Kelly Breaks Out was the 186th overall series episode of Married... with Children also the 3rd episode of Season 9 of the series. Directed by Gerry Cohen and written by Larry Jacobson, the episode originally aired on FOX-TV on September 18, 1994.
Synopsis[]
Kelly gets the part as a sexy spokeswoman for a beer commercial, but freaks out when she gets a pimple and a home-made pimple cream from Wanker makes her bald and gives her a beard. Meanwhile, Marcy protests the crew making the beer commercial for being sexist. Al and Jefferson order tapes of Avengers with Emma Peel from Home Shopping Network.
- Note: Katey Sagal makes a brief cameo appearance.
The thrill of being in a beer commercial quickly sours when she loses her hair and sprouts a beard when she takes some of Uncle Sticky's homemade zit cream!
Storyline[]
Kelly has a big zit on the day of her commercial, Ice Hole Beer, and Peg offers her a solution. Her Uncle Sticky's magic zit removing potion will cure it! Al is ecstatic of her being in the commercial, despite his upset over not having tapes of Emma Peel. The Home Shopping Network offered him a compromise, endless first edition volumes of The Three Stooges, which he also loves. His real problem is with Marcy and her feminist group, FANG. They recently filed a lawsuit against Ice Beer for not hiring average looking, unattractive women. The lawsuit goes nowhere as the jury ruled with the company as FANG is then forced to protest against the commercial.
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 D'Arcy
- Ted McGinley as Jefferson D'Arcy
- Buck the Dog as Buck Bundy
Guest starring[]
- Michael Francis Clarke as Stage Manager
- Cleto Augusto as Director
- Dennis Phun as Chinese Actor
- Don Brunner as Camerman #1
- Dot-Marie Jones as Lola (as Dot Jones)
Quotes[]
- [Al and Jefferson get up and head to the phone after seeing an informercial for The Avengers featuring Emma Peel. Bud, who was sitting at the study desk gets up and walks towards the couch]
- Bud: Uh, has it occurred to either of you rutabagas that the woman may be pushing 200 by now? Pounds and years.
- Al: That's why you look at them on tape. If I only had to look at your mother on tape, I'd still be having sex with her.
- [Marcy marches into the Bundy residents and confronts Al, warning him that she and her feminist group will try to stop Kelly from appearing in the Ice Hole beer commercial]
- Marcy: But unlike Evolution, I'm not letting you off the hook Al. Now can you tell me what a woman's body has to do with selling beer?
- Al: Alright. Number one. if it wasn't for beer, there would be at least three people, who probably wouldn't be married: [points to himself] Me...
- [Jefferson, who is sitting at the kitchen counter, eagerly raises his hand to get Al to count him]
- Al: [points towards Jefferson] Jefferson...
- [Marcy immediately turns around and gives Jefferson an angry look, causing him to adjust his body position]
- Al: [shrugs] and probably, uh... Lisa Marie Presley. And number two, since men buy beer, advertisers have to cater to what we want. And... hold on to your corncob pipe, [grins] we like pretty women. Ergo, Pretty women sell good products, ugly women sell... [struggles for a moment] tennis rackets. Pretty women: cars; ugly women: minivans. Pretty women make us buy beer. Ugly women make us [gestures chugging a can of beer while smiling bigly] DRINK BEER!.
- [Marcy and F.A.N.G. confront the director after he decided to not film the commercial upon seeing Kelly, who is now bald and growing a goatee due to Uncle Sticky's pimple potion.]
- Marcy: Anyway, you will use Kelly in this commercial, as she is or we will slap the biggest lawsuit on you that you have ever had.
- [the director immediately turns to the stage manager]
- Director: Could they possible do that? Sue on behalf of the ugly?! How can they win that?!
- [the stage manager shrugs]
- Al: Four words: Attorney. General. Janet. Reno.
- [Marcy and the rest of F.A.N.G. nods their heads in agreement]
Notes[]
Title[]
- The title of this episode is a play on the idiom "To Break Out" referring to both Kelly's skin breaking out with acne and Kelly's attempt to "break out" from the crowd and become famous.
Trivia[]
- Michael Francis Clarke, who plays the stage manager in this episode, was previously on MWC as the bartender in the season 4 episode, "At the Zoo".
- Kelly reveals that this is the very first time that she has gotten acne.
- Peg mentions that Cousin Zemo is making a delivery of illegal fireworks to Peoria, Illinois, a port city along the Illinois river. It is located about 3 hours away from Milwaukee, Wisconsin (the nearest area to Wanker County).
Cultural References[]
- At the beginning of the episode, Al mentions several side characters from television series of the 1960s and 1970s:
- Arnold the Pig from Green Acres
- Barney Fife from The Andy Griffith Show
- Grady from Sanford and Son
- Al mistakes a new music video by The Rolling Stones for a Barnaby Jones Reunion, with Bud pointing out that Al is looking at Keith Richards and not Buddy Ebsen.
- The Rolling Stones is a British rock band with Keith Richards as the band's songwriter and guitarist.
