I had a real father-son moment with Ed O’Neill. After a press conference for his new show, Modern Family, I went up on stage to talk to him some more. As we walked off the stage, he put his hand on my shoulder to make sure I didn’t fall. This is the guy I grew up with as Al Bundy. Now he’s playing a divorcee with a new young bride (the awesomely hot Sofia Vergara) in a mockumentary about crazy families.
Crave Online: How many family comedies have you been offered over the years?
Ed O’Neill: Quite a few. That’s a good question. Probably over 10 anyway. Maybe 15, but this is the one I thought was the cleverest and the smartest.
Crave Online: It’s very obviously different from the Bundys but since everyone will ask, how is it different for you?
Ed O’Neill: The easiest way to say it is that it’s single camera than four. It’s not a sitcom. There’s no live audience. It’s more real. There’s no jokes. The comedy comes out of the situations rather than the set-up, joke, punch line.
Crave Online: The timing is quite different. How do you approach that as a comedian?
Ed O’Neill: Just to play the scene realistically. That’s all. Just basic acting really. I don’t know how to say that any clearer. It’s just listening and reacting.
Crave Online: Did you want to do another comedy?
Ed O’Neill: No, no, no. I had a meeting with Steve[n Levitan] and Chris[topher Lloyd] over at their office and they pitched it before they wrote it. I thought gee, that sounds great. But then I said, “Well, I have to see it. An idea’s great but I want to see it.” You’ve got to see the script. They wrote the script and they sent it to me and I read it and I said, “Geez, I have to do this. I have to go back to work.” That was it. To me, it was just a no brainer. When I read it, I thought I’ve got to do it.
Crave Online: The mall walkers scene.
Ed O’Neill: Well, that was real because what I was thinking was, “My, this went quickly.” You’re a young guy in one movie and then next you’re like, “Oh my God, I’m in a mall walking line.” But it was very funny to me.
Crave Online: Will the character continue to find new ways to recapture his youth.
Ed O’Neill: I don't know. You know me, I’m a hired gun. I think so. For me, it’s very funny that this guy obviously had a failed marriage. We’re going to deal with that. That will be an actress and he wasn’t very good at that. That was an American woman that he could never figure out. Now he’s with this Colombian woman, obviously for obvious reasons when he met her. Now he’s trying to figure out this woman which is good luck. So he’s really over his head.
Crave Online: Will we find out more about how they met?
Ed O’Neill: I think that’s mentioned in the second episode, yeah. Like a bikini pool party to celebrate his divorce or something. He was at a swim up pool bar in Cabo. Now, I don't know where they’re going with the work I do. I think it’s Closet King or something. He installs closets but he’s got a lot of money, but it’s one of those rough around the edges guys. He’s not like a stock broker or something. He’s made money through a business and he’s still pretty nouveau riche I guess would be the term.
Crave Online: Who will play the first wife?
Ed O’Neill: Well, we don’t have her yet. There were some really, really good actresses that were in the mix but I can’t really comment
on that now.
Crave Online: Will she become a regular character?
Ed O’Neill: She will become probably recurring because obviously she’s in and out and I think there’s a real struggle with her and Gloria that’s very, very funny.
Crave Online: It would be funny if it were Katey Sagal.
Ed O’Neill: It would be very funny. Well, Katey has her own show now. She’s great in that, isn’t she? Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Of course I called Christina to congratulate her that I would be on the same network and then they cancelled the show.
Crave Online: Why do your characters have so much trouble with women all the time?
Ed O’Neill: Because everybody does. I just think there’s a lot of comedy in there. There’s a lot of opportunity. Then with the kid, with Manny, that’s a big problem because he has a gay son. So the fact that he doesn’t want Manny to have maybe the same similar problems that his son obviously did when he was in school, he’s trying to shield him from that and oftentimes says the wrong things because he’s not really good at being a father. Obviously, he’s not going to win any fatherhood awards but he’s trying and that’s kind of funny.
Crave Online: Do you ever see the old Married with Children episodes? How do they hold up?
Ed O’Neill: Oh yeah. I channel surf like probably most people. When I see one, I’ll watch it. It’s funny about that show because it was 11 years and I think we shot over 265 episodes. I was in every one. I was the only actor in every one and I still remember every one of them. So that I can run into an actor that says, “I had my first job on Married with Children.” I’ll say, “What’d you play?” “Oh, I played the delivery guy.” “Oh, yeah, yeah, I remember that.” They’re like, “How could you remember that?” But oftentimes if I like the show, I have my favorites, I’ll watch the ones I like a lot. I don’t watch them all.
Crave Online: How does your new TV wife compare to Peggy Bundy?
Ed O’Neill: Exactly the same. No, no. Well obviously, different show. And I'm older. She's younger. Peg and I were a little closer in age, although I was older than she was, Katey. So this is a whole different deal. I'm a little over my head, I think, in this one, and it's kind of fun to try to keep up. So I don't know. We'll see how it goes.
Crave Online: Do you prefer comedy to the sort of tough guy shows like Dragnet?
Ed O’Neill: Well, it's a different thing entirely, but Dragnet was fun. It was a lot of work. It was an hour drama and it was a procedural, so it was six and seven scenes a day. That's a lot of work, 14 hours every day. This is much more ensemble, and it's a comedy, so I really like this job.
Crave Online: Do you think that sometimes people take comedy for granted or assume that acting in a show like this is somehow easier than doing the hard-hitting drama?
Ed O’Neill: Well, I did The Big Apple, a David Milch show, and then John from Cincinnati, which was a David Milch show but David Milch is also a very funny guy, as you know. I always found that drama, really good drama has a lot of comedy in it. Then I think in this show, I mean it's too early to tell you, but I think there's also going to be some drama in this show. It's very realistic. It's fun to play both, obviously. That's the obvious answer. But I mean, so it's just weighted a little bit more on the side of comedy in this one as opposed to the dramatic.
