Season 6 Episode 12: So This is How Sinatra Felt

December 1, 1991

Published 12/01/91

Al Bundy comes home happy three days running, which in this household registers as a medical emergency. Peg has already had a physical and ruled herself out as the cause, so she asks directly, and Al eventually admits what has happened: a pretty girl has been coming into the shoe store every day that week to flirt with him. He describes her, with complete sincerity, as a shoe groupie. Bud and Kelly find this the funniest thing they have ever heard and say so at length. Peg does not. By the time the laughing stops she has concluded that her husband is cheating on her, and she dispatches both children to the store to spy on him. What they find is Ricki, who is real, who is genuinely interested, and who has no interest at all in being discreet about it. Al, confronted with the first unambiguous romantic opportunity he has had in two decades, spends the episode discovering that he does not actually want it. The episode also gives Al a customer named Leona who has come back to the store with a pair of split shoes and a demand for a refund, which produces one of the better shoe store exchanges of the season and a threat of legal action that Al treats as a punchline. Underneath the farce is a straightforward question about whether Al Bundy will leave his wife, and the answer is the one the series always gave. It is one of the few episodes that takes Al’s marriage seriously for a minute and a half, and it does not undercut the moment when it arrives.

Episode Facts

Original air date: December 1, 1991
Season and episode: Season 6, Episode 12
Overall episode number: 117
Written by: Stacie Lipp
Directed by: Gerry Cohen
Taped: November 15, 1991
Production note: Jessica Hahn’s first credited acting role. She and series co-creator Ron Leavitt began a long relationship around this time that lasted until his death in 2008.
Title note: A nod to Frank Sinatra, who recorded “Love and Marriage,” the show’s theme.