- Barnaby Jones was an American detective series that ran on CBS from 1973 to 1980 with Buddy Ebsen playing the title character.
- While watching the Home Shopping Network, Peggy calls in to order from the "White Trash Collector Plates" and is heard ordering the "Roger Clinton Service for 8".
- Roger Clinton Jr. is an actor and musician. He is the half brother of then-U.S. President Bill Clinton. During his brother's presidential campaign and subsequent administration, Clinton was given the codename "Headache" by the Secret Service due to his controversial behavior.
- After ordering the "Roger Clinton Service for 8", Peggy then places an order for the "Gillooly Soup Tureens". This is in reference to Jeff Gillooly, who was the ex-husband of figure skater, Tonya Harding and one of the men convicted in the attack on fellow skater, Nancy Kerrigan in January 1994.
- Al and Jefferson are excited over getting a copy of the 1960s British spy series The Avengers and wanting to see Emma Peel "kick really high".
- After receiving the video, they find out that the actual video they got is a "Linda-we-couldn't-get-anybody-else-to-do-the-show-Thorson-'Avengers'".
- Linda Thorson is a Canadian born actress who played John Steed's last female partner, Tara King during its final season.
- After receiving the video, they find out that the actual video they got is a "Linda-we-couldn't-get-anybody-else-to-do-the-show-Thorson-'Avengers'".
- Kelly mentions that if she gets her big break that she'll "be living it up in Hollywood, getting in slap fights with Shannon Doherty and having my ass grabbed by Bob Barker!".
- Shannen Doherty was an American actress who was best known for playing Brenda Walsh on the 1990s FOX teen drama, Beverly Hills, 90210. During the early to mid 1990s Doherty was known for having a bad girl reputation on and off the set.
- Bob Barker was an American game show host. He was best known as the host of the game show The Price is Right from 1972 until 2007. As Kelly mentioned, Barker had been accused of sexual harassment and wrongful termination by several former models and staffers on the show, leading to lawsuits filed against him up until his retirement.
- After Bud suggests that he knows a way for Kelly to get some headshots for $100, she says that she doesn't want to appear in Juggs magazine.
- Juggs is an American softcore magazine that features women with large breasts. MWC guest star Traci Lords appeared in an issue during the 1980s.
- After seeing Kelly's pimple, Bud suggests that she draw a face on her pimple and go on Montel as Siamese twins.
- This is in reference to The Montel Williams Show a syndicated talk show that ran from 1991 to 2008.
- After being unable to get the Emma Peel version of The Avengers, Al and Jefferson are shown imitating skits from The Three Stooges.
- After Marcy comes in and tells Al about her group's plan to protest, he asks her why does she keep cutting her hair like Moe Howard, the leader of the stooges.
- Al mentions that he, Jefferson and Lisa Marie Presley would not have been married if it wasn't for consuming beer in the first place.
- Lisa Marie Presley was a singer and only child of famed musician and actor Elvis Presley. At time this episode first aired, she had divorced her first husband in early May 1994 and after 20 days, married musician Michael Jackson. The tabloid media speculated that their wedding was a publicity stunt to deflect Jackson's sexual abuse allegations and jump-start Presley's career as a singer. The couple later divorced in 1996.
- After the director sees Kelly's new look, he tells Al "This is our spokesmodel?! This?! We're selling beer here, fella, not Lucky Charms!", in reference to the breakfast cereal and its leprechaun mascot.
- When the director asks if Marcy's group can actually sue them on behalf of the ugly, Al tells him "Four words: Attorney. General. Janet. Reno".
- Janet Reno was the U.S. Attorney General who served under the Clinton administration from 1993 until 2001. She was often mocked in the media for her height and perceived lack of traditional femininity.
Locations[]
- Bundy Residence
- Illinois DVS
- Wanker County
- Soundstage
Sets[]
- Bundy Living Room / Kitchen
- DVS Field Office
- Wanker County Phone
- Ice Hole Beer Commercial Set
Goofs[]
- When Kelly is shown with her bald head and goatee, the skin cap used to hide her hair is clearly visible especially near her eyebrows.
- Kelly has lost her beer commercial job and Al asks who her replacement is. Kelly says "See for yourself, here's the commercial". However, she says this just before she turns the TV on. There would have been no way of knowing that the commercial was playing at that exact time she turned on the television.
- When Al sees Kelly's replacement, it is Emma Peel as he points out and reels back in horror after she asks the viewers if they still remember her and then seeing her still kick really high. But Diana Rigg, the actress who played Emma Peel on the show was English, yet the voice in the commercial clearly has an American accent. Also, he claims that she is 100 years old, though in real life, she would have been around 56 years old when this episode premiered.
- Al slams the phone down to hang up after complaining to the customer service rep about not getting the Emma Peel Avengers tapes. Immediately, Kelly is shown running down the stairs to Al and when she arrives, the phone is facing a different direction and is already back in use (by Jefferson who is off screen), in less than five seconds.