And Bingo Was Her Game-O

And Bingo Was Her Game-O was the 20th episode in Season 9 of Married... with Children, and was also the 203rd overall episode. Directed by Amanda Bearse and written by Alison Taylor, the episode originally aired on FOX, premiering on March 26, 1995.

Synopsis

Peg drags Marcy along with her to a bingo competition on the bad side of town. Meanwhile, Al and his NO MA'AM buddies taste-test new beers when their old brand spokesperson turns them off. Peggy wins $10,000, but ends up spending all of it for a cab ride home.

Storyline

In this episode, After Peg gets invited to the Bingo Invitational Final, she takes Marcy along with her to the competition, which is on the bad side of town. Meanwhile, Al and his NO MA'AM buddies taste-test new beers when the brand spokesperson of their new club official beer Girlie Girl Beer, is the same as the one of their old beer, which turns out to be Yoko Ono, which again, turns them off. Peggy wins $10,000 from the Bingo Invitational, but ends up spending all of it for a safe cab ride home!

Recurring Cast/Regulars

• Amanda Bearse as Marcy D'Arcy
• Ted McGinley as Jefferson D'Arcy
• Buck the Dog as Buck Bundy
• Harold Sylvester as Griff
• E.E. Bell as Bob Rooney
• Tom McCleister as Ike

Guest starring

• Jean Speegle Howard as Ceil
• Clint Howard as Mullen
• Rusty Schwimmer as Babs
• Peter Spellos as Elmo
• Vick Sabitjian as Abdula
• Pat Crawford Brown as Bingo Caller

Notes

Title

• The title of this episode is a reference to the folk song "Bingo" (also known as "And Bingo Was His Name-O" which is from one of the lines in the song) as well as the American game of chance known as Bingo that Peggy plays and eventually wins.

Trivia

• Two of the guest stars in this episode, Jean Speegle Howard and Clint Howard, are the mother and brother of American director/actor Ron Howard.
• Jean Speegle Howard, who plays Ceil, previously appeared on MWC as Sylvia, the lady who sits next to Peggy on the train in "Business Sucks (Part 1)" and as the lady with the row of carts who cuts in front of Al in "Assault and Batteries".
• Starting with this episode, Christina Applegate has a noticeably shorter haircut, which appears to be a chin length bob cut and keeps it until the next season. She had previously cut her long hair to a shoulder length bob at the beginning of season 9.
• David Faustino appears to have shaved his facial hair off in this episode. His facial hair returns in the next episode.

Cultural References

• As Peggy and Marcy come down the stairs and hear that Al and Jefferson are watching Monster Trucking, Peggy says "Boy, PBS has really changed since the Republicans took over." This is in reference to the 104th United States Congress, in which the Republican party took control of both the House and Senate, during Democratic U.S. President Bill Clinton's 3rd and 4th year in office.
  • As Peggy noted, during this time, Republican leaders were proposing to eliminate federal funding of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (the group responsible for PBS and NPR) and make it private instead, with the joke that the Republicans would put something as mindless as Monster Trucking, instead of educational shows such as Sesame Street and Mister Roger's Neighborhood on the network if it were to be privatized. It would also leave those in more rural areas with less programming to watch and listen to if it were to be defunded.
  • On the other hand, some have noted that Republicans want to eliminate funding for PBS and NPR is due to CBR receiving government money during times of budget deficits (around 1995, it was receiving over $200 million from the government, and in more recent years has received over $400 million). In more recent times, additional arguments have been made because of PBS and NPR having liberal bias and politicizing its programs, despite its objective of trying to being fair and balanced.
• When NO MA'AM decides to go with American beer finally, Jefferson says the first one is Dos Equis. Dos Equis is a real brand of beer from Mexico, brewed by Cuauhtémoc Moctezuma Brewery.
• Some of the beer cans that can be seen at the meeting include Coors, Old Milwaukee and Budweiser.
• After the guys finally start drinking, Ike and Bob Rooney starting fighting over Claudia Schiffer, a German fashion model and Pamela Anderson, a former Playboy Playmate who had previous appeared on MWC during Al's fantasies in season 5.
• It is revealed that Girlie Girl Beer's new spokeswoman is Yoko Ono, an artist and singer, who became best known for her involvement with British musical group, The Beatles, when she began dating and later, marrying one of the band members, John Lennon.
  • Jefferson mentions that Ono first ruined the Beatles and now their beer. This in reference to accusations that Yoko Ono was responsible for the group's breakup in 1969 following her budding relationship with Lennon.
• The janitor character, Mullen (played by Clint Howard), calls Marcy D'Arcy "bucko". This is most likely an in-joke towards Clint Howard's real-life brother Ron Howard.
  • Very frequently on the 1970s sitcom, Happy Days, Richie Cunningham (Ron Howard) would use the word "Bucko" when addressing people.

Locations

• Bundy Residence
• Church Hall
• Chicago backroads

Sets

• Bundy Living Room / Kitchen
• Bundy Garage
• Bingo Championship / Church Hall
• Taxi cab / backroads

Goofs

• As the bingo announcer is yelling out "N 33", Peg is marking an "O" number and yells out, "Bingo!"
  • It could be likely that Peggy spotted a number that was previously called by the bingo caller, but the numbers that were called out before "N 33" were "N 41" and "G 58".
  • It would also be somewhat odd for an experienced player like Peggy to miss a number, especially with that amount of time in-between the called numbers and then suddenly mark it just as a different number is called.
• When Kelly mentions to Bud that Buck was giving the guys from NO MA'AM sleigh rides, a close up of Buck is shown sitting with some beer can antlers on top of his head. Later, when Al jokes about Peg being too heavy to lift, Bucks antlers are missing.
• As Peggy asks Al for a ride to the Bingo game, he asks if she can just hitch a ride on Marcy's poultry wagon and her arms are hanging down by her hips. The camera immediately switches angles and now her arms are suddenly crossed by her chest as she tells Al that its in a very dangerous neighborhood.
• When Ceil knocks the bingo marker out of Marcy's hand, the bingo sheet underneath her moves. In the next shot, after Ceil tells Marcy that she'll be eating out of a straw, the bingo sheet is back to where it was.
• Jefferson mentions that Marcy told him that she had a cat named Gringo and that it lived up to the age of 100. The oldest cat on record lived up to the age of 38.