Season 2 Episode 22: All in the Family

May 1, 1988

Published 05/01/88

Peggy’s relatives descend on the house: two uncles who cannot be in the same room without fighting, and a trio of singing, dancing aunts whose show-business career is in enough trouble already without Al offering advice. Al’s own ambition for the day is to watch Hondo on television, and the episode is the distance between those two things.

The Wanker Triplets are played by the Del Rubio Triplets, a genuine and much-loved novelty act, and their casting came through the cast. Katey Sagal had seen them perform at a party in 1985 thrown by the songwriter Allee Willis, and two years later the connection brought them to the show. One of the numbers they perform is Waylon Jennings’s “Good Hearted Woman”: Jennings himself turned up on the series six seasons later as Ironhead Haynes.

Uncle Irwin is played by King Kong Bundy, which is more significant than a guest spot. According to co-creator Michael G. Moye, the family’s surname came from the wrestler in the first place, and this appearance was followed by almost seven years of semi-retirement from the ring. He came back to the series in season ten as himself.

The episode ends with a dedication card reading “This episode is dedicated to the memory of DIVINE 1945 – 1988.” Divine, the drag performer and John Waters regular, had been cast in the episode and died before it was taped. The production went seven weeks without a new episode afterwards, filling the gap with repeats, which is almost certainly why.