The Village People is a Disco musical group known for its on-stage costumes and hit songs such as "Y.M.C.A.", "Macho Man", and "In the Navy".
On Married... with Children, besides appearing as themselves in the Season 8 episode, "Take My Wife, Please", the group and their songs have been mentioned in several episodes.
History[]
The group was founded at the height of the Disco music era by French producers Jacques Morali, and Henri Belolo and American singer/songwriter Victor Willis. The group's name stems from the Greenwich Village neighborhood in Manhattan, New York, which had a reputation for being a gay neighborhood. The various costumes that the men wore were meant to represent both American masculinity and macho gay-fantasy personas. Although the group's image and music was aimed at the gay community during the disco era, some members were actually straight and married to women.
Willis would be the group's lead singer and penned their most famous hits before leaving in 1980. The group would struggle during the post-Disco music landscape in the 1980s, as music tastes shifted towards New Wave. After a brief hiatus in the mid 1980s, the group would create a business group, Sixuvus Ltd, to handle their business affairs and experience a resurgence in popularity going into 1990s.
As the line up has changed over the years, the members that appeared in "Take My Wife, Please" are the 1990-1995 era crew, consisting of:
- Ray Simpson - Cop
- Felipe Rose - Native American
- Alex Briley - Sailor / G.I.
- Glenn Hughes - Leatherman / Biker
- David Hodo - Construction Worker
- Jeff Olson - Cowboy
The line up would slightly change in 1995, as Hughes retired (while still serving as a manager for the group) before dying from cancer in 2001. The crew would go on with Hughes' replacement, Eric Anzalone, from 1995 until 2013.
After several legal battles involving royalties and licensing, in 2017, Willis reclaimed ownership of the group's name, image and the songs that he penned. It also terminated the license of Sixuvus Ltd, essentially kicking out all of the current members at the time including Felipe Rose and Alex Briley, who had been members of the group since its inception.
As of 2018, Victor Willis is the only original member of Village People left still performing under the group's name and has hired a new group of backup singers as well as a live band.
Appearances on Married... with Children[]
In the Season 6 episode, "Rites of Passage", Bud mentions that on one of his previous birthdays, Kelly got him a poster of the Village People, with his face pasted over the body of the Cowboy.
In the Season 7 episode, "Al on the Rocks", after Al Bundy gets a job working as a topless bartender, he comes home wearing a leather vest and pants. Then when the neighbors Marcy and Jefferson D'Arcy stop by, they laugh at the sight of Al flexing his muscles. After asking what was so funny, Marcy tell him, "Oh, nothing, I just had a Village People flashback". She then offers Al a dollar to sing "Y.M.C.A.", before opting to instead give him two dollars to put some clothes on.
In the Season 8 episode, "Take My Wife, Please", Marcy mentions that she is having one of her women's group meetings at her home and had hired the Village People to perform, but they had to cancel at the last minute. In a desperate attempt, she forces her husband Jefferson D'Arcy and the neighbors Peggy, Kelly, and Bud, to dress up as the group. Although Peg and the kids act like they have never heard of the Village People or their songs, after bribing them with a cash payment, the trio walk over to the D'Arcy residence while singing the song, "Macho Man". At the event, Jefferson, Peggy and the Bundys kids lip sync to "Y.M.C.A.", but as Marcy only had a single, they have to repeat the song for hours, aggravating the women.
Sometime later, the actual Village People arrive, only to be attacked by the women after they chose to open with the same song. In the fight that ensued, the Bundy kids watch from the kitchen and note that the cowboy was hogtied, the cop was handcuffed and the Native American and construction worker glued together. The sailor and biker then run into the kitchen as they were being covered with toilet paper and flee the house. After Al is woken up, believing that everything was a dream, Kelly informs him that what he saw was real and that she invited the group to sing at the Bundy residence.
In "Heels on Wheels" after Al is accused of being gay for being turned on by a crossdresser at work, he asks Bud Bundy if the woman that he had just modeled for was in fact a woman. Bud then asks his father if had gotten lost and went to the wrong nudie bar again. Al tries to justify himself in that one-time incident by saying that he heard "Macho Man" playing and thought that all the women had gone to the restroom together, leaving only men to dance to the catchy song.
In the Season 10 special "Al Bundy's Sports Spectacular", sports commentator Roy Firestone mentions that Al was suppose to join him for an interview, but had been rushed to an intensive care unit. Former NFL player and FOX Sports commentator, Howie Long joins Firestone and explains that he and Al were at a Chicago area sports bar, where Al had been partaking in karaoke and singing a song by The Village People. After Al mocked Long's trademark flat top hair cut, Al then "tripped" and took a header off the stage, and Long was able to break Al's fall with his fist.
In the Season 10 episode, "The Agony and the Extra C", a drunken and partially dressed Officer Dan gets on stage at The Jiggly Room and tells his NO MA'AM friends ""Hey, I'm a village person", referring to the Cop in the group.
Appearances[]
- Season 6 (1991/92)
- Rites of Passage (Mentioned Only)
- Season 7 (1992/93)
- Al on the Rocks(Mentioned Only)
- Heels on Wheels(Mentioned Only)
- Season 8 (1993/94)
- Season 10 (1995/96)
- Al Bundy's Sports Spectacular (Mentioned Only)
- The Agony and the Extra C (Mentioned Only)