Ed O’Neill Says ‘Married… with Children’ Was The “Only Show” To Deal With “Sex Not Being Great” In A Marriage

Ed O’Neill thinks Married… With Children shook things up without shaking the bed too much.

While sitting down with Kelly Clarkson on Monday’s (June 3) episode of The Kelly Clarkson Show, he revealed that he thought the hit sitcom — which ran for 11 seasons — “would be canceled every year.”

“Well, when I got the show, I thought we’ll be canceled after three or four shows because we’re making fun of all sorts of people,” O’Neill’ told Clarkson, who