Ed O'Neill Reveals How He Landed the Role of Al Bundy on Married with Children | The Rich Eisen Show

what was the big break for you was it married with children essentially or well I went to New York from Youngstown and I was doing a lot of theater and I did Broadway off-broadway regional theaters and silver and I was doing a play at Hartford Stage called mice and men which is not a comedy by the way and I was I was playing Lenny okay which is the fellow I guess that's the best way to put it and then a casting director from LA was visiting his aunt Kent went to the show and then like the play liked me and then a year later they're casting married with children and they can't get the Bundy guy and this guy's name was Hirschfeld and he said you know this you know guys you're gonna think I'm nuts but I saw an actor a year ago in a Drama that I think he could do this and they they almost fired him uh-huh and I happened to be out there at the time for a failed pilot and they called me and I was playing handball at the Hollywood why and I showed up with my glove with the bat you know my bag with the gloves hanging Olyphant he was Levitan moya the hell is that and so we started talking in the office and then they had me audition they said would you mind reading and I said no that's what I do all the time and I saw the guy as my uncle one of my uncle's Al Bundy Orson yeah he was like and the guy was a judge but he reminded me of this and a bit but what I mean is I guess apparently most of the guys that read for it were doing it like Jackie Gleason and honeymooners you know yelling and mad well my uncle was like resigned you know life was gonna be bad reason I loved it so you know we'd be like he'd get home from work and he'd come in the house and my aunt his wife would say Joe I ran over the dog in the driveway today's dead and Joe would say what's for dinner it's gonna fit what's going up like bad right that's how I read it and they had not heard that tact you know reputation no they had not heard that and they went well that's kind of funny and anyway long story short that's what happened mm-hmm and then you got then you got the gig I guess I went away Al Bundy is born out of Lennie Of Mice and Men yeah the way and the other thing to when when when the guy running sort of running things for Fox at that time Barry Diller yes I heard apparently and I think the story is true when they when they auditioned Katy and I together then they have a meeting how they did the meetings shirk and Diller said you want my opinion you got the grout you got the gal you can do a hell of a lot better for the guy and they were a week before shooting and I beloved moisted we kinda like him you know Barry and this guy he's powerful hmm we kind of like him your funeral your funeral that was that's how I got into it and then much later I did that movie called Dutch and he was involved in that and he said you know I made a mistake about you the Rich Eisen show weekdays at noon eastern on audience

Channel: The Rich Eisen Show

Views: 3,362,591

Keywords: al bundy, ed O'Neill, christina applegate, comedy, sit-com, married with children, modern family, rich eisen, tv, sports, peggy bundy, bud bundy, sophia vergara, rich eisen show

Id: butNX7mnsKk

Length: 3min 13sec (193 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 09 2016