Season 3 Episode 20: The Computer Show

May 14, 1989

Published 05/14/89

Peggy and Marcy buy a home computer for the Bundy house against Al’s explicit objection, and the episode is a time capsule of what that meant in 1989. The machine’s specifications are recited on screen with the reverence of a car advertisement: a 3600 baud modem, a VGA high-resolution colour monitor, a 40 megabyte hard disk and 7 megabytes of RAM. Al’s position is that the household does not need one, which is correct, and that nobody in it will be able to operate it, which is also correct.

The episode belongs to a small group of early half-hours about objects entering the house, the computer, the VCR, the microwave eight seasons later, and the pattern is always the same. The purchase is made over Al’s head, the family cannot use the thing, and it becomes furniture. What makes this one work is that the computer is treated as genuinely aspirational, a piece of equipment that might improve people’s prospects, which makes the Bundys’ failure to find any use for it funnier.

Running underneath is Al’s attempt to train Buck to fetch his slippers, which the dog interprets creatively. Buck turns up with what appears to be a bra and suggests saving it for the beach, and the following episode does in fact take the family to the beach.

Small details for the record: Peggy mentions that Buck potty-trained both children, Kelly reveals she is in remedial reading, and Marcy states precisely that she and Steve have been the Bundys’ neighbours for 937 days, which is about two and a half years. Al also recalls an Uncle Edwin as one of the first Bundys to attend college, before Peggy clarifies that he went as a cadaver for the pre-med students.