Season 7 Episode 13: The Wedding Show
January 10, 1993
The family is getting ready for a cousin’s wedding, and Bud has sex with the bride. The groom is Cousin Jimmy, a large and short-tempered man who does not yet know, which leaves the episode with a secret and the season with a loaded gun: Jimmy comes back twelve episodes later in “Wedding Repercussions” to find out who it was.
Bud’s reaction is the funniest thing in it, and the construction is precise: he comes down the stairs in a smoking jacket, carrying a pipe, declaring that a gentleman never tells and then telling immediately. The swagger lasts about ninety seconds, until Kelly supplies the one piece of information he had not thought about. There is a long-running fan argument about whether this is where Bud loses his virginity or whether it happened earlier, in season five’s “Kids! Wadaya Gonna Do?“, the episode plays it as the first time either way.
Al and Peggy’s half is a negotiation about whether he would marry her again, and it produces one of the better late exchanges between them. Asked to describe his ideal mate, Al delivers a specification, Peggy decides it is a description of her, and he declines to confirm it.
Joey Lauren Adams plays the bride, her third role on the series and a different character each time: she had been Mona in “Top of the Heap” and Cousin Effie in season six. The episode aired the day after her twenty-fifth birthday. It was the last episode filmed in 1992 and the first broadcast in 1993. Al also identifies his best features as his eyes and his backside.
Episode Facts
- Original air date: January 10, 1993
- Season and episode: Season 7, Episode 13
- Milestone: the 144th episode of Married with Children
- Written by: Arthur Silver
- Directed by: Gerry Cohen
Guest Cast
- Joey Lauren Adams as Janey, the bride to be
- Andrea Elson as Heidi
- Sara Melson as Corky
- Robin Killian as Al’s dream girl
Bud and the Bride
The hook is simple and it is the reason people still talk about this one. Janey wants one last fling before she walks down the aisle to marry Cousin Jimmy, and out of everyone at that wedding she picks Bud Bundy. Watch what Joey Lauren Adams does with the part. She plays it completely straight, with no wink to the audience, which is exactly why the whole thing lands.
It aired January 10, 1993, the day after Adams turned 25. It was also the last episode of the series filmed in 1992 and the first to air in 1993.
This was her third trip through the Bundy universe, playing a different character every time. She was Mona Mullins in Season 5’s “Top of the Heap” and Cousin Effie in Season 6’s “Buck Has a Belly Ache.”
The story is not over at the credits either. The fallout arrives later the same season in “Wedding Repercussions” (Season 7, Episode 25), when Jimmy comes looking for whoever wrecked his marriage. Watch the two back to back.
The V Card Debate
Ask any two Bundy Club members where Bud actually lost his virginity and you may get two answers. A lot of fans point here. Others argue it already happened back in Season 5. The show never settled it cleanly, which is why it is still worth arguing about thirty years later. Bring your evidence.
Famous Quotes
- Kelly: “WHAT DID YOU DO?!” / Bud: “A gentleman never tells. …I had SEX! With a girl! And I did it good!”
- Kelly: “Oh my God…” / Bud: “That’s what she said… twice.” / Kelly: “What, once when you got undressed and once when you put on your bunny slippers?”
- Bud: “Save your barbs for someone who’s not getting any… like Mom!”
- Bud: “I feel good. Yep, I do. Talk all you want, nothing can bring me down.” / Kelly: “You just had sex with your Cousin Jimmy’s bride.” / Bud: “…Well, that did it!”
- Peg: “Why don’t you give me a picture of what your ideal mate would be.” / Al: “A magnificent young girl, with a beautiful face, slim thighs, and a firm apple of a hiney…” / Peg: “Oh, Al, it’s me!” / Al: “No!”
Notes
- Arthur Silver wrote this one and Gerry Cohen directed it, the same pair behind “Top of the Heap” and “Wedding Repercussions.”
- Robin Killian, playing Al’s dream girl, had already turned up earlier the same season as Beer Girl #2.
- Continuity watch: the bird in the cuckoo clock appears and disappears between scenes.
- Cousin Jimmy is only credited on screen in the follow up episode, where he is played by Abraham Benrubi.
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Another wedding. Another disaster. And yeah, I got to know the bride a little TOO well. What can I say? I’m a people person. Specifically a BRIDE person, apparently. That’s two wedding-related incidents on my record now. The Bundy family should just stop inviting me to weddings at this point. Meanwhile, Kelly and the bridesmaids decided that tight black leather was appropriate wedding attire. Because why not? It’s a Bundy family wedding, not the Oscars. And Mom couldn’t decide what to wear, so Dad sat there daydreaming while she changed outfits for the 47th time. You know what Dad daydreams about? Football and silence. That’s it. Those are his two fantasies. A world where Polk High never ended and nobody asks him for money. Simple man, simple dreams. This whole episode is basically proof that Bundys and formal events mix like Dad and vegetables. It just doesn’t work.