You Better Shop Around (Part 2) was the 22nd episode of Season 5 of Married... with Children, also the 102nd overall episode of the series. Directed by Linda Day, and written by Stacie Lipp, the episode originally aired on FOX, premiering on April 21, 1991.
Synopsis[]
Conclusion of two-part story. Al and Peg compete against Marcy and Jefferson in a supermarket shopping spree, while Bud and Kelly harass Jerry "The Beaver" Mathers.
Plot summary[]
In this conclusion of two-part episode arc, Al and Peg compete against Marcy and Jefferson in a supermarket shopping spree, while Bud and Kelly harass Jerry Mathers of Leave It to Beaver TV series fame. This was the second half of a two-parter in which the Bundys and the D'Arcys went head-to-head over who was the lucky "millionth customer" at Foodie's supermarket.
Cast[]
- 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[]
- Jerry Mathers as Himself
- Bruce Jarchow as Manager
- Jodie Mann as The Cashier
- Bobbie Brown as Nibbles
- Brent Corman as Boy
- Alan Oppenheimer as Mr. Foodie
- Gita Isak as Foodies Customer (uncredited)
Quotes[]
- [Marcy and Jefferson are tossing items into their cart as Al and Peg approach them]
- Jefferson: Hut! [tosses cans into their cart] Come on, Marcy! Hut!
- Al: [stops] Jefferson...
- Jefferson: Huh?
- [Al pushes a button that launches a boxing glove attached to a spring arm, knocking Jefferson into the mashed potato display. Marcy runs over and tries to revive him.]
- Al: [loading paper towels into his cart] See Peg, if I was playing with my heart instead of my head, I'd have waited 'til Marcy was loading!
- Peg: [smiling] Oh, you're a good man, Al!
- Al: And a pretty darn good friend too!
- Peg: Oh-ho!
- [Al quickly comes up and kicks Marcy from behind while she was still trying to revive Jefferson]
- [Jerry Mathers is still trying to get away from Bud and Kelly, who are mocking and harassing him]
- Jerry: Look, here's 50 cents. It's all I have. [offers the coins to Bud] Just please, leave me alone.
- Bud: [quickly takes the coins and puts it in his pocket] Just one more question; if all the autograph hounds can stay back a second. [Bud and Kelly quickly snicker] Did you ever think of teaming up with that Eddie Munster kid for the "Thoroughly Pathetic Tour '91"? [the kids start laughing again]
- Jerry: [frustrated] Look! Let's get this over with once and for all! I may have to earn a pathetic living by donning the cap of The Beaver and appearing at supermarkets, but at least my father doesn't sell women's shoes.
- [Bud and Kelly suddenly lower their heads in shame and quietly slink off]
- Jerry: [smiling as he sits on his chair] Golly, that felt good!
- [The manager has announced that the Bundys have reached $1000 and won the shopping spree. Al drops the frozen turkey and does a victory dance at the register]
- Al: We won! We won! Peg! Peg! Where are ya? Where are ya, Peg?
- Peggy: I'm coming, Al! I'm coming! Gangway! Oh ho ho!
- [Peggy is racing down the aisle with the Cart of Death at full speed, unknowingly right towards Al as he begins to panic]
- Al: No, Peg, No! Its over! [suddenly smiles as he accepts his fate] Well, I married her...
- [Immediately, Al hunches over as he is impaled by the knives on the cart while the shoppers are horrified at what they just witnessed]
Notes[]
Title[]
- The title of this episode is a reference to the 1960 song "Shop Around" by the Miracles featuring Bill "Smokey" Robinson.
Trivia[]
- Marcy reveals that she has been neighbors with the Bundys for 5 years now.
- Al mentions that the Bundy tradition at winning something is to cheat.
- Al reveals that the Cart of Death contains parts of Peggy's Car, as well as parts from the side of the house and the lawnmower.
- Marcy reveals that she wears eye contacts.
- As the episode does take place in a real supermarket, several now-defunct foods are seen briefly in the background on the shelves, including Barbie cereal, Lemon-lime Slice soda and Switzer licorice.
- When Bud and Kelly come back home after spotting Marcy and Jefferson working, she refers to them by their first names rather than "Mr. and Mrs. D'Arcy" as she normally does.
- Kelly previously did this in the Season 3 episode, "The House That Peg Lost" and does it again in the next episode, "Route 666 (Part 1)".
Cultural References[]
- Throughout the episode, everyone mistakes Jerry Mathers as "Opie" from the 1960s sitcom, The Andy Griffith Show. He eventually points out that it was actor Ron Howard who played Opie.
- Although Ron Howard never appeared on MWC, his parents Rance and Jean Speegel Howard and brother Clint Howard would later appear on MWC.
- Jerry Mathers' chair has actor Gary Coleman's named crossed out.
- Gary Coleman would later appear twice on MWC. First it was in the season 8 episode "How Green is My Apple" and then in the season 10 episode "The Joke's on Al".
- The shopping spree contest depicted in this episode is a parody of the game show Supermarket Sweep which had been revived a year prior on the cable channel Lifetime.
- On Supermarket Sweep, contestants competed in a question and answer format in which time was added for each correct answer. There were three rounds which included namely grocery questions though pop culture questions were also thrown into the mix at some point in the game.
- The show was hosted by David Ruprecht, who appeared in a MWC episode playing the mall owner in You Better Watch Out.
- Each contestant competed in the shopping portion called The Big Sweep and the winner was the team that had the most expensive groceries.
- The contestants started out with equal time for The Big Sweep, but they could increase their time by correctly answering questions during the first stage of the program.
- The winning team went on to compete in the Bonus Sweep where they would have to find 3 successive items in 60 seconds for $5,000.
