David Faustino Interview: Bud Bundy on the 2026 Married with Children Reunion & More
Below are the highlights from the full 45-minute interview, organized by topic. Whether you grew up watching the show on Sunday nights at 8 p.m. or you're newer to the Bundy universe, there's something here for every fan.
The 2026 Reunion: "An Afternoon with The Bundys"
The biggest news coming out of the interview: the next live Bundy family reunion is officially happening on May 9, 2026 at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Los Angeles. It's a 2 p.m. show, part of the Netflix Is A Joke Festival, and tickets are selling now.
This follows the first reunion, which took place on January 28, 2026 at the Wiltern Theatre in East Hollywood. That first event sold out in two days and brought all four Bundy family members — David Faustino (Bud), Christina Applegate (Kelly), Katey Sagal (Peggy), and Ed O'Neill (Al) — together on stage publicly for the first time.
"People were dressed up as Peg and Al. All the merch we had for sale sold out in fifteen minutes," Faustino said. (If you're wondering what NO MA'AM actually stands for, we just wrote the full story on that too.)
The first reunion was intentionally not streamed. "We knew we wanted to do more," Faustino explained — which set up the May 9 show as the follow-up the fans had been asking for.
🎟️ Tickets — May 9, 2026
"An Afternoon with The Bundys" · Orpheum Theatre · Los Angeles · 2 PM
Get Tickets →Who's Behind the Reunion
Faustino and his business partner Ben Brucato produced the reunion from the ground up. "It was a lot of work on our part," he said. "The rest of the cast just had to show up and sit down in their chairs and have fun." Katey Sagal and Faustino are regulars on the convention circuit, but Ed O'Neill and Christina Applegate had never done events like this before — making the reunion no small feat to pull off.
Why It Matters to Fans
Fans traveled from Europe, the Middle East, and across the United States to attend the first reunion. Faustino acknowledged that doing two shows back-to-back in Los Angeles is tough on the rest of the country: "I feel bad we're doing two in a row in LA because we have so many fans in middle America, in the South, a lot on the East Coast." He hinted at expansion plans, including offers from Las Vegas and strong interest in Chicago — a natural fit given that the Bundys were supposed to have lived there.
Christina Applegate's Health Update
Fans have been closely following Christina Applegate's battle with multiple sclerosis, and the question came up during the interview. Faustino offered an honest, warm update.
"MS is a very insidious, tricky disease," he explained. "One day you can be okay — I won't say fine, but pretty okay — and then the following day you may not be able to walk, your speech may be slurred, you're so exhausted you can't get out of bed. You can't remember."
But at the first reunion, Applegate surprised everyone. "She got right on stage with us and was hilarious and bantered, and actually was probably funnier than the rest of us. The crowd loved her." As for how she's doing day to day: "As good as she can be, from one day to the next."
The Cast Is Still Close — Here's Why
One of the most refreshing things about the interview was hearing how genuinely close the Married with Children cast has remained nearly 30 years after the show ended.
"With most projects, you become family within the first week and there's a lot of love and camaraderie," Faustino said. "But then the project ends and nine times out of ten, it fizzles out." Married with Children was different for two reasons. First, the cast worked together for 11 years. Second, the environment created by showrunners Michael Moye, Ron Leavitt, and Richard Gurman was uniquely open, free, and fun. "Anything went on that set," Faustino recalled.
Why There's No Reboot (Yet)
Fans have been clamoring for a proper Married with Children revival for years. According to Faustino, the entire cast — including Ed O'Neill — has been willing to come back. The show would have centered around Faustino's character, with the other family members in recurring roles.
So what's the holdup?
"There's somebody, not one of the cast members, but somebody related to one of the producers who owns a good amount of a piece of the show, who doesn't want it to happen," Faustino revealed. "I'm not exactly sure of his reasons. Maybe they're valid, maybe they're not. I don't know. But at this point, it's been an uphill battle."
He added that the Fox cancellation in 1997 was a raw deal for fans. "It was a last-minute business decision to cancel it. Unfortunately for the fans, Fox kind of duped them into this last episode, this final episode, which really wasn't a final episode at all. It was just another episode they built as an ending. After millions of people committed to the show for 11 seasons, I think they deserved more."
The animated Married with Children series, written by Family Guy alum Alex Carter, is also on hold. "It was an expensive prospect for the streaming services," Faustino said — though he hinted that network and streaming executives will be at the May 9 reunion, which could reignite conversations. "Anything's possible."
