When thinking of Married… with Children, one immediately thinks of Al Bundy and his actor Ed O’Neill. However, as he revealed in an interview, he was not wanted at first and was almost fired.
What is Married… with Children?
- The sitcom aired from 1987 to 1997 and has 11 seasons.
- The series tells the everyday life of the four-member Bundy family.
- The series is a classic sitcom in terms of its narrative structure, where the starting situation of each episode is similar.
- A fan favorite is the head of the family, Al Bundy, with his typically bad mood.
The series enjoys a huge cult status, including in Germany. This is mainly due to the iconic main actor Ed O’Neill, who plays the likably unlikable father. In an interview, he recently revealed that he was almost fired before the series really took off.
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An another iconic family is introduced in Malcolm in the Middle:
O’Neill was initially unwanted
In the The Rich Eisen Show on YouTube, Ed O’Neill also spoke about his beginnings with Married… with Children, the English name for Married… with Children, and how he was actually not wanted at all. Barry Diller, who was responsible for the production of the series at the time, did not want him for the role.
At that time, he was not a known name and mainly appeared in TV movies. The other parties involved wanted him, but according to O’Neill, Diller only said: Do what you want
. Later, he supposedly called to ask if they had finally gotten rid of O’Neill.
To make it even harder for O’Neill, he set the production to only one episode, even though Fox had actually bought 12 right away. He also set the condition that if the pilot episode did not work, the series would never be made if O’Neill was hired. O’Neill himself was apparently unaware of this until a month before the interview.
However, with O’Neill, the series worked, was realized, and ran for 11 years. In the interview, O’Neill also mentions that Diller apologized at an award show: You know, I was wrong about you.
O’Neill reportedly replied only: We all make [mistakes]
.
At the end of the segment, O’Neill expresses understanding towards Diller’s initial hesitation: You can’t blame him for hesitating about me, because he didn’t know who I was; they didn’t know a thing about me.
Ultimately, it paid off for all those involved to hold onto O’Neill, who became the probably most iconic character of the series. If you want more series like this, then check out this list: 5 series like Married… with Children
