Terry Lynn Rakolta (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Stern) is an American former anti-

obscenity An obscenity is any utterance or act that strongly offends the prevalent morality of the time. It is derived from the Latin ''obscēnus'', ''obscaenus'', "boding ill; disgusting; indecent", of uncertain etymology. Such loaded language can be us ...

activist, best known for leading a boycott against the

Fox Broadcasting Company The Fox Broadcasting Company, commonly known simply as Fox and stylized in all caps as FOX, is an American commercial broadcast television network owned by Fox Corporation and headquartered in New York City, with master control operations ...

sitcom A sitcom, a portmanteau of situation comedy, or situational comedy, is a genre of comedy centered on a fixed set of characters who mostly carry over from episode to episode. Sitcoms can be contrasted with sketch comedy, where a troupe may use ...

'' Married... with Children'' in 1989.A Mother Is Heard as Sponsors Abandon a TV Hit (March 2, 1989) ''

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

Life and family

Rakolta is a resident of

Bloomfield Hills, Michigan Bloomfield Hills is a small city (5.04 sq. miles) in Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a northern suburb of Metro Detroit and is approximately northwest of Downtown Detroit. Except a small southern border with the city of Bir ...

. She is married to

John Rakolta John Rakolta Jr ( ro, Racolța; born June 15, 1947 in Oakland County, Michigan) is an American businessman and a former diplomat who served as the United States Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates from 2019 to 2021. He is the former CEO of Wa ...

, the former CEO of Walbridge, and the General Consul for

Romania Romania ( ; ro, România ) is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern, and Southeast Europe, Southeastern Europe. It borders Bulgaria to the south, Ukraine to the north, Hungary to the west, S ...

's Honorary General Consulate in

Detroit Detroit ( , ; , ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is also the largest U.S. city on the United States–Canada border, and the seat of government of Wayne County. The City of Detroit had a population of 639,111 at t ...

, who served as Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates during the Trump administration. Rakolta's sister,

Ronna Romney Ronna Eileen Romney ( Stern; born September 24, 1943) is an American Republican Party (United States), Republican politician and former radio talk show host. Early life and family Romney, née Stern, was born in Detroit, Michigan to parents Eil ...

, is a Republican political activist and radio talk show host who was formerly married to Scott Romney, the son of former

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and t ...

governor George Romney and brother of former

Massachusetts Massachusetts (Massachusett: ''Muhsachuweesut Massachusett_writing_systems.html" ;"title="nowiki/> məhswatʃəwiːsət.html" ;"title="Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət">Massachusett writing systems">məhswatʃəwiːsət'' En ...

governor and current Senator

Mitt Romney Willard Mitt Romney (born March 12, 1947) is an American politician, businessman, and lawyer serving as the junior United States senator from Utah since January 2019, succeeding Orrin Hatch. He served as the 70th governor of Massachusetts ...

. Rakolta's husband was a national chairman for Mitt Romney's 2008 presidential campaign. Rakolta is a

Mormon Mormons are a religious and cultural group related to Mormonism, the principal branch of the Latter Day Saint movement started by Joseph Smith in upstate New York during the 1820s. After Smith's death in 1844, the movement split into se ...

''Married... with Children'' boycott

Rakolta was prompted to write to the sponsors of ''Married… with Children'' after her children watched the episode " Her Cups Runneth Over" on January 15, 1989, in which

Al Bundy Al Bundy is a fictional character and the protagonist of the American television series '' Married... with Children''. Played by Ed O'Neill, Bundy is a misanthropic, working-class father of two who is portrayed as a somewhat tragicomedic figur ...

and his friend Steve purchase a bra for Al's wife, Peggy. That same episode had also showed Al ogling at a naked model in a department store, but with her back facing the camera. Several sponsors decided to cancel their commercials in response. Fox responded to the boycott by moving the show's time slot from 8:30 to 9:00p.m. and toning down the level of "raunch" in the series, reducing the amount of sexual content and implied nudity. Fox also decided not to air a potentially offensive episode titled "

I'll See You in Court "I'll See You in Court" is the tenth episode of the third season of the American comedy television series '' Married... with Children'', and the 45th episode of the series overall. In the episode, the Bundys attempt (at Marcy Rhoades's suggestio ...

", in which the Bundys attempt to improve their love life by having marital relations in a different setting. Known as the "lost episode", it was finally aired in 2002 on FX and was packaged with the rest of the third season in the 2005 DVD release. The episode has aired outside the United States as a regular episode of season three ever since the show went into syndication. Rakolta made several appearances on television

talk show A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Sh ...

s and news programs at the time, including ''

Nightline ''Nightline'' (or ''ABC News Nightline'') is ABC News' late-night television news program broadcast on ABC in the United States with a franchised formula to other networks and stations elsewhere in the world. Created by Roone Arledge, the prog ...

''. While the boycott may briefly have affected the content of ''Married… with Children'', it did little to no economic damage. A year after the boycott, nearly all the defecting advertisers had returned, and ratings improved. Rakolta and her boycott were referenced in the ''Married... with Children'' Season 9 (1994–95) episode "No Pot to Pease In", in which a sitcom based on the Bundys' lives is cancelled because "some woman in Michigan didn't like it." Rakolta later founded Americans for Responsible Television to fight against other shows that she deemed offensive, including shows by

Phil Donahue Phillip John Donahue (born December 21, 1935) is an American media personality, writer, film producer and the creator and host of ''The Phil Donahue Show''. The television program, later known simply as ''Donahue'', was the first talk show forma ...

and

Howard Stern Howard Allan Stern (born January 12, 1954) is an American radio and television personality, comedian, and author. He is best known for his radio show, '' The Howard Stern Show'', which gained popularity when it was nationally syndicated on terr ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rakolta, Terry Living people 1944 births American activists Michigan Republicans Boycotts People from Bloomfield Hills, Michigan Latter Day Saints from Michigan Married... with Children