds Peggy, Marcy, Frannie and Louise on the couch watching a romantic miniseries, which is the kind of reversal this show could run in its sleep and still land. The rest of the half-hour is a territorial dispute over one television set, conducted by people who have nowhere else to go.

Bud’s story is the one that pays off. He wants into NO MA’AM, and the final initiation test is to come back with a photograph of himself alongside King Kong Bundy. He turns up at the arena in a wrestling costume as the Bumblebee, acquires a valet, and gets into the ring with a man roughly twice his size who makes a point of promising to go easy on him. He does not go easy on him. The match plays out on the living room television while the assembled couples watch without any idea who is being dismantled in front of them, and Peggy’s delighted commentary on what King Kong is twisting off supplies the episode’s best line.

King Kong Bundy had been on the show once before, back in season two’s “All in the Family,” playing Peg’s cousin Uncle Irwin. This is his only appearance as himself, and the episode treats the wrestling persona with complete sincerity, right down to a ring announcer and a referee. It is also the last appearance of Sticky, who had been part of the NO MA’AM lineup since earlier in the season.

Episode Facts

• Original air date: Sunday, October 29, 1995 on FOX
• Season 10, Episode 7
• Overall episode 218 of the series
• Production code 10.07
• Written by Calvin Brown, Jr.
• Directed by Gerry Cohen
• The title plays on Rimsky-Korsakov’s “Flight of the Bumblebee” and on Bud’s wrestling persona
• King Kong Bundy’s second appearance on the series, and his only one as himself

Guest Cast

• King Kong Bundy as himself
• Michael Clarke Duncan as the Bouncer
• Harold Sylvester as Griff
• E.E. Bell as Bob Rooney
• Tom McCleister as Ike
• Benjamin Lum as Sticky
• Carol Ann Susi as Frannie
• Alix Elias as Louise
• Neriah Davis as Anytime
• Carrie Genzel as Natalie
• Jimmy Lennon Jr. as the Ring Announcer
• Frank Lloyd as the Referee
• Kate Weiskopf as the Girl Witch

Flight of the Bumblebee

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