When it first hit the airwaves, Michael G. Moye and Ron Leavitt's 1987 sitcom "Married... with Children" represented a revolutionary turn of events. The bulk of TV sitcoms throughout the 1980s skewed wholesome, often depicting idealized, loving suburban families dealing with recognizable domestic drama. In most cases, there was a non-threatening air to American TV that reflected the bleak conservatism of the Reagan era. "Married... with Children" deliberately flew in the face of TV's perceived wholesomeness, presenting a family of miserable, ignorant, awful, unhealthy characters who all openly hated one another. The Bundy family only seemed to live together out of spite, refusing to murder each other because they knew staying alive was a better way to inflict misery.

The series was, perhaps bafflingly, a major hit for Fox, lasting 259 episodes over the course of 11 boffo seasons. It eventually took on a dangerous skew, offering more and more brazen titillation...