Ed Calls On Special Occasions
During the peak of the sitcom, Ed O’Neill would grant the requests of fans to make birthday and holiday phone calls. A great number of the sitcom’s fans celebrating their birthday used to receive calls from Ed O’Neill. He would call them during his free time on the set.
His calls were from 1-800-collect, and cost him 65 cents per minute. One could easily picture him as the considerate actor, Ed, in real life, or the favorite sitcom dad, Al, in the show. Was it Al Bundy who called or was it Ed O’Neill? Either way, we’re sure the fans were over the moon to hear from him.
Quite The Opposite In Real Life
Ironically, Ed O’Neill is far from the lazy slob he portrayed in the show. Ed was very active in his work and was known to be highly professional. He was the only member of the cast who was in every episode of the show throughout the ten-year run. Imagine that! In all 260 episodes, he was present. Not a single sick day for Ed.
This must be the reason why he took a long pause from acting before agreeing to play a role in Modern Family. You may see O’Neill in the character of a lousy, lazy man with a frustrating life and a career that’s going nowhere, but he is totally the opposite in real life.
What Do You Mean The Show Is Canceled?!
When Married With Children was at the peak its of its fame, viewers reached up to 15 million each week. For everyone, it all seemed like the demand and excitement would keep on rising. However, the numbers started to slip and continued their downward slide right into 1997, when the figures were as low as nine million per week. The ratings were at an all-time low when the show was canceled, which was just heartbreaking, especially for the cast.
The producers didn’t directly inform the cast members of the cancellation. Instead, they had to find out the painful news on their own. Ed O’Neill overheard it while on vacation! A couple were reading about the cancellation in a newspaper and talking about it within earshot of Ed. Christina Applegate learned it from her two close friends. Ouch!
Special Guest Stars You Didn’t Notice
You might have missed this, but family members of the cast made some cameos and guest appearances on the show. One example was Catherine Rusoff, Ed O’Neill’s wife, who had two guest spots. Joey Sagal, who was Katey’s brother, and Christina’s mother, Nancy Priddy, also made appearances.
Perhaps the most ironic guest appearances on the sitcom were the two former girlfriends of David Faustino, Elaine Hendrix and Julia Teblak. They each had their individual appearance in separate episodes. Faustino played the role of Bud Bundy on the show, who was known to have no luck with women, but these guest spots suggest it was actually quite the opposite in real life.
Ed’s Hollywood Star
Having contributed some amazing performance to the film and television world over the years, Ed O’Neill finally got his star on the walk of fame. But, what really made it so remarkable was that it was placed right in front of a local shoe store chain, as a tribute to the character Al and his dead-end job as a shoe salesman. This hilariously thoughtful gesture was truly uplifting.
As incredible as the star on the walk of fame was, fans showed up and asked for O’Neill’s autograph on the day he received this Hollywood honor. Fans even brought their own favorite pair of shoes for O’Neill to autograph. Now, that was really an awesome way to express fandom!