Season 7 Episode 25: Wedding Repercussions

Cousin Jimmy returns to find out who slept with his wife before the wedding, and Bud is the answer. The episode is a sustained exercise in terror: Jimmy is enormous, he is working his way toward the truth, and he has announced that if nobody confesses he will simply go up and down the block beating everyone until someone does. Kelly, who knows, spends the half-hour threatening to tell him.

Al’s contribution is the best thing in it. Asked whether lying is the wrong thing to do, he delivers what the series treats as a formal statement of family doctrine: the Bundy name was built on lying, owing money and beer, and the only thing separating them from the Kennedys is the money. It is one of the handful of Al Bundy speeches that works as a thesis statement for the whole show.

The episode also gives Peggy the single clearest account of how she sees her husband, comparing him to an old hound dog that nobody wants and that is not good for anything, but that she has had since he was a puppy. The series rarely let her be that direct, and it is affectionate in a way that none of her other declarations quite manage.

Abraham Benrubi plays Cousin Jimmy, and he had appeared on the series once before, uncredited, as the baby in Al’s fantasy in “She’s Having My Baby”: he was simultaneously starring on FOX’s Parker Lewis Can’t Lose. Bud, defending his record, points out he is not the only Peeping Tom in the family. This is the last episode with Kevin Curran as the voice of Buck; he left the writing staff after the following episode and Kim Weiskopf took over.

Episode Facts

• Original air date: May 16, 1993
• Season and episode: Season 7, Episode 25
• Written by: Arthur Silver
• Directed by: Gerry Cohen

Guest Cast

• Abraham Benrubi as Cousin Jimmy
• Barbara Ann Moore as Dee Anna

The Other Half of the Story

This is the payoff to “The Wedding Show” (Season 7, Episode 13), which aired four months earlier. In that one, Bud got to know Janey, Cousin Jimmy’s bride to be, considerably better than he should have the night before the wedding. In this one the marriage is over, Jimmy knows somebody wrecked it, and he has come looking for whoever that was.

Bud spends the episode trying to steer the blame toward Jefferson while Kelly, who has worked it out, holds it over him. Al’s contribution to his son’s moral crisis is to recommend lying, which he presents as a core Bundy value. Jimmy eventually loses interest in revenge once he meets Dee Anna, then makes the mistake of leaving her in Bud’s care.

Worth knowing before you watch: Janey is talked about constantly but never appears. Joey Lauren Adams, who played her in “The Wedding Show,” is not in this episode.

Famous Quotes

• Kelly: “Well, I guess you deserve to know, Tiny Dancer. Cousin Jimmy is on his way over to have a little chat with you.” / Bud: “W-w-w-what do you think he wants?” / Kelly: “Your b-b-b-butt in a sling.”
• Bud: “Dad, I don’t want him to pull my arms off and rip out my heart! All I did was sleep with his wife. What does he want from me?”
• Al: “Just relax. I know how to handle this. I met a lot of big stupid bullies when I was growing up.” / Peg: “Uh-uh, Al. When you were growing up, you were the big stupid bully.” / Al: “Yeah, I was. I was good at it, too.”
• Bud: “Am I doing the wrong thing by lying?” / Al: “Don’t ever say that, son! The Bundy proud name was built on a philosophy of lying. Well, lying and owing money. And perhaps beer. Only thing that separates us from the Kennedys is they have the money.”
• Marcy: “Peggy, what would you do if Al cheated on you?” / Peg: “Oh, that would never happen. He’s like a big old faithful hound dog. Nobody wants him and he’s not good for anything, but I’ve had him since he was a puppy and he has his cute little ways.”

Notes

Cousin Jimmy is played by Abraham Benrubi, a few years before he joined ER as Jerry Markovic. Arthur Silver wrote this one and Gerry Cohen directed it, the same pair behind Season 5’s “Top of the Heap.”

Watching It

There is no Prime Video link on this page. Amazon’s Married with Children Season 7 lineup runs through Episode 24, so this one and “The Proposition” are not included.