The Hip-Hop Club That Changed LA
Beyond Married with Children, Faustino has a chapter of his life that most casual fans don't know about — and it's the subject of an upcoming documentary titled "Balistyx".
From 1991 to 1994, Faustino co-founded and ran Balistyx — a Thursday-night hip-hop residency at the legendary Whisky a Go Go on the Sunset Strip. The venue had been the home of rock gods like The Doors, and before Balistyx, the Strip was dominated by hair metal bands. Faustino's crew changed that.
The Black Eyed Peas Origin Story
Here's a wild piece of hip-hop trivia: The Black Eyed Peas formed at Balistyx.
"None of them had met yet," Faustino explained. "They were all kind of backpack kids coming from different areas of LA. They all met in the dance circle there and formed what is now the Black Eyed Peas — unbeknownst to me at the time because I was busy running the club."
will.i.am — known as Will 1X back then — was a regular in the freestyle battles Faustino hosted. "Will was one of the greatest freestyle battlers of all time. A vicious freestyle artist. He would just take MCs apart from head to toe. No one ever beat him until the club ended." Eazy-E, a regular at the club, saw Will battling and signed him to Ruthless Records. The rest is history.
The documentary is produced with will.i.am and Taboo (also a Black Eyed Peas member) and is currently in the editing process.
The Grandmaster B Origin Story
Bud Bundy's hip-hop alter ego, Grandmaster B, wasn't Faustino's idea — but it was directly inspired by his real-life passion for hip-hop.
"The writers had a knack for taking parts of us and poking fun slightly," Faustino said. "They saw me really gravitating toward hip-hop. People would visit the set — Eazy-E, Ice Cube, Ice-T — and the writers would be like, 'Yo, what's going on with Dave?' So after I started the club, they came up with the Grandmaster B alter ego."
Faustino noted that despite Grandmaster B being a running joke on the show, the character resonated with fans on a deeper level: "He was a lovable loser, but he was also sort of a hero to many young men who related to never giving up. No matter how many times he got knocked silly, he kept getting up and trying."
Wear the Bundy Legacy
Bud's alter egos, Al's anthems — gear up for May 9
Favorite Episodes & Bloopers
Asked about his favorite episodes, Faustino pointed to the Dumpwater, Florida two-parter — the vacation-gone-wrong storyline at Poppy's by the Tree hotel — and the Christmas episodes, particularly the iconic scene where Santa Claus's parachute fails and he lands in the Bundy backyard.
"We could never get that right," Faustino laughed. "We would laugh every single time. They had this life-sized 200-pound weighted dummy on compressors, and when they pushed the button it would make this horrific thud. If you look closely, you can see some of us snickering — we could never keep it together."
He also singled out the Sam Kinison episodes as a career highlight. "Having him for two weeks was just a complete trip. He was a beast." If you know the Burned Beyond Recognition storyline — Bud's tribute to rock immortality — the shirt exists.
And yes, almost every one of Al's infamous fat jokes was in the script. "About 95% of what you see was all scripted," Faustino confirmed. "Ed would feel bad — you meet these lovely people and then you have to dis them. He'd always say, 'Hey, man, I don't write this stuff.'"
What David Faustino Is Doing Now
Fans often ask what Faustino is up to these days, and the honest answer is: a lot — most of it off-camera. His voiceover career has spanned 15+ years, with major roles including Mako in The Legend of Korra (part of the Avatar franchise) and the How to Train Your Dragon: Dragons Race to the Edge series. Both are currently available on Netflix.
He also DJs regularly — "a hobby that turned into a side hustle that turned into a job I love" — and just wrapped a mockumentary shot in Tampa and St. Pete with his frequent collaborator Corin Nemec (best known as Parker Lewis from Parker Lewis Can't Lose).
Will Bud Bundy Ever Return?
Asked if he'd ever play Bud again, Faustino didn't hesitate:
He imagined two possible futures for an adult Bud: a guy running a hip-hop club — "kind of akin to what I do" — or a settled-down family man slowly becoming his parents. "Hopefully he's not a shoe salesman," Faustino joked — a nod to Al's lifelong grind at Gary's Shoes.
Can't Make It to LA?
Rep the Bundy legacy from anywhere. Every design is rooted in specific moments and running jokes from all 11 seasons — no generic fan art.
Shop the CollectionThe full interview is available on our Instagram @albundyclips and Facebook page. Thanks to David Faustino for taking the time, and to Don Minaj for hosting.
