A rainstorm gets into the house, and Al goes up on the roof to deal with it along with the television antenna, which is the real priority. What follows is one of the most sustained pieces of physical comedy the series ever attempted: a man on a wet roof in a storm, a leaking kitchen, and a sequence of falls and electrocutions that the production staged with real commitment.
Katey Sagal named this her favourite episode of the series in the ninth-season retrospective, and the clips chosen for that special make the case, Peggy tilting her umbrella back to catch the leak in her glass without getting up, and Al accidentally electrocuting himself in bed, followed by Peggy’s observation that the room smells like ham.
The episode was nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Editing for a Series, the second of the series’ two nominations in that category, after “Requiem for a Dead Barber.” The storm sequences are the reason: cutting a man falling off a roof several times so that it reads as funny rather than alarming is a technical problem, and the episode solves it.
Marcy’s subplot has Steve taking a job at a pet store and Marcy being bitten by one of the stock, which is a smaller joke but the one that sets up the end of their marriage: Steve’s dissatisfaction with banking is being established here, three episodes before he leaves. This was the first episode of the series to air in the 1990s, and by production code it was filmed before “It’s a Bundyful Life.”
Episode Facts
- Original air date: January 7, 1990, the first episode of the series to air in the 1990s
- Season 4, Episode 13, and the 70th episode of the series
- Written by Kevin Curran
- Directed by Gerry Cohen
- No guest cast is credited.
Al Bundy Versus the Roof
A weekend of rain sends Al onto the roof to patch leaks and fix the antenna, and he falls off it repeatedly. Peggy and the kids pass the time debating whether he is too stupid or too cheap to call a roofer. Next door Steve has a new job at a pet store and Marcy gets bitten by a Peruvian Devil Gerbil, which leaves her with a hump.
Katey Sagal named this her favorite episode in the clip special “My Favorite Married,” and it was nominated for an Emmy for editing, which is worth knowing going in: the roof falls are cut, not performed, and the editing is the joke. It is also David Garrison’s second-to-last episode as a regular.
Famous Quotes
- Al: “Boy, I love the rain. Have ever since I was a little boy.” The opening line, which the next twenty minutes exist to punish.
- Al: “Sorry, Peg, but I needed something to break my fall.” Al, landing.
- Bud: “What is it, Mom?! Creditors?!” The Bundy family’s first guess about any knock at the door.
Notes
- The title comes from the 1970 Creedence Clearwater Revival song, which had already played on the radio in the season premiere, Hot Off the Grill.
- This was the eleventh episode produced for season 4 but the thirteenth aired. It was filmed before the two-part It’s a Bundyful Life and aired after it.
- Nominated for the Emmy for Outstanding Editing for a Series, Multi-Camera Production.
- Included on the Most Outrageous Episodes Volume 2 home video release.
- Al invokes Dallas and Scarlett O’Hara, Peg sings The Temptations’ “My Girl,” and Bud brings up a Guns N’ Roses video.
- Goofs, and there are many: Bud stays dry sitting directly under the leak, Al is bone dry after falling off a roof in the rain, the wet spots on the floor move between shots, and the stunt mannequin plainly falls feet first.
- Goof: the gerbil is audibly dropped, and is visible near Steve’s feet afterward.
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