Bundyology - An Interview with Ed O'Neill

Bundymania (TV Special):
Interview with Ed O'Neill

Last update March 22, 1998

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Bundymania
New Year's Eve 1997/98 TV Special
Pro 7 (German TV Station)
Taped in March, 1997

As posted by StuartM at alt.tv.mwc on March 22, 1998.

Q. What has it been like working on this show?
A. Well, you know, this is our 11th year, and it's been a wonderful experience. It's the first show on Fox to have, kind of, helped keep the network going you know, maybe, I know there were some rough times there when if it wasn't for our show I don't think they could have kept it alive. And it's also a bit of a part of history you know, to have started out with something to have been the only show still here of the original shows. And of course, I made a lot of money, so I have somewhere to go to, and allow me to live well, and not worry about money, so that it's been a lot of fun, meeting a lot of people and working and surviving in Hollywood.

Q. What does Ed O'Neill think of Al Bundy?
A. Well I always thought it was a very funny character, and that's what I thought it was, a unique kind of very funny character that I could get along with, that I, sort of, meet people like him, you know, from where I grew up, and had relatives actually kinda like him, so it just struck me as a very funny character that I was looking forward to doing.

Q. Do you think you are like him?
A. Well, I think part of me is, naturally, I don't think I could get by unless I could identify starring with him, so I think there's a lot of his qualities that I -- you know -- got.

Ed O'Neill

Q. Why does Al put his hand down his trousers?
A. Well that was a thing, that... err, we've been talking about that recently, we kinda tried to figure out, I think, I, I did it because it was a thing I had actually had done myself on occasion, it's a resting, it's sort of a good resting place for your hand, so that it doesn't, it just, like, go into your pants and just sits there. So it's a kind of a rest spot.

Q. Do you think the show has declined over the years?
A. We're having a rough time this year, the show as long as it's run, this years been very hard, because the writers that we have, don't, they didn't start out with the show, so we've been trying to kinda educate them on how they write, it's very hard to write, some people might think it's easy to write this show, but I think it's one of the hardest shows to write because we kinda have to, we're on a certain edge, you know, this way it's too bland, and this way it's too gross, we have to kinda be on the edge, it's difficult to stay there, to be cleverly funny, anyone can be grossly funny but to be cleverly gross is hard. So we've been having a hard time, and we don't know if we are gonna go another year, we're all waiting for Fox and Sony if they're gonna give one more year. And I've got some real good friends that I have started out with in this place, for another year if we get picked up so, if we do get picked up it will be a very funny 'last year'. And I also want to do a last episode, but right now we don't know if we're gonna go, we don't know the next thing, we may be, if this is the last show, so everybody's kinda on edge, you know, around here, that's why there's kind of a strange, fly-by, this week. We're not happy with this show for instance, we don't think it's very funny, we're not happy with a lot of the shows this year. So it's been a hard year.

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