Season 3

Season 3 Episode 14: A Three Job, No Income Family

By David Faustino / March 19, 1989 /

Peggy signs Al up to sell cosmetics door to door, then hears what the perks are and takes the job herself. Al ends up at Burger Trek in a uniform, working for a manager played by Pauly Shore, eating a toothpaste sandwich.

Season 3 Episode 12: My Mom, the Mom

By David Faustino / February 26, 1989 / Comments Off on Season 3 Episode 12: My Mom, the Mom

Kelly picks Peggy for Mother-Daughter Career Day, so Peggy brings her couch, her side table and her remote control into the classroom and demonstrates her actual working life. Al, meanwhile, puts Bud to work at the shoe store.

Season 3 Episode 11: Eatin’ Out

By David Faustino / February 19, 1989 / Comments Off on Season 3 Episode 11: Eatin’ Out

A modest windfall sends the Bundys out to a proper restaurant, and then they realize the money is still at home. Nobody will admit it to the staff, so the meal goes ahead while the arithmetic gets steadily worse.

Season 3 Episode 9: Requiem for a Dead Barber

By David Faustino / February 12, 1989 /

Al’s barber dies, which leaves him with nowhere to get his hair cut but a salon. The episode’s editor was nominated for an Emmy for it. It is also one of only three episodes in which Peggy turns Al down.

Season 3 Episode 8: The Gypsy Cried

By David Faustino / February 5, 1989 / Comments Off on Season 3 Episode 8: The Gypsy Cried

A psychic predicts good fortune for Al, Peggy and Steve and disaster for Marcy, so Marcy insists the lucky three accompany her on a flight to New York as insurance. Al’s skepticism lasts precisely as long as the prediction flatters him.

Season 3 Episode 7: The Bald and the Beautiful

By David Faustino / January 29, 1989 /

Marcy leaves Steve a clipping about a baldness cure, which he reads as a diagnosis, and he joins a club for balding men and drags Al with him. It is the first time the series addressed either man’s hairline, and the first time Tuesday is named as Al and Peggy’s sex night.

Season 3 Episode 6: Her Cups Runneth Over

By David Faustino / January 15, 1989 / Comments Off on Season 3 Episode 6: Her Cups Runneth Over

Peggy’s favorite bra is discontinued on her birthday, so Al and Steve set out across Wisconsin to find one. This is the episode that triggered the Terry Rakolta advertiser boycott, which ended up handing the show the biggest audience it had ever had.

Season 3 Episode 5: A Dump of My Own

By David Faustino / January 8, 1989 /

The upstairs toilet floods once too often and Al finally builds his own bathroom in the garage, realizing an ambition from season one. It is also the first appearance of the Ferguson toilet, which he stayed proud of for the next eight years.

Season 3 Episode 4: The Camping Show (aka A Period Piece)

By David Faustino / December 11, 1988 / Comments Off on Season 3 Episode 4: The Camping Show (aka A Period Piece)

A men-only fishing trip collapses when everybody’s wife invites herself, and then all three women turn out to be menstruating at once. FOX’s censors delayed the episode, which had been written as the season premiere. TV Guide covered the hold-up.

Season 3 Episode 3: Poke High (aka The Red Grange Story)

By David Faustino / November 27, 1988 /

A Polk High player is about to break Al’s four-touchdown record, so Al sets out to stop him. Kelly wants a date with him and Bud has been told to tutor him. It was the first FOX broadcast ever to draw a Nielsen audience share above 25.