976-SHOE is the eighth episode of season 4 of Married... with Children, also the 65th overall episode of the series. Directed by Gerry Cohen, the episode was written by Sandy Sprung & Marcy Vosburgh. It originally aired on FOX on November 12, 1989.
Synopsis[]
Al asks Steve for a loan of $50,000 so he can finance his own shoe help hotline. To win a Hawaii trip, Steve sanctions it and ends up with a warning from his boss. To save his job, Marcy gives Al a loan to pay back Steve, but Al spends that too. It costs Steve his job at the bank and Marcy gets demoted. Dan Tullis, Jr., who would later appear as an FBI agent in the Season 6 episode "The Egg and I" (Episode #17) not before assuming the recurring role of Officer Dan in "Rock and Roll Girl" in episode #15, first appears in this episode.
Full summary[]
Al decides to open a shoe emergency hot-line with help from Steve in the form of a $50,000 loan. But Al's get-rich-quick scheme backfires when nobody phones in. When Marcy gives Al a second $50,000 loan to repay the original loan, Al sinks the second $50,000 into his failing shoe hot-line, which results in Steve losing his job at the bank, Marcy getting demoted, and Al ending up being the loser as always.
Recurring cast/Guest stars[]
Regulars[]
- Amanda Bearse as Marcy Rhoades
- David Garrison as Steve Rhoades
- Buck the Dog as Buck Bundy
Guest starring[]
- Ray Reinhardt as Peamon
- Kari Whitman as Muffy
- Kerry Burke as Swenson
- Dan Tullis, Jr. as Sheriff
- R. Leo Schreiber as Farmer
Quotes[]
- [Bud, Peggy, and Kelly are standing over Al, who is seated at the kitchen table with several phones set up for his Shoe Hotline]
- Peggy: Honey, no one is stupid enough to call a shoe hot-line.
- Al: Oh, yeah? Well, everyone in high school said "No one was stupid enough to marry the big redhead", but someone was, wasn't he?
- [Marcy arrives at the Bundy residence to confront Steve for giving Al the $50,000 loan. Steve is currently in a vegetative state and staring blankly at the television]
- Marcy: Well, Steve? You told me not to yell at you about the loan until midnight, then I'd see. [checks her watch] What am I seeing?!
- Al: [randomly picking up the phones] Hello?! Hello?! Hello?! Hello?!
- Marcy: [forcefully] Well, Steve?!
- [Steve remains unresponsive and stares off into nothingness]
- Peggy: He hasn't spoken for hours, Marcy.
- Marcy: [angrily, as she sits down next to him] Don't pull that coma stuff with me, Steven!
- [Marcy leans in and stares him down, causing him to eventually lower his head in shame and slide down the couch]
- Marcy: [pointing to Al] You loaned this man fifty thousand dollars? That's a thousand dollars an I.Q. point. And I can't blame Al. A man gives a gun to a chimp and the chimp shoots someone, you don't blame the chimp.
- [Al twiddles his fingers for several seconds before eventually realizing that Marcy was taking about him]
- Al: [stands up] Hey! That was a hidden dig at me, wasn't it? Well, let me tell you something. The opera ain't over till the last heterosexual falls asleep. This idea will work.
- Marcy: Let's go, Steve! [opens the door] Come home and service me! And God help you if you screw that up!
- [Steve slowly gets up from the couch and then quickly turns to Al]
- Steve: [to Al, moping] This is your fault. You should have to go.
- Marcy: COME!
- Steve: [meekly] Yes, dear.
- [Steve walks with his head down towards Marcy before exiting together]
- [Dr. Shoe is on set and making one more desperate attempt at a commercial]
- Al: Hello, it's Dr. Shoe again. I've made several pleas and nobody cares. So let's cut the crap and get to it. I want to introduce you to some people. This is Mrs. Shoe. [Peggy is shown smiling and waving to the camera] My daughter, Kelly Shoe. [Kelly uses her hair to hide her face] My son, Bud Shoe [sitting on the desk with his head lowered and meekly waves] and Buck, the Shoe dog. [slowly turns his body away from the camera] We're starving! Could you please call?! You don't have to talk to me. Just hang up. It's charity, for God sake. [in a friendly tone] Kids, you don't even need your parents' permission. [begins smiling as he making random hand gestures and silly faces] It'll... it'll just be our little secret. [winks into the camera]
- Stagehand: [offscreen] Time's up, Bundy!
