1972 Plymouth Duster - Al Bundy's Dodge

Aside from watching "Married with Children" to ogle over Christina Applegate, when the show was first on Fox in the late 1980's I thought there was really nothing more to it than trashy, lowest common denominator guffaws; and I loved every minute of it. And while the show was seminal to the degree that it reset TV sitcom's boarders, the show was the antithesis of any other TV sitcom that had come before it, what I came to appreciate during the show's interminably long run was just how consistently strong the show's writing was.

That said, it is unreasonable to believe that all gags in any forum that's centered around humor could possibly work every time. "Married" was no exception. Particularly with regards to "Al Bundy's Dodge".

The casting of a brown 1972 Plymouth Duster as Al's car was curious since there's nothing that unusual about those cars. The Duster, introduced in 1970, was the coupe variant of the Plymouth Valiant sedan and was one of the few bright spots for Chrysler in the 1970's. Few would argue that the car wasn't an attractive design, a solid performer (relatively speaking) and was free from many of the pitfalls that cars of its era, like the Corvair, Vega, Pacer and countless others succumbed to. Also, there's nothing "funny" about these cars that would invoke ridicule. Unless you've driven one of these fairly large "compact' cars not equipped with power steering.

 

Wouldn't something whimsical like even a VW Beetle filled the bill better?  Many of the jokes surrounding "Al's car", though, were brilliant. For example,  when Al's car is stolen, Marcy sarcastically chastises Al for "leaving his car out on trash day". Funny line but the joke has really nothing to do with the car itself; it could have been any car for that matter. Also, with "Al Bundy's Dodge" being a Plymouth, was that miss identification of the car supposed to be a joke of some sort or was it an err in writing?

 



What's more, with Al, portrayed with exacting precision by the legendary Ed O'Neil, apparently having his Dodge when he graduated Polk High in 1966, the use of any car from 1972 makes no sense chronologically. Does that matter? Well, no not really but if the devil is in the details, it's disappointing this was overlooked.

While it's not out of the question that Al could love anything like his "Dodge", us "car guys" have  near inexplicable attachments to old cars, had the actual car itself been more memorable it would have made for a better joke and have made the car as memorable as the Ford Torino from "Starsky and Hutch". What's more, it would have made "timeline" sense. Of course, "Married With Children" was about a highly functioning dysfunctional family and not a car, but would, for example, "Starsky and Hutch" have been the same show if they used a plain, brown Torino sedan? Or even worse, a red Duster with white striping?

"Hello, Police? I'd like to describe a... Missing person. How tall? About four feet tall, five feet wide. Smoke belching out the rear, weighs two tons. No, it's not Oprah. No, it's not Delta Burke, who'd call to report her missing? No, it's my Dodge. Hello?"
	-- Al Bundy (Episode #7.24)