Here’s something that might blow your mind: there’s a version of Married With Children that actually outlived the original — and it’s in Russian. Schastlivy Vmeste — which translates to Happy Together — premiered on Russian TV on March 8, 2006, nearly a decade after our finale. It ran for six seasons on the Russian channel TNT, totaling 364 episodes — more than the 259 episodes of Married With Children itself.
The show followed the same basic blueprint: Al Bundy became Gena Bukin, a seller of women’s shoes. Peggy became Dasha, a housewife who spent most of her time in front of the TV eating candy. Kelly became Sveta, and Bud became Roma. Even the dog made it over — Buck became Baron, a Bernese Mountain Dog.
Russian producers adapted the original scripts, translated them, adjusted the jokes, and performed them with their own cast of Russian actors. Some things didn’t translate — the original show had a lot of bathroom humor, but Russians don’t find bathroom humor funny. Fair enough. The show became a phenomenon. The cast became household names, and the man who played the Russian Al Bundy got a life-sized statue in the city where the show took place.
But here’s where it gets really interesting for us: once all the American episodes had been adapted, the Russian production kept going, launching an entirely new run of original episodes. According to the opening credits, some of those new episodes were co-written by original Married With Children writers, mostly Richard Gurman and Katherine Green.
Richard, of course, is no stranger to us. So the next time Richard joins us, I have a very specific question: what did he actually write for the Russians? Were any of those stories originally pitched for a Season 12 that never happened here? Are there Bundy-universe plots floating around somewhere in Moscow that American audiences never got to see?
I don’t know the answers. But I’d love to find out — and something tells me David might have a few questions of his own.
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