- Al: [panicking] Uh, please call!...Uh, please call! Let's rap. Want somebody dead? I'll kill them! Please call! [Marcy suddenly emerges from behind the stage curtain] The number again is...
- Marcy: THIS IS WHAT YOU DID WITH MY FIFTY THOUSAND DOLLARS?!
- Al: Uh, this is another satisfied customer! You can be too... [Marcy runs over and immediately begins to choke him, eventually dropping him to the floor] Ah! Please call me!
Notes[]
Title[]
- The title is a reference to the hotline that Al sets up to make money.
Trivia[]
- 976, as used in this episode's title, is a premium-rate telephone number and was the predecessor to what is now called a 1-900 number.
- Though in the episode, the number used is 555-SHOE, with 555 typically used in television shows as a fictional telephone number.
- This is the first episode to feature Dan Tullis, Jr., who would play different roles during seasons 4 and 6. He would later play an unnamed Chicago Police Officer in season 5 before officially being designated as "Officer Dan" in the season 8 episode "NO MA'AM".
- This is his first role as a local sheriff. He would play a sheriff again in "Rock and Roll Girl"
- Peggy tells the sheriff that they do not pay taxes.
- At Al's trial, it is revealed that Steve lost his job at The Leading Bank of Chicago and Marcy was demoted from loan officer to drive up teller at Kyoto National Bank.
- Bud informs Al that Mrs. Donnelly called and asked for advice regarding a bunion. A few episodes earlier, in "Tooth or Consequences", Al yells at Mr. Donnelly about his wife having an affair with the mailman, after mocking Al about having dinner. This would imply the Donnellys live across the street from the Bundy residence.
- The "credit-board" behind Steve also displays the names "Moye" and "Fogle", referring to MWC co-creator Michael G. Moye and writer Ellen L. Fogle.
- Although he would be prominent in several future episodes, this episode begins the story arc that would allow David Garrison to exit the series in early 1990.
- The arc begins with having Steve lose his job at the bank, after loaning Al $50,000 to start a "555-SHOE" telephone line, then having him realize that the corporate yuppie lifestyle plus marriage to Marcy is not for him. Then Steve begins becoming an outdoors enthusiast--something Garrison is in real life--and then ultimately dump Marcy and move to Yellowstone Park to become a park ranger.
- This episode's events could be seen as the prediction made my the gypsy in the Season 3 episode "The Gypsy Cried", as the gypsy described that Marcy would be ruined and betrayed, unlike in the event in that episode.
- Kari Whitman, who plays Muffy, the sexy blonde in Al's commercial, was Playboy's Playmate of the Month for February 1988.
- This is one of the few episodes where the scene continues after the "Directed/Written By" credits appear at the end of the episode. In this case, Peggy, Kelly and Bud continue laughing and joking about people in various jobs that earn more money than Al as he goes upstairs to get away from them.
Cultural References[]
- Al receives a letter and says "Ed McMahon says I may owe him $10 million?!". This is in reference to American Family Publishers, a magazine subscription service that offered cash prizes and featured actor and game show host Ed McMahon as a spokesman.
Locations[]
- Bundy Residence
- The Leading Bank of Chicago
- Television Studio
Sets[]
- Bundy Living Room / Kitchen
- The Leading Bank of Chicago
- Television Studio
Goofs[]
- Throughout the episode, the phone number for Al's service is given as 555-SHOE, but the title of the episode is 976-SHOE.
- Marcy states she will loan Al $50,000 to pay Steve's bank so Steve doesn't get fired, noting she can 'bury one bad loan'. Later, Al says he still owes $50,000, it's just to another bank. If it's already decided it was going to not be repaid to Marcy's bank, why would Al need to pay Marcy's bank back?
- Steve makes a bank loan to Al but tells him to fill out the paperwork later. Seconds later, the bank president comes over to complain to Steve about his poor judgment in making the loan. However, Al never completed the paperwork - the bank president would not have even known the loan had been made, let alone that it would be bad.
- Peggy mentions that Al had the original idea for a television remote control. In reality remotes had existed since 1950, though became more mainstream by the 1970s.
External Links[]
976-SHOE at the Internet Movie Database- 976-SHOE on Bundyology
- 976-SHOE - Final Draft Script on albundy.net
- 976-SHOE - Transcript on Springfield! Springfield!
- #66 976-SHOE - MWC Podcast on Horrorphilia
