User Reviews

Steve Rhoades has slowly been rebelling against his wife, Marcy. When he returns home after a long trip, Marcy is startled by his beard. He likes and wants to keep it. Marcy's holding sex back until he shaves it. Al comes to Steve's rescue and helps aid him in his quest to defeat Marcy's wish. The scene where he shows a picture of his mother-in-law is priceless and worth watching in this episode. Marcy isn't handling life without sex or Steve at all and comes seeking Peggy's help. This episode was quite tame in it's day and probably would be considered childish today. It's all about the beard really, Marcy wants the old Steve and not the new emerging Steve.

Steve returns from a 5-day rafting trip sporting a beard, much to Marcy's disapproval; they argue about the facial hair, and Steve moves in with the Bundys. While living with his neighbours, Steve does the cleaning and cooking, which Al and the kids are all in favour of. Peggy is less happy about the situation, feeling shown up by her unwanted house guest. After a few days, Steve is feeling horny and wants to shave his beard so he can go back home and have sex, but Al tries to convince him to stick to his guns. Peggy plots with Marcy to make Steve's resolve crumble.

This is a fair to middling episode from season two, with some reasonable chuckles to be had, but not too many big laughs. It's all a big build up to the final scene, in which Marcy abandons her principals and takes Peggy's advice, dressing in sexy underwear (basque, stockings and suspenders) to make Steve bend to her will.

One of many episodes where Marci is fully atrocious. They become more frequent when the actress who plays Marci gets some creative control which caused problems with fans and co stars. There's a lesson in this episode regarding feminist hypocrisy and just plain lousy people. As much as that's the point and the humor of this show, people forget who they aren't supposed to be rooting for and why.