Birthday Boy Toy was the 19th episode of Married... with Children, also the 257th overall series episode. Directed by Gerry Cohen, and co-written by Valerie Terry and Maloney Morgenstern, the episode premiered on FOX-TV, airing on March 31, 1997.
Synopsis[]
As Jefferson worries about getting old, Marcy forces him into taking a job. Al tries to cure Peggy's shopping addiction. Meanwhile, Bud and Kelly are set to film a commercial at Gary's Shoe, but have to deal with Al's poor acting skills.
Plot Summary[]
Frustrated by Peg constantly buying junk on QVC, including a health club membership, Al cuts off Peggy from shopping by taking his credit card away from her and electrifying the phone so that she can't place any orders.
Meanwhile, Jefferson, who is approaching his 40th birthday, is becoming very insecure about his looks. For his birthday, Marcy bought him a a membership to a local fitness club called the "Buff N' Tuff" health club, which is the same one that Peg bought a membership to. Despite her well meaning gift, he soon begins to wonder if Marcy will end up "trading him in" and find a newer, younger boy toy.
Going though shopping withdrawals, Peggy soon finds a way around this by enlisting Jefferson, who had stopped by for some advice on getting older and whether Marcy will leave him. After borrowing some of Marcy's tools to disable the shock guard, she convinces Jefferson to use Marcy's platinum credit card to buy things off of QVC in order to feel good and make it impossible for Marcy to "trade him in" (as well as help Peg get back into her old habits).
Marcy soon finds the two and shames Peg for being a "shopping junkie" who is now pushing Jefferson into that life. But Peg quickly defends herself, points out that while she may have provided a phone and the television, Jefferson did his own dialing and ordering. An emotional hurt Marcy decides that she is cutting him off and is going to make him pay her back, before telling him the most hurtful words that he and Peggy could ever hear: "GET.A.JOB!".
Sometime later, Peg and Jefferson are at the Buff N' Tuff health club. Although he was there simply to work out in the aerobics class, he soon draws the attention of the other women exercising there, making him the new instructor. Marcy arrives to work out and is surprised to see Peg there. Just then, a pair of women confront Marcy, telling her that she just cannot walk into a "Jefferson D'Arcy" class. Marcy, becoming jealous at all the amorous female attention he's getting from others at the health club, eventually gets his attention and pulls him to the side. The couple have a heart-to-heart talk about him getting older and worrying about her leaving him for someone younger. She reassures him that she still loves him even if he is getting older and he agrees to quit the job.
Elsewhere, Bud and Kelly are enlisted by Gary to film a commercial Gary's Shoes, with Bud serving as the director and Kelly playing a customer. After offering both Al and Griff the chance to audition for the shoe salesman role in the commercial, Griff tries to convince Bud to hire him after reveling that he played Dorothy in his high school production of The Wiz. Despite having no acting skills, Al forcefully convinces Bud to give the role to him instead. However, Al is shown to be an atrocious actor who can't get his lines or cues right. Griff takes over, and a commercial is eventually filmed despite Al's sabotage efforts. Things backfire on Griff, though, when he becomes popular with fat women thanks to the commercial, and Al refuses to help him escape, leaving Griff to deal with them.
In the post-ending scene, Griff finally convinced Al that they could put their shoe box building skills to good use, when a pair of dwarves look at the new shoe box house and decide to take it. The male dwarf suddenly recognizes Griff as Dorothy from his high school production of The Wiz and reveals that he played The Mayor of Munchkin Land in the same production. Griff kneels and bow before him, as Al is left confused with the entire situation.
Cast[]
Main cast[]
- Ed O'Neill as Al Bundy
- Katey Sagal as Peggy Bundy
- Amanda Bearse as Marcy D'Arcy
- Christina Applegate as Kelly Bundy
- David Faustino as Bud Bundy
- Ted McGinley as Jefferson D'Arcy
Recurring cast/Guest stars[]
- Harold Sylvester as Griff
- Lucky as Lucky the Dog
- Sonya Eddy as Betty
- Stephanie Spruill as Gloria (as Stefani Spruill)
- Kevin Spirtas as Instructor
- Susan Isaacs as Ist Woman
- Michelle Mitchell as 2nd Woman (as Michelle Mitchel)
Quotes[]
- Kelly: [Playing a shoe store customer] Excuse me, Sir, do you have any purple pumps?
- Al: ...Certainly we have purple pimps. At Gary's Shoes, we feet your treat.
- [Bud and Kelly have arrived at the shoe store and inform Al and Griff that they will be filming a commercial for the store.]
- Bud: We've got the setting. [gestures to Kelly] We've got the customer.
- Kelly: [smiles, nodding] Mm-hmm
- Bud: Now, all we need is a shoe salesman.
- Griff: Well, how much does it pay?
- Bud: Four hundred dollars a day.
- Al: Earth days? Hey, I'm your man for the job. Nobody sells shoes better than me.
- Griff: [gets up] Uh, Bud, did I ever tell you that I was Dorothy in my high school production of The Wiz?
