Ironically, Ed O’Neill is far from the lazy slob he portrayed in the show. Ed was very active in his work and was known to be highly professional. He was the only member of the cast who was in every episode of the show throughout the ten-year run. Imagine that! In all 260 episodes, he was present. Not a single sick day for Ed.
This must be the reason why he took a long pause from acting before agreeing to play a role in Modern Family. You may see O’Neill in the character of a lousy, lazy man with a frustrating life and a career that’s going nowhere, but he is totally the opposite in real life.
A Great First Impression
Truly, first impressions last, and Ed O’Neill proved this. This is how the actor got the role of Al Bundy. O’Neill had appeared in a stage production as Lenny in Of Mice & Men , and a Fox executive remembered seeing how great his performance was, so he was called him in to do a reading. Having already embodied Al’s character, Ed came in with his shoulders drooped, heaved a heavy sigh, and walked lazily towards the casting judges’ seats.
Actor Ed O’Neill is well-known today for playing the role of Al Bundy on Fox’s Married with Children . The way he showed up at the audition was the reason he got the part, because that was exactly how Al Bundy was. The way he took to it so naturally was what won him the role.
They Were Definitely "Not The Cosbys"
The title of the show was originally going to be Not The Cosbys . This was, in fact, the working title during pre-production, and thee producers were giving it serious consideration, because clearly the Bundys were anti-Cosby! Bill Cosby and the Huxtable clan were a wealthy, hardworking, and decent family, living in the New York suburbs. The Bundys were quite the opposite, but it would be too shallow to call a show that just to demonstrate such an obvious contrast. Given recent events with Cosby (and the fact that there are now porn films bearing the title Not the Cosbys ), we’re sure the producers are relieved they took a different path.
Married With Children was a revolutionary television show at that time, because it portrayed a typical family setting that was far from being perfect. The sitcom displayed a frustrated head of the family, who hates his life for having a lazy wife, a flirty daughter, and an incompetent son. The show allowed people to relax about their less than perfect lives and the contrast to the too-good-to-be-true Cosbys didn’t need to be made so obvious.
What Do You Mean The Show Is Canceled?!
When Married With Children was at the peak its of its fame, viewers reached up to 15 million each week. For everyone, it all seemed like the demand and excitement would keep on rising. However, the numbers started to slip and continued their downward slide right into 1997, when the figures were as low as nine million per week. The ratings were at an all-time low when the show was canceled, which was just heartbreaking, especially for the cast.
The producers didn’t directly inform the cast members of the cancellation. Instead, they had to find out the painful news on their own. Ed O’Neill overheard it while on vacation! A couple were reading about the cancellation in a newspaper and talking about it within earshot of Ed. Christina Applegate learned it from her two close friends. Ouch!
Ed Calls On Special Occasions
During the peak of the sitcom, Ed O’Neill would grant the requests of fans to make birthday and holiday phone calls. A great number of the sitcom’s fans celebrating their birthday used to receive calls from Ed O’Neill. He would call them during his free time on the set.
His calls were from 1-800-collect, and cost him 65 cents per minute. One could easily picture him as the considerate actor, Ed, in real life, or the favorite sitcom dad, Al, in the show. Was it Al Bundy who called or was it Ed O’Neill? Either way, we’re sure the fans were over the moon to hear from him.