Breaking Up Is Easy to Do (Part 2)

Breaking Up Is Easy To Do (Part 2) is the 15th episode of season 11 of Married... with Children and the 250th overall series episode. Directed by Gerry Cohen and written by Russell Marcus, it premiered on FOX TV on February 24, 1997.

Synopsis

Al lives in a room by the airport. He spies on Peggy in a single bar, where she finds a new beau.

Plot Summary

Al moves out of the house and into an apartment near an airport. He invites Griff and Jefferson over and celebrates. Peg is heart broken and the kids try to cheer her up. Marcy and the rest of the neighborhood celebrates with fireworks and a parade. The girls and the guys go to the same bar to pick up guys/girls. Peg ends up finding herself a man, who the kids love.

Recurring Cast

• Harold Sylvester as Griff

Guest cast

• Alan Thicke as Bruce
• Lisa Melilli as Sandy
• Rosa Blasi as Woman #1
• Mandy Levin as Woman #2
• Irene Roseen as Woman #3
• Christopher Shobe as Guy in Bar

Notes

Title

• The episode title is inspired by the song "Breaking Up Is Hard To Do" by Neil Sedaka.

Trivia

• Parts 1 and 2 were originally shown as a one-hour episode.
• Peggy reveals that Marcy picked up men at the airport for casual sex following her divorce from Steve Rhoades in season 4 and also broke his stuff.
  • After reporting that Steve had left her during "You Gotta Know When to Hold'em," Marcy says that she's going to go home and cut the crotch out of Steve's pants.
• Alan Thicke, who plays Bruce, previously appeared on MWC as Henry, a rich man who eventually dates Kelly Bundy and watches the NBC sitcom,Friends with Al, in the season 10 episode, "Enemies".

Cultural References

• When Peggy is watching the Home Shopping Network, the announcer offers a Martin Lawrence Coo-Coo Clock. She then notes that Lawrence is holding a gun in the second hand of the clock.
  • This is in reference to actor and comedian Martin Lawrence who at the time this episode originally aired, was the star of the FOX sitcom, Martin. The series was finishing up its final season and ended 3 months later.
    • More specifically, the coo-coo clock is an allusion to Lawrence's mental health and trouble with the law the previous year. In May of 1996, he was arrested and hospitalized after brandishing a loaded gun and running through oncoming traffic the streets of Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, screaming obscenities and claiming that someone was trying to kill him. The incident was later blamed on exhaustion and dehydration. Two months later, in July 1996 he was arrested again after trying to carry a loaded gun onto a plane. In addition, his Martin co-star, Tisha Campbell-Martin, filed a lawsuit against him in January 1997, citing sexual harassment and abuse in the workplace.
• When Al's new apartment is shown and he slides across the room while wearing a dress shirt and underwear, it is parody of the 1983 sex comedy film Risky Business.
• After Griff and Jefferson admire Al's new look, Jefferson says "Eat your heart out, George Clooney", in reference to the actor, who at this time, was known for his role in the NBC medical drama, ER. Al's wig appears to be somewhat modeled after Clooney's hairstyle during the mid to late 1990s.
• The apartment that Al stays at, "Casa Del O'Hare" is a reference to O'Hare International Airport.

Music

• Marcy sings a song called "Al Bundy Away" after finding out that Al has moved out.
• A soundalike version of "Old Time Rock n' Roll" by Bob Segar is played when Al slides across his room and again as he and his friends head out to the club.

Locations

• Bundy Residence
• Casa Del O'Hare
• Nightclub

Sets

• Bundy Living Room / Kitchen
• Bundy Veranda
• Al's apartment
• Nightclub Bar / Dance Floor

Goofs

• As Peggy and Al debate over custody of the television sets, Al is shown holding his detached toilet seat near his upper chest. Then when Al justifies working to put a roof over the family's head as to why he deserves custody, Al is no longer holding the seat and Peggy has her arms crossed until the very last second. The camera then changes angles and shows Peggy with her hands clasped and Al, from the back, is holding the seat up to his chest again.
• After Griff picks up Al's hairpiece and jokes about running a vacuum over it, he puts it back on Al's head with the bangs coming at an angle on the right side of Al's face, near his eyebrow. Immediately, the camera cuts to a close up of Al, but the hairpiece is in a different angle and resting higher up on his head. Next, when Griff and Jefferson sit with Al, the hairpiece is still higher up, but facing the other way. Then when Al talks about how a woman kicked him, his hairpiece is changed again, looking like it was fluffed up in-between shots. After Griff says that Al still has the scent of Peggy on him, its changed yet again. Finally, it changes angles again when the woman who visits Al asks him to describe Peggy.