Green Card

An immigrant plans to marry an American so they can stay in the country. Sometimes the American is aware of it; other times they're not. Usually one of them is happier about it than the other.

Taxi

Appearances

• What's Happening!!: Season 2, episode 1, "Rerun Gets Married" (1977). A Mexican immigrant named Maria moves to town and falls for Rerun. After dating him for a week, Maria asks Rerun to marry her so she can stay in the country, and he says yes. The judge realizes something isn't right and refuses to do the ceremony, but he agrees to help Maria get a student visa so she can come back to America.
• Barney Miller: Season 4, episode 13, "The Ghost" (1978). A married couple is arrested for causing a disturbance, and the husband confesses to the police that his wife is a hooker who married him so he could stay in the country, but he's in love with her and wants to be a real husband to her.
• Taxi: Season 1, episode 8, "Paper Marriage" (1978). Latka's visa expired, and IRS agents come to the garage looking for him. To avoid being deported, he wants to marry an American citizen, so Alex hires a prostitute to marry him.
• Night Court: Season 2, episode 11, "Take My Wife, Please" (1984). Mac is trying to help his friend from Vietnam, Quon Le, stay in the country, but he can't get the paperwork together in time, so he asks her to marry him, and they have a rushed wedding at the courthouse. Unfortunately, Quon Le is in love with Mac, and she thinks their marriage is real.
• Too Close for Comfort: Season 5, episode 9, "No Mas Monroe" (1985). Monroe is smitten with the Rushes' new housekeeper, Evon, but her Visa expired, and she's afraid she'll be deported back to her home country (somewhere in Central America), so when Monroe asks her to marry him, she says yes, even though she's not in love with him.
• Mr. Belvedere: Season 3, episode 7, "Deportation: Part 2" (1986). When Immigration arrests Mr. Belvedere for not having a valid work visa, Wesley finds a prostitute who agrees to marry Mr. B so he can stay in the country, but Mr. B turns her down.
• Cheers: Season 10, episode 10, "A Fine French Whine" (1991). Henri announces he's being deported back to France, but he wants to stay in the US, so he manipulates Kelly into agreeing to marry him. Kelly claims it means nothing and is just so he can stay in the country, but Henri has other ideas. Woody rushes out to stop the wedding and discovers that Henri made the whole thing up just to get Kelly to marry him.
• Wings: Season 3, episode 12, "Marriage, Italian Style" (1992). Antonio's visa request was turned down, and he's afraid he might get deported back to Italy, so the gang suggests he marry an American citizen. The only woman Brian can find to marry him is "Sconset Sal," an eccentric, bug-infested sailor who wears only one boot, but Sal wins some money in a card game and backs out, so Helen steps in.
• Dream On: Season 3, episode 8, "Here Comes the Bribe" (1992). The INS is threatening to deport Gibby back to Australia, and to stay in the country he wants to marry an American citizen. He promises Martin Whitestone will publish his novel if he convinces Toby to marry Gibby. Toby agrees and has a ball planning a lavish wedding and negotiating a hefty fee.
• 3rd Rock from the Sun: Season 2, episode 15, "A Dick on One Knee" (1997). Michel, a French immigrant, asks Sally to marry him so he can in the country. At the wedding, Mrs. Dubcek discovers that an INS agent is in attendance looking for an "illegal alien in the wedding party." When she tells the gang, they think he's looking for them, so Sally calls off the wedding, telling Michel that she's an alien too.
• Peep Show: Season 2, episode 6, "Wedding" (2004). Nancy asks Jeremy to marry her so she can stay in the country. Jeremy is head-over-heels in love with Nancy, so he enthusiastically says yes, and even though Nancy tells him that it won't be a real marriage, he's convinced he can still make it work.
• Malcolm in the Middle: Season 7, episode 12, "College Recruiters" (2005). Grandma comes to visit and brings a girl from the old country named Raduca, and she makes Reese and Malcolm go through feats of strength to prove that Reese is a man and can marry her; Malcolm wins, but Reese still wants to marry Raduca, so makes a desperate proposal, and she accepts, but what Reese doesn't know is that Raduca is only marrying him to get her green card, and she's sleeping with another man.
• My Name is Earl: Season 2, episode 11, "South of the Border: Part Dos" (2006). When Earl and Randy get separated while looking for Catalina in her country, Earl runs into her uncle, who for some reason tells Catalina that Earl is going to marry her so she can go back to America. When Randy finds out he's devastated, so Earl purposely fails three challenges he has to pass to marry Catalina so that Randy can marry her instead.