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The show had a small, loyal following until February 1989, and the producers had a history of arguments over taste and language with FOX's lone, part-time network censor. One episode, "A Period Piece" in which the Bundy and Rhoades families go camping, was delayed one month in the broadcast schedule because it focused on the women's menstrual cycles. Two months later, the episode scheduled for 19 February 1989, "I'll See You in Court," was pulled from the schedule and never aired on the FOX network. The episode involved sexual videotapes of Marcy and Steve, which Al and Peggy viewed when they rented a sleazy motel room. When both couples realized their activity at the motel was broadcast to other rooms, they sued. The jury chose to compensate the couples for their performance quality, with Al and Peggy getting no money.

That same winter, two weeks after "A Period Piece," an episode titled "Her Cups Runneth Over" led to a social stir. The segment featured Peggy's need for a new brassiere, which coincided with her birthday. Al and Steve traveled to a lingerie shop in Wisconsin where an older male receptionist wore nothing below his waist but panties, a garter belt, stockings and spike heeled shoes. Steve fingered leather-fringed falsies attached to the nipples of one near-naked mannequin; women flashed Al and Steve, though the nudity was not shown on camera.

One television viewer, Terry Rakolta, from the wealthy Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills, Michigan took offense at the show after the brassiere episode. She saw her children watching the program and found both the language and partial nudity unacceptable for viewing during a time when children made up a large portion of the audience. Rakolta acted by writing to advertisers and asking them to question the association of their products with Married...With Children's content. She also brought her cause to national television news shows.

In March 1989 Rakolta said on Nightline, "I picked on Married...With Children because they are so consistently offensive. They exploit women, they stereotype poor people, they're anti-family. And every week that I've watched them, they're worse and worse. I think this is really outrageous. It's sending the wrong messages to the American family."

Rakolta had mixed success. Advertisers such as major movie studios and many retail stores refused to buy commercials on the new FOX network (prime time telecasts had started less than two years earlier). Media brokers cited a bad connotation. Newsweek magazine featured a front page story on "Trash TV" questioning the standards of taste in prime time television. Married...With Children and tabloid news shows such as A Current Affair were primary examples. Yet the greater effect was strongly positive.

Among FOX's greatest problems at the time of the controversy was limited viewer awareness. Many viewers simply did not know a fourth network existed. Related to this was the fact that a small, similar viewing group comprised FOX's entire audience. Moreover many FOX stations had weak UHF signals which were difficult to receive. Rakolta's complaints garnered substantial national publicity and this seemed to assist the network in solving many of its difficulties. After Nightline, Good Morning America, Today and most other national and local news shows featured the controversy over Married...With Children viewer awareness rose dramatically. People purposely sought out their local FOX affiliate and Married...With Children became a success.

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