Season 8 Episode 7: Take My Wife, Please

October 24, 1993

Published 10/24/93

The season 8 Halloween episode, and one of the best high-concept episodes the series attempted. The Grim Reaper turns up at the Bundy front door, and when the hood comes off, Death has chosen to appear as Peggy, with black hair and darker makeup, purely because she judged it would land. The terms are straightforward: Al has until midnight, and if any member of his family says out loud that they need him, in any way, once, he lives. Al’s reaction to hearing the condition is the single funniest beat in the episode, because he does not even attempt to be optimistic. The problem is that his family is otherwise engaged. Marcy is hosting a charity event for rehabilitated female convicts and has booked the Village People, who cancel, so she bribes Peg, Kelly, Bud and Jefferson five hundred dollars to impersonate them and lip-sync. The only Village People record Marcy owns is a single of “YMCA,” so she plays it over and over, which is as hard on her guests as it sounds. Meanwhile Al sits on his own couch next to Death watching the performance on television, shouting instructions at his wife about what to say, and Peg comes agonizingly close to saying it before naming somebody else entirely. The real Village People do eventually show up. It is one of the few genuinely inventive episodes of the later run, and the premise gives Katey Sagal two roles in the same half hour.It also lands its one serious beat without comment, which is that nobody in that house ever does say it. It also lands its one serious beat without comment, which is that nobody in that house ever does say it.

Episode Facts

Original air date: October 24, 1993
Season and episode: Season 8, Episode 7
Overall episode number: 164
Written by: Eddie Feldmann and Brad Yuen
Directed by: Tony Singletary
Production note: The Village People appear as themselves. Marcy had paid Al a dollar to sing “YMCA” back in season 7’s “Al on the Rocks,” which makes this a long-delayed payoff.
Production note: The Darcys’ kitchen is seen on screen for the first time.
Production note: The last appearance of Kelly’s red and blue Verminator uniform. From the next episode it becomes red and gold.
Title note: From Henny Youngman’s signature joke.