- Bud: All male school?
- Griff: No.
- Al: You want to see great acting? How about those seizures I used to throw at IHOP? [pretends to shake and convulse]
- Kelly: Alright, Dad, so you scammed us a few "Rooty Tooty Fresh 'N Fruity" breakfasts. It doesn't exactly make you Oscar material.
- Al: [offended] Hey! You didn't seem to mind my performance when you were shoving pancakes in your pockets!
- Griff: [taps Bud on the shoulder while pulling out and unfolding a piece of paper from his shirt pocket] I'm really good. Hoover High School Gazette says my Dorothy was "captivating, charming and strangely intimidating."
- Al: Ew, Griff! How pathetic are you?! A man your age, hanging on to faded high school glory!
- [Kelly, Bud and Griff immediately stop and give Al a look]
- Al: [confused]...What?
- Marcy: Well that's it, mister! Your freeloading days are over! And you're going to pay back every cent! [pulls her credit card out of Jefferson's hand]
- Jefferson: H-How am I supposed to do that?
- Marcy: Three little words.
- Jefferson: "I wuv you"?
- Marcy: Try again.
- Jefferson: "Hop on Pop"?
- Marcy: [after a long pause] GET. A. JOB!
- [Peg and Jefferson both gasp in horror and hold hands while clutching their chests, indicating just how emotionally hurtful those three words truly were to them.]
- Al: I hope one of these bills is for a coffin, because your shopping is killing me.
- Peg: Al, don't make me stop shopping. You'll destroy my life!
- Al: Good, then we'll be even!
Notes[]
Title[]
- The title of this episode is a play on the terms "Birthday Boy" referring to a male (regardless of age) celebrating his birthday and "Boy Toy", which refers to a young man who is used by an older woman purely for sexual gratification.
Trivia[]
- It is revealed that Jefferson is turning 40 years old in this episode.
- Although Jefferson is portrayed to be several years younger than Marcy, in real life, their actors, Amanda Bearse and Ted McGinley, are the same age. Both actors would have been around 38 years old at the time this episode was film.
- Marcy's hair is noticeably longer in this episode, compared to her previous appearance two episodes earlier in "Live Nude Peg", when Peg called it a "boyish cut".
Cultural References[]
- Al mentions that Peggy is buying her junk from QVC, a real-life free-to-air network that specializes in at-home shopping.
- Peggy uses a "Don Knotts Hologram" to distract Kelly. Kelly then admires it as it alternates between an image of Mr. Furley and Barney Fife
- Don Knotts was an actor and comedian whose most notable acting roles include the goofy landlord, Ralph Furley on Three's Company and as Deputy Barney Fife on The Andy Griffith Show.
- After Al complains about Peggy's shopping habits, she gives him a "Ginger / Mary Ann Hologram" to distract him like she did with Kelly.
- Ginger and Mary Ann are references to the characters, Ginger Grant and Mary Ann Summers from the 1960s sitcom, Gilligan's Island.
- Tina Louise, who played Ginger Grant, previously guested starred on MWC as Miss Beck.
- Griff tells the kids that he played Dorothy in The Wiz, which is a retelling of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz through contemporary African-American culture.
- Later, Griff sings "Ease on Down The Road" from The Wiz as he prepares to be in the commercial that Bud and Kelly are filming.
- Al mentions the dine-in restaurant chain IHOP and their "Rooty Tooty Fresh-n-Fruity" breakfast meals.
- Cliff Bemis, who played Al's father a few episodes earlier, also played the spokesman for IHOP in their commercials around the time this episode originally aired.
- Jefferson mentions that one of the sexual games that he and Marcy play in is "Hop on Pop" which is the name of a children's book by Dr. Seuss.
- At one point Peggy tries to buy a locket with the chest hair of British singer, Tom Jones.
- As the announcer mentions that the locket has Jones' real chest hair, Peggy says "Well, if that's not unusual", alluding to one of his most popular songs, "It's Not Unusual".
- As Bud fires Al and belittles him, at one point, he tells his dad "You're 'Must Flee TV'!". This is in reference to NBC's advertising slogan for its Thursday night primetime programming, Must See TV. This included Friends as the lead-in show, as well as Christina Applegate's post-MWC sitcom, Jesse, in the late 1990s.
Music[]
- Griff sings "Ease on Down The Road" from The Wiz as he puts on make up and prepares to replace Al in the commercial.
Locations[]
- Bundy Residence
- Gary's Shoes & Accessories for Today's Woman
- Rhoades/D'Arcy Residence
- Buff N' Tuff Gym
Sets[]
- Bundy Living Room / Kitchen
- Gary's Shoe Store Seating Area
- Marcy & Jefferson's Bedroom
- Buff N' Tuff Aerobics Area
Goofs[]
- Griff tells Bud that he was in his high school's production of The Wiz, but it didn't official debut on stage to the public until 1974. Also, his given birth year is 1949, making him about a year younger than Al and likely would have graduated in the late 1960s, several years before The Wiz debuted to the public.