Actor Ed O'Neill explains his suffocating falling out with his long-time partner.
O'Neill starred as Al Bundy on the sometimes controversial Married… with Children for 11 seasons. “It was also the kind of show that no one wanted to admit they liked,” he told his podcast friend Jesse Tyler Ferguson, who starred with him on another 11-season sitcom, “Modern Family.”
O'Neal, now 77, spoke about his time on the show, and admitted that his feud with Amanda Pierce was something he regretted. “We didn't get along, and we did for a long time. We were great friends. And I can guess, I don't want to speak for her… It started when we got on the cover of TV Guide.”
“Married…With Children” star David Faustino says a reboot is still up in the air
Ed O'Neill has said he regrets his falling out with Married… with Children co-star Amanda Pierce. (Anna Bucaro/IndieWire/Penske Media via Getty Images)
Bearse and David Garrison, who played supporting characters Marcy D'Arcy and Steve Rhoades, were not featured, O'Neill says. “They were told they couldn't be on the cover. Because they had a rule: There were too few [that] “It could be on the cover,” he said of TV Guide's restrictions. “They've now violated that on two shows, for example, I think it was 'M*A*S*H' and 'Dallas,'” he explained.
“That was an exception. They didn't do it for us. We were lucky to get it. It was like year six or something,” he said of the July and August 1989 cover. The show premiered in 1987. “We were thrilled to get on the cover of TV Guide. It was big. Amanda and David walked out in unison from the dressing room. We were on the sound stage, and she said, 'We expect you to go to [co-creator] Ron Levitt and told him this wasn't working. We're all on the cover.”
“If I were a diplomat, I should have said, 'OK. I'll talk to him about it,'” O'Neill suggested.
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The Bundy Family, starring Ed O'Neill as Al, Katey Sagal as Peggy, Christina Applegate as Kelly, and David Faustino as Bud, appeared on the cover of TV Guide in 1989. (Tony Costa/TV Guide/Courtesy Everett Collection)
“But instead, I said, 'No. I'm not doing that. I'm sorry you guys aren't on the cover. I really am! I hope you are! But we can't do anything about it. What do you want me to do that?' To lie to you and tell you that you knew I would fight for you? I'm not doing that,” he remembers thinking.
“It makes me regret it,” O'Neill told Ferguson, admitting he would have done things differently in the past.
On the left is a photo of the Bundy family from the movie “Married… with Children.” On the right, additional characters Amanda Pierce and Ted McGinley as Jefferson and Marcy Darcy with the Bundy family. (Getty Images)
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A representative for Bearse did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.
Amanda Pierce reportedly asked Ed O'Neill to defend her and her co-star David Garrison on the cover of TV Guide. (Jerod Harris/Georgia/The Hollywood Reporter via Getty Images)
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Married with Children concluded in 1997 after 259 episodes.
Rumors of a reboot or spin-off have spread throughout Hollywood, but nothing has come to fruition.
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