For a show whose theme song starts off with the word “love,” Married with Children didn’t exactly give its characters the most traditional emotional cores, and yet the Bundy family’s bond remained as strong as the one shared by the hit sitcom’s main cast. The same can’t be said for former co-stars Ed O’Neill and Amanda Bearse, however, as tension between the two reached a breaking point when the show was still airing, seemingly without any resolution in the years since. Now, the Al Bundy portrayer has reflected on what he thinks went wrong.
Ed O’Neill, who will next pop up on the small screen playing former Clippers owner Donald Sterling, reunited with his former Modern Family son Jesse Tyler Ferguson for the latter’s podcast Dinner on Me, and you can bet Married with Children came up as a topic of conversation. After Ferguson addressed the cast’s palpable chemistry and started to ask another question, O’Neill politely interrupted to spend a minute addressing his previously reported falling out with Bearse.
I did a thing on the show that involved Amanda Bearse that I regretted. We didn’t get along, but we did for a long time. We were great friends. And I could guess, I don’t want to speak for her, but it started when we got the cover of TV Guide. Her and David Garrison were the neighbors, and they were told they could not be on the cover. Because they had a rule: only so many could be on the cover. Now they violated that for like two shows, I think it was MASH, and Dallas. That was an exception, they weren’t doing it for us.
This point, O’Neill explained, was likely the forking point where his actions could have potentially gone in a direction where their friendship survived to live another day, but he instead went the other way. The Wayne’s World vet continued:
We were lucky to get it. It was like the sixth year in or something, and we were thrilled to get the cover of TV Guide. It was big. And Amanda and David came out in unison from their dressing room. We were on the soundstage, and she said, ‘We expect you to go to [co-creator] Ron Leavitt and tell him this doesn’t work. We’re all on the cover.’ If I was diplomatic, I should have said, ‘Fine, I’ll talk to him about it.’ But instead, I said, ‘No, I’m not doing that. I’m sorry you guys aren’t on the cover. I really am! I wish you were, but we can’t do anything about it. What do you want me to do? Lie to you and tell you I’m going to bat for you. I’m not.’
The existence of sayings such as with age comes wisdom” and “hindsight is 20/20” isn’t coincidental, and it sounds like Ed O’Neill is contrite for being too inside his own head at the time as Married with Children’s lead, rather than appealing to his co-star’s wishes. Even if he was practically sound in thinking TV Guide and/or Ron Leavitt would brusquely refuse to put all six on the cover, showing solidarity would have been the better move.
When Jesse Tyler Ferguson asked if he would take that higher road with Bros' Amanda Bearse if he could go back and do it again, O’Neill said:
Yeah, I would have. And that’s my regret.
For what it's worth, Married with Children made the cover of TV Guide for its July/August 1989 issue, which came ahead of the show's Season 4 premiere, and not quite six years in. It and every other season can be streamed with a Hulu subscription.
Lasting for eleven seasons, Married with Children remains one of the longest-running sitcoms of all time, despite also holding the reputation for being one of TV’s most offensive shows, sharing such lauded space with the current comedy king, the arguably more self-awarely offensive It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Both shows work best when the ensemble cast are all working together, with the uptight-ish Darcys being A+ foils for the amoral Bundys. And both shows also are known for getting snubbed at the Emmys. Clearly it's crossover time!
While this doesn't exactly seem like a buried hatchet, here's hoping happier and forgiving heads will prevail in the future, as fans await updates for the previously announced animated Married with Children revival.
