Season 5 Episode 25: Buck the Stud

May 19, 1991

Published 05/19/91

The last episode of season 5, and an unusually mercenary one even by this family’s standards. A neighbor named Mr. Lovejoy owns a prize briard and needs a mate for her, and he is prepared to pay ten thousand dollars for the service. The Bundys have a dog. Al does the arithmetic in about a second and a half and immediately begins preparing Buck for the assignment, which involves kneeling on the living room floor with a book of dog photographs and coaching him through it like a position coach walking a rookie through film. The family is already spending the money before Buck has left the house. What comes back is not a check. Al returns from the appointment holding a bill, and the bill is not for ten thousand dollars either, because Buck was rather more enthusiastic than anyone had accounted for and Mr. Lovejoy’s champion did not survive the encounter. The figure is a hundred thousand dollars, payable in three days, and Al walks the family through exactly how a shoe salesman intends to cover it. In the other half of the episode Bud has developed a theory that the reason he cannot attract women is his wardrobe, and sets about correcting it by buying the most ostentatious clothing he can find, including a hooded robe that earns him the nicknames Yoda and Ewok from his sister within about four seconds of his coming down the stairs. Against all odds the strategy briefly works, and then it works too well.

Episode Facts

Original air date: May 19, 1991
Season and episode: Season 5, Episode 25
Overall episode number: 105
Written by: Chip Johannessen and John Rinker
Directed by: Gerry Cohen
Taped: April 19, 1991
Title note: “Stud” in the kennel sense, a male animal kept specifically for breeding, with the modern slang meaning hanging in the background for Buck’s benefit.