A Dump of My Own is the fifth episode of Season 3 of the FOX sitcom Married... with Children, as well as the 40th overall episode in the series. Written by Michael G. Moye and Ron Leavitt, the episode was directed by Gerry Cohen and premiered on FOX on January 8, 1989.
Synopsis[]
Al finally realizes his dream of building his own bathroom in the garage, when the upstairs toilet floods one too many times.
Plot[]
The rest of the Bundy's endure sacrifices of constant loud noise, loss of living room space, as well as loss of electrical power as Al devotes himself to his lifelong dream: building his personal, exclusive, executive bathroom in the garage with the centerpiece being a mighty Ferguson toilet for his flush. Meanwhile, Peggy seeks money to buy enough lottery tickets to win a multi-million dollar lottery.
Cast[]
Regular Cast[]
- Ed O'Neill as Al Bundy
- Katey Sagal as Peggy Bundy
- Christina Applegate as Kelly Bundy
- David Faustino as Bud Bundy
- Amanda Bearse as Marcy Rhoades
- David Garrison as Steve Rhoades
Quotes[]
- Peggy: What does that toilet have that I don't?
- Al: A job.
- Peggy: Doesn't anyone want breakfast? [holds up an egg and a bag of Milk Chocolate M&Ms] I have an egg and some M&Ms. I can make an omelet.
- Al: No thanks, Peg. I'm still pleasantly nauseous from last night's feast of the three-legged chicken. Why would you buy a chicken with three drumsticks?
- Peggy: Well, it cost seven cents a pound. The one with two legs cost a dollar nineteen a pound... Excuse me for thinking about our bankbook instead of our health.
- Al: Didn't you think that just maybe there was something wrong when the label said "Chernobyl Farms"?! I mean, how many chickens have flippers?!
- Peggy: Well, don't blame me for that. I thought it was just an extra head. [walks over to the couch to join Al and Bud] You liked it, didn't you, Bud ?
- Bud: Well, it was tasty, but hard to eat. I mean, every time I cut a piece off, it would grow back.
- Al: Why did we buy a house with only one bathroom?
- Peggy: Because all the other houses in our price range were on fire. Oh, except for that lovely house with no kitchen that I wanted.
- Al: Well, Peg, we all have our disappointments... I, of course, have to sleep with mine.
- Peggy: Is that its new name?
- [Al brings home a Ferguson toilet and as the rest of the family tries to leave, he stops Bud to tell a story]
- Al: Bud sit down and let me tell you the story of the Ferguson.
- [they both sit on the couch and he puts his arm around Bud's shoulders and then pats him on the head ]
- Al: These babies are made in Maine, you know, at the little Ferguson factory. It's the Stradivarius of toilets. [smiling] My dad could play it like a violin. Hahaha
- [Bud feigns a laugh and quickly looks back at Peg and Kelly in the kitchen for help. They both give him a smug smile and then ignore him before Al continues on]
- Al: Yup, I'll never forget the time my dad took me on a trip to Maine, to visit the factory. I had to go to the bathroom and I begged my dad to pull into a truck stop. He said, "No, wait till we get there. It will be worth it." [pauses as he shows a big grin] It was! Hahaha!
- Bud: Excuse me here, Dad, but a toilet is a toilet.
- [Al's smile suddenly disappears as he tries to hold back his anger and then changes to a more sympathetic tone]
- Al: Bud! [pats him on the head] the toilets of today aren't worthy of the name. They come in designer colors, and they're too low, When you flush 'em, they make this little weak, almost apologetic sound. [confidently] Not the Ferguson. It only comes in white. And when you flush it... "BA-WOOSH". That's a man's flush, Bud. A Ferguson says, "I'm a toilet. Sit down and give me your best shot". [happily] Oh, if a Ferguson could speak, the tales it could tell. [turns to look at the toilet] And now I've got one of my very own. Yeah, I just wish... dad could be alive...[stops to cry]
- [Bud pats Al on the shoulder and quickly walks over to the kitchen where Peg and Kelly are at]
- Bud: This time, I don't think he's coming back
- [the trio watch Al get up from the couch and then sit on the toilet]
- Al: [looking up to the ceiling] Oh, look dad! I'm sitting on my own Ferguson... just like you always knew I would! [lowers his head and sobs]
- Peg: Remember this at the trial, kids.
- [Al is showing Steve around the new bathroom, consisting of a wooden frame and several areas marked off with chalk]
- Al: [smugly] Do I detect a little green-eyed monster sneaking into your voice there, Steve? Come on, you can be honest! Its beautiful, isn't it?
- Steve: Al, I don't see any spot marked off for a sink.
- Al: Hey, this is a man's bathroom. [walks over to Steve] Ah, you know how, when you share a bathroom with a woman,... well, in my case Peggy, you got nylons on the shower rod, you get Nair where the toothpaste should be, a bottle of vinegar lying around. I mean, what do they do in there, make a salad?! But not in my bathroom, Steve! In my medicine cabinet, I'm just going to have guy stuff. You know, Rolaids, Milk of Magnesia, Tums, my razor.
- Steve : Why do you need a razor when you don't have a sink?
