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Back in 1994, Kevin Bacon was being interviewed by Premiere Magazine when he made a remark that would go on to have a huge impact on pop culture. After all, during that interview, Bacon mentioned that “he had worked with everybody in Hollywood or someone who's worked with them”. After the world learned about his comment, it didn’t take long for people to conclude that Bacon truly is somehow connected to lots of stars. As a result, the six degrees of Kevin Bacon game was born.
Of course, Kevin Bacon isn’t the only Hollywood actor who is connected to lots of other stars. For example, during Chevy Chase’s lengthy career, he has built connections to lots of different stars. After all, Chase has worked with many of the biggest comedy stars of all time due to his time starring in Saturday Night Live, Community, and lots of different movies. Still, despite everyone that Chase has shared the screen with, his fans will likely be shocked to learn that the actor is linked to the sitcom Married with Children in a truly unique way.
Lots Of Stars Appeared On Married With Children Prefame
At the height of Married with Children’s popularity, the show was one of the most successful and controversial sitcoms on television. With that in mind, it makes perfect sense that it has been announced that a sequel series that will be very different is in the works according to reports.
Since Married with Children was so successful, Fox kept the show on the air for many, many years. In fact, eleven seasons of Married with Children aired that were made up of 259 episodes. Considering that so many episodes of Married with Children were produced, it makes sense that several actors who later became famous landed roles in the show. Still, it is pretty amazing how many future stars showed up in at least one episode of Married with Children.
When it comes to the biggest stars who appeared on Married with Children pre-fame, names like Milla Jovovich, Matt LeBlanc, Pamela Anderson, and Robert Englund come to mind. On top of that, other future stars like Keri Russell, Bill Maher, Tiffani Amber-Theissen, Jerry Springer, Tia Carrere, and Dan Castellaneta also showed up.
How Chevy Chase Is Connected To Married With Children
Over the last several years, it has become widely agreed upon that the world is in the midst of a golden age of television. Whether or not anyone agrees with that assessment, it is easy to see why people think that. After all, lots of massive movie stars have headlined TV shows over the last several years. On top of that, it has become common for TV shows to have budgets that rival blockbuster movies over the last several years.
Back when Married with Children was being produced during the ‘80s and ‘90s, TV shows were often produced on a relatively shoestring budget. On top of that, it seems likely that Married with Children initially was produced for less money than most sitcoms at that time. After all, Married with Children was one of Fox’s first shows after the network was launched so it seems very unlikely that the show’s producers had a lot of money to throw around.
When a TV show is being produced for little to no money, there are certain shortcuts they can take to look like a bigger deal. For example, using footage that was previously shot for other projects can be a quick way to seem like a show had a bigger budget without spending much cash. As it turns out, Married with Children used a piece of footage from a major movie in all of the show’s early episodes.
When most people think about Married with Children’s opening theme, they are likely to remember the show’s opening song and Al giving his children, his wife, and even his dog money. However, the show’s biggest fans will remember that in the opening seconds of the show’s opening credits, cars can be seen driving on an interstate.
In this day and age, anyone with a drone can easily get footage of cars driving from a bird’s eye view. Back when Married with Children was being produced, however, the only way to get a shot like that was by chartering a helicopter. Definitely not a show that could afford to do something like that, Married with Children instead opted to use preexisting footage of cars on an interstate. While that makes sense, the truly amazing thing is that the footage Married with Children used was of The Griswold’s station wagon from 1983's National Lampoon's Vacation.
Of course, Chevy Chase almost certainly wasn’t involved in shooting the footage of the Griswold family’s station wagon driving down the interstate. Still, the fact remains that Chase’s character from his most famous film franchise appeared from afar in so many episodes of Married with Children is amazing.
