Season 11 Episode 10: The Stepford Peg

Peggy slips, hits her head and wakes up with no memory of who she is, which hands Al an opportunity he takes without a moment’s hesitation: he reprograms her. The result is a wife who cooks, cleans, keeps a schedule and raises no objection when he fills the living room with NO MA’AM for a wrestling broadcast, and who mixes the drinks. The title points at The Stepford Wives, and the premise owes something to Overboard as well, but the show is not interested in the ethics of it. It is interested in what Al would actually ask for if he could have anything, and the answer turns out to be frothy margaritas and a clean house.

The margarita scene is the episode’s best. Bob Rooney compliments the drinks, asks how she got them so frothy, and Peggy explains about the battery-operated cocktail stirrer she found in her nightstand. Rooney works it out a beat before the audience does and spits; Ike keeps drinking. The wrestling party also produces the series’ clearest statement of NO MA’AM doctrine, delivered as a collective oath when Bob Rooney asks Al whether he has slept with his own wife.

The episode is a production curiosity. Although it aired in January 1997 as the tenth episode of season eleven, it was shot in August 1996 and was the first episode of the season filmed, which is why its epilogue, Bud reacting to the sight of Kelly standing beside her own double, ended up in the season’s opening titles as David Faustino’s introductory clip. Eagle-eyed viewers get the D’Arcys’ house number, 9524, and Marcy’s licence plate as well.

Episode Facts

• Original air date: Monday, January 6, 1997 on FOX
• Season 11, Episode 10
• Overall episode 248 of the series
• Taped August 16, 1996; production code 11.01, the first episode of season eleven filmed, despite airing tenth
• Written by Valerie Ahern and Christian McLaughlin
• Directed by Amanda Bearse
• The title plays on the 1974 film The Stepford Wives, with a debt to 1987’s Overboard

Guest Cast

• Ron-Ann Frey as Sally
• Larry McKay as the TV Announcer

Thou Shall Never Covet Thy Own Wife

The amnesia premise is as old as sitcoms, and the series uses it for a specific purpose: to find out what Al’s ideal wife would look like. The answer is revealing in how small it is. He does not ask for beauty, money or affection. He asks for meals, a tidy house and no complaints about the wrestling, which is a sadder wish list than any speech the character ever gave.

The NO MA’AM oath is the episode’s most quotable contribution to the mythology. Asked directly whether he has slept with Peggy, Al treats the suggestion as a violation of the organisation’s founding commandment, and the group performs the vow in unison with a hand gesture. Eleven seasons of material about men avoiding their own wives, compressed into one line and a salute.

Because this was the first episode shot for the season, it is also where the season’s title sequence comes from. Its epilogue has Bud encountering Kelly alongside an identical double, and David Faustino’s reaction shot from that scene was lifted into the main titles as his introduction, which is why his credit clip changed for season eleven while the rest of the cast kept theirs from season ten.

Famous Quotes

• Peggy: “Am I in hell?” / Al: “No Peg, if you were in hell, you’d be on the throne and the devil would be packing.”
• Bob Rooney: “How did you get these margaritas so frothy?” / Peggy: “Well, I had a battery-operated cocktail stirrer… Found it in my nightstand.”
• Ike: “Wow! Look what happened to Marcy.” / Bob Rooney: “I don’t know what you guys are doing, but please come do it to my wife!” / Jefferson: “This isn’t Marcy. This is Sally. She’ll be our ring girl for the evening.”
• Bob Rooney: “Al, I hate to accuse you of this, but… did you sleep with Peggy?” / Al: “Are you crazy? That would violate our first commandment.” / NO MA’AM: “Thou shall never covet thy own wife.”

Notes

• The epilogue, Bud reacting to Kelly and her double, supplied David Faustino’s introductory clip in the season eleven opening credits.
• The D’Arcys’ house number is visible as 9524 when Marcy goes out to check on Peggy, and Marcy’s Mercedes carries the plate “KDG 12.”
• Goof: Al says the wrestling broadcast is not pay-per-view, but the poster behind him advertises King of the Ring, which was. The poster is in fact a leftover prop from season ten’s “Flight of the Bumblebee,” and it advertises the 1995 event.
• Goof: Al recalls taking Peg to their senior prom, while season three’s “Married… with Queen (Part 1)” had Peggy state plainly that they never went.
• Goof: Kelly notes a dent in the coffee table from the fall, but the slow-motion shot shows Peggy’s head hitting the floor instead, and a harness is visible arresting the fall.
• Goof: a shadow moves behind the door glass during a close-up on Kelly, most likely Katey Sagal waiting for her cue.