- In contrast to Supermarket Sweep, this episode had no set time period for the shopping spree and some of the actions taken by the Bundys and D'Arcys would be considered penalties on the game show. This included Marcy trying to block Al from winning the shopping spree for him and Peggy or Al squirting oil on the floor in order to impede the D'Arcys progress. Such penalties would have led to totals being reduced on Supermarket Sweep.
- On Supermarket Sweep, contestants competed in a question and answer format in which time was added for each correct answer. There were three rounds which included namely grocery questions though pop culture questions were also thrown into the mix at some point in the game.
- After Peggy asks Al about the prize and what they can do with it, he tells her "Well Peg, I saw on 60 Minutes last week where some people found with food cook it up and eat it. I've never seen Morley so shaken.". This is a reference to the CBS news show 60 Minutes and one of the show's reporters, Morley Safer.
- After the kids tell Al and Peg about the D'Arcys working out and doing push ups, Al ask Peg to show the kids what a real push up looks like, before she pulls out a frozen treat from the freezer. Push up in this case refers to the physical exercise and a frozen treat made by Nestle.
- Marcy calls Al "Pilsbury Shoeboy" in references to the company mascot Pillsbury Doughboy.
- Mr. Foodie introduces Jerry Mather as "the Beaver" and then says he can be seen as "the New Beaver". This is referring to his original role as Theodore "Beaver" Cleaver on the 1950s sitcom Leave It To Beaver as well as the 1980s revival sequel, The New Leave It to Beaver, which focused on the Beaver now as an adult with his own family.
- Christina Applegate had appeared in two episodes of The New Leave It to Beaver in the mid 1980s. It also featured several actors who later appeared on MWC including Corey Feldman, Giovanni Ribisi, Stephen Dorff, Noah Blake, Liz Vassey, Candace Hutson, Carmen Filpi, Nicole Eggert, and Don Maxwell
- During Jerry Mather's rant, he asks out loud, " Can it be true? Isn't there room on Match Game PM for another washed up celebrity? Am I truly lower than Charles Nelson Reilly?"
- Match Game PM was the syndicated version of the original Match Game game show, which often featured celebrity panelists.
- Charles Nelson Reilly was an American comedic actor, who was a regular panelist Match Game from 1973 to 1991.
- Riley was previously mentioned by Al in the Season 1 episode, "Thinnergy".
- Bud asks Jerry Mather if was thinking of "teaming up with that Eddie Munster kid for the "Thoroughly Pathetic Tour '91"?", referring to child actor, Butch Patrick from the television series The Munsters.
Music[]
- Marcy sings the Foodie's jingle.
Locations[]
Sets[]
- Bundy Living Room / Kitchen
- Bundy Backyard
- Foodie's Aisles
- Foodie's Checkstands
Goofs[]
- When the manager of the food store checks the totals a second time, he looks at the wrong registers. He looks to the register on the right for the D'Arcys, and the left one for the Bundys. When they emptied their carts for the first time, the D'Arcys' had the one on the left and the Bundys' had the one on the right.
- Jefferson is forced to use a regulation shopping cart in the contest. The first time he uses it, Jefferson blatantly rocks it back and forth to make it look like it has wobbly wheels; in later shots the cart rolls smoothly (but not always audibly).
- After Al knocks Jefferson with the punching glove and then kicks Marcy over, as the Cart of Death begins moving, Ted McGinley can be seen moving his legs out of the way as the wheel touches the bottom of his shoe.
- Marcy claims to have lived next to the Bundys for 5 years. The series didn't premier until April 1987 and this episode aired in April 1991, meaning its actually only been 4 years since she moved in next door to them.
- When Al rolls a turkey on the ground to knock Jefferson and Marcy down, Jefferson's harness is visible. He can be seen being lifted and suspended up briefly as the turkey rolls up to his legs.
- When Marcy picks up an armload of egg cartons, you can see that there aren't actually any eggs inside.
- When Marcy stands in front of Al to keep him from winning the shopping contest she is shown to be straight ahead, in front of checkout, but when Al run into her carrying the turkey like he is playing football and knock her down he is shown turning the corner before getting to checkout.
- When Al is impaled by the Cart of Death, it can be clearly seen that Ed O'Neill is just hunching over when he is supposedly impaled. The camera that imitates the angle of the cart clearly shows the space between what should have been the knives and Al's mid-section.
- When Al drinks outside in his pool, two streams of water is shown coming out of his mid-section and his right shoulder.
- Al was impaled in his mid section, so the water should be coming from that area, not his shoulder.
- Despite being stabbed, water would not be spraying up in a clean stream from his wounds. Assuming he went to the hospital after the contest, he would have been treated and likely gotten stitches to close the wounds.
- When Mr. Foodie introduces Jerry Mather, he said that he could been seen as The New Beaver, in reference to The New Leave It to Beaver. That show had already ended its run in 1989.
- During Jerry Mather's rant, he asks if he was not good enough to be on Match Game PM. Match Game PM had already ended its run in 1981.
- Though the show was later revived for a daytime syndicated run on ABC from 1990 to 1991, it was known as Match Game.
- After Mr. Foodie asks the photographer to take a picture of the Cart of Death, the photographer actually took a picture of Mr Foodie's back for the promo shot, as the flash doesn't fire until Mr. Foodie's turns back to look at the cart.
External Links[]
You Better Shop Around (Part 2) at the Internet Movie Database- You Better Shop Around (Part 2) on Bundyology
- You Better Shop Around (Part 2) - Transcript on Springfield! Springfield!
- #102 You Better Shop Around (Part 2) - MWC Podcast on Horrorphilia