- Al: Oh, it's not for shaving, Steve. It's for peace of mind.
Notes[]
Title[]
- The episode title is influenced by the 1964 British movie A Home of Your Own, but NOT by the 1992 American baseball movie A League of Their Own (as it was filmed a few years after the taping of this episode).
Trivia[]
- Al finally realizes his dream of a room of his own that he first mentioned in the season 1 episode "Whose Room Is It Anyway?".
- Al discusses his Ferguson Toilet for the first time.
- Marcy suggest to Steve that he should check up on Al or else he might never finish and use their bathroom, like he did the previous week. He then remembers that Al killed their goldfish when he was their bathroom. A few episodes later, in "The Harder They Fall", Al would use their bathroom again, though Steve was able to save the goldfish.
- Near the end of the episode, Bud asks if anyone has seen his skateboard, with Peggy implying that she sold it for lotto money. The skateboard actually reappears in its spot on the staircase two episodes later in "The Bald and the Beautiful" and appears a few more times before permanently disappearing after "My Mom, the Mom".
Cultural References[]
- At the beginning of the episode, Al points out that Peggy should have noticed something was wrong with the chicken, when it was sold as "Chernobyl Farms" and had a third leg and flippers.
- This is in reference to the Chernobyl nuclear disaster which occurred in what is now known as Ukraine in 1986. The radiation is believed to have affected many of people and animals within the area.
- Peggy offers to make Bud and Al an omelet using an egg and the hard shell candy known as M&M's.
- Al tells the family that one of his childhood dreams was to become "an astronaut and landing on the planet, Jayne Mansfield". Jayne Mansfield was an American actress, singer and Playboy Playmate, who was considered a Hollywood sex symbol during the 1950s and 1960s.
- After the power comes back on, Peggy tells Al that they are "living like Oakies".
- Oakies, in this sense, is a pejorative term from the 1930s to refer to farmers who migrated to California from Oklahoma, (as well as several other states such as Texas, Missouri and Arkansas) in search of work following the Great Depression and Dust Bowl. These Oakies typically worked for low wages on massive farms and lived in shanty towns on the outskirts of the farm with no running water.
- Several real ABC shows are mentioned when Al tells the family that he is constipated, which then cause him to finally go to the bathroom:
- At the end of the episode, after Al flushes the toilet, a water fountain is shown with the water decreasing. The fountain is a landmark in Chicago known as Buckingham Fountain, that is also featured in the opening credits of the show.
Music[]
- Peggy & the kids sing The Flintstones theme song.
Locations[]
Sets[]
- Bundy Living Room/Kitchen
- Garage
Goofs[]
- Previous episodes have shown a bathroom in Al and Peggy's room. If their house literally only had one bathroom when they bought it (as stated in this episode) that would mean anyone who needed to use the bathroom would need to go upstairs and into their room to use it.
- When Bud is sitting on the couch next to Al at the beginning of the episode, his right hand is on his stomach. Next, when Peggy walks over to the couch to sit next to them, in the wider shot, Bud's left hand is on his stomach. Then when they cut to him after Peggy asked if liked the chicken, it is now his right hand on his stomach. All this takes place in the span of a couple of seconds so he could not have moved his hands.
- When Peggy joins Al and Bud on the couch, she has a cup in her hand. After Kelly comes downstairs and asks Peggy what's for lunch, her cup is gone and she fidgets with her nails. As Kelly walks off, Peggy says "You know, I'm hurt" and as the camera immediately does a close up of her, she somehow has the cup in her hands again as she talks about getting grief for feeding the family on the money she gets. Then, the camera changes angles and as she turns to Al to beg for money to play the lotto, the cup is gone again and she has her hands clasped for the rest of the scene.
- When Steve opens up the door to the garage, the background shows that he entered from a narrow hallway with a paneled wall. He should be entering from the living room, with a brick wall and a desk in the background. This reveals that the set used to film garage scenes and the set for the living room scenes are separate.
- When Al jokes about Steve having class by pointing out the floating goldfish in his bathroom, Steve has his right hand up and pointing at Al with his head cocked as he accuses him of killing the fish. When the camera cuts to the back of Steve, his head is in a different position and his right hand now seems to be at his side.
- Al writes "GUN" on the wall with his right hand. Al is usually lefthanded like Ed O'Neill.
- After Steve tells Peggy that adding a bathroom will add value to their home, Al accidentally drills a hole into the wall, knocking the picture out of the frame next to the garage door. A few minutes later, when Peggy asks Marcy to lend her money and then suggest she'll give her the rights to Al's organs, the pictures is back in the frame with no damage.
- When taking into account the layout of the living room and the front door where Al builds his bathroom, if Al turns right from the door leading to the garage to get into his bathroom, the bathroom would have to be on the front porch. This would be amended later in Season 6's "If Al Had a Hammer", when his bathroom has now been moved to the other side of the garage.
External Links[]
A Dump of My Own at the Internet Movie Database- A Dump of My Own on Bundyology
- A Dump of My Own - Final Draft Script on albundy.net
- A Dump of My Own - Transcript on Springfield! Springfield!
- #41 A Dump of My Own - MWC Podcast on Horrorphilia
