Married… with Children and Modern Family star Ed O’Neill has opened up about his feud with one of his co-stars that continues to this day.
O’Neill, 77, explained the falling out during an episode of the Dinner’s On Me podcast with his Modern Family co-star Jesse Tyler Ferguson.
O’Neill was speaking about Married… with Children – which ran for 11 seasons from 1987 to 1997 – when he said: “I did a thing on the show that I regretted. I did a thing on the show that involved Amanda Bearse that I regretted.
Listen to the audio above
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“We didn’t get along, but we did for a long time,” he explained.
“We were great friends. And I could guess, I don’t want to speak for her, but it started when we got the cover of TV Guide.“
Bearse and David Garrison who played neighbours Marcey D’Arcy and Steve Rhoads were not asked to join the cast for the photoshoot.
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“Because they had a rule: only so many could be on the cover,” he continued.
O’Neill noted that TV Guide made exceptions for TV shows MASH and Dallas but “they weren’t doing it for us.”
O’Neill said Bearse and Garrison came to him and told him they expected him to stand up for them and ask that they be included.
“We were lucky to get it. It was like the sixth year in or something, and we were thrilled to get the cover of TV Guide. It was big,” O’Neill explained.
“And Amanda and David came out in unison from their dressing room.
“We were on the soundstage, and she said, ‘We expect you to go to [co-creator] Ron Leavitt and tell him this doesn’t work. We’re all on the cover.’
“I should have said, if I was diplomatic, I should have said, ‘Fine. I’ll talk to him about it.’ But instead I said, ‘No, I’m not doing that. I’m sorry you guys aren’t on the cover, I really am, I wish you were but we can’t do anything about it. What do you want me to do? Lie to you and tell you I’m gonna go to bat for you? I’m not.'”
O’Neill said he wishes he would have handled it more diplomatically.
“And that’s my regret,” he added.
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Bearse has spoken about her time on the show several times since it wrapped, saying she remains “very grateful for that show for many reasons, mostly because it gave me my second career,” she told Page Six in 2022. That second career was directing.
When asked during a Sunday Life in 2020 interview how the cast got along on set she said “towards the end it wasn’t as pleasant.”
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“You spend that much time with anyone, you’re going to have good days and bad days,” she said. “And that’s kind of why the show ended up kind of petering away, just because there was some discord,” she said, adding that she is still in touch with co-star Christina Applegate
Bearse attended the unveiling of Applegate’s star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2022 along with Katey Sagal and David Anthony Faustino.
Sagal and O’Neill also have stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.