Season 5 Episode 20: Top of the Heap

The hundredth episode of Married… with Children, and Al Bundy is in it for about a minute. The half-hour belongs to Charlie Verducci, Al’s divorced and unemployed friend, and his dim-witted teenage son Vinnie, who are attempting to improve their circumstances by every means except work. Joseph Bologna plays Charlie and Matt LeBlanc plays Vinnie, three years before Friends.

It is a backdoor pilot, and the spin-off got made: Top of the Heap ran on FOX in 1991 for seven episodes. Katey Sagal, Amanda Bearse, Ted McGinley, Christina Applegate and David Faustino are all absent, which makes this the only episode of the series without a single one of them, and Al’s appearance is a cameo rather than a part.

Spending the hundredth episode this way was an unusual decision. The milestone matters commercially: a hundred episodes is roughly the threshold at which a series becomes viable in syndication, which this one went on to do very profitably, and the producers used it to launch something else instead of celebrating. Viewers have not been generous about it: by IMDb’s ratings it is the lowest-rated episode of the entire run.

It also explains a gap on this site. Amazon’s catalogue does not carry the episode, because it belongs to the spin-off’s rights rather than the parent series, which is why there is no streaming card on this page and why the Watching It section below says what it does.

Joey Lauren Adams plays Mona and returned to the parent series twice, as Cousin Effie and as Janey. Diana Bellamy, as Kathleen, had been Nancy in season one. The Verduccis’ apartment set was recycled from 227, where it belonged to a history teacher.

Episode Facts

• Original air date: April 7, 1991
• Season and episode: Season 5, Episode 20
• Milestone: the 100th episode of Married with Children
• Written by: Ron Leavitt and Arthur Silver
• Directed by: Gerry Cohen

Guest Cast

• Joseph Bologna as Charlie Verducci
• Matt LeBlanc as Vinnie Verducci
• Joey Lauren Adams as Mona Mullins
• Diana Bellamy as Kathleen
• Charles Howerton as Nelson

The Odd One Out

This is the strangest entry in the whole Married with Children run, and it helps to know why going in. It is a backdoor pilot: an episode of our show handed over to characters from a different one. Charlie and Vinnie Verducci are apartment building superintendents trying to marry Vinnie into money, and the half hour follows them to a high society fundraiser instead of following the Bundys.

Al appears only in a short cameo at the shoe store, where Charlie and Vinnie turn up for advice. Peg, Kelly, Bud, Marcy and Steve are not in it at all. Handing the 100th episode to the guest cast was a bold swing for a show in its fifth season.

It worked well enough to launch the spinoff. Top of the Heap premiered on Fox the same night this aired and ran seven episodes through May 19, 1991. When it did not stick, the character was retooled in 1992 as Vinnie & Bobby.

Two Future Stars

Watch the casting here. Matt LeBlanc plays Vinnie three years before Friends premiered. Joey Lauren Adams plays Mona Mullins, the neighborhood girl with a crush on Vinnie, six years before Chasing Amy earned her a Golden Globe nomination. Adams carried Mona into all seven episodes of the spinoff, and she came back to Married with Children twice more: as Cousin Effie in Season 6’s “Buck Has a Belly Ache” and as Janey in Season 7’s “The Wedding Show”.

Famous Quotes

• Charlie: “Al, I know that feels good, but it won’t bring your TV back.” / Al: “That TV was my baby! Got me through a lot of rough times. I watched it when we conceived our two kids.”
• Charlie: “My kid’s at a difficult age, where he might just turn into a ‘you.’ Help him out! Give him some advice!” / Al: “Don’t marry! DON’T… MARRY! It’s only good for the woman.”
• Al: “They find some guy to marry, then they steal his youth, his paycheck, and his dreams.” His complete theory of marriage, delivered to a teenager.
• Charlie: “I’m sorry, Al, but you don’t have the butt to be a beautiful woman!” / Al: “Eh, I let myself go…”
• Al: “You know what we should have done when we were young studs? Married us a couple of rich babes! All we have to do is get up late, pump a little iron to stay in shape, let the robe pop open a little… and settle back on the couch, get stinking drunk, and pick your feet ’til the cows come home! I can’t think of a fuller, more satisfying life!”
• Vinnie: “Do you two want to be alone or anything?” / Charlie: “Do you mind?! He was just gonna say something nice to me.” / Al: “Ah, the moment’s past.”

Notes

• A hundred episodes is roughly the point at which a series becomes viable for syndication, which Married… with Children went on to do very profitably, making the decision to spend the milestone launching a spin-off an unusual one.
• By production code this was the 25th episode filmed for the season, though it aired as the 20th.
• It went out the same night as “Kids! Wadaya Gonna Do?” as part of a one-hour block.
• Arthur Silver received an executive producer credit in the opening alongside Ron Leavitt, with Michael G. Moye credited separately for the episode.
• Joey Lauren Adams, who plays Mona, returned to the parent series twice, as Cousin Effie in season six’s “Buck Has a Belly Ache” and as Janey in season seven’s “The Wedding Show.”
• Diana Bellamy, as Kathleen, had been Nancy, the shoe store’s first oversized customer, back in season one, and returned once more in season eleven’s “Crimes Against Obesity.”
• Charles Howerton, as Nelson, had played Brooke’s father in “One Down, Two to Go.”
• Charlie mentions having been a U.S. Marine, which Joseph Bologna also was in life, serving a tour after college.
• The Verduccis’ apartment set was repurposed from 227, where it had belonged to a history teacher.
• By IMDb’s ratings this is the lowest-rated episode of the entire series.

Watching It

There is no Prime Video link on this page. Because this one doubles as the Top of the Heap pilot, it is not carried inside Amazon’s Married with Children Season 5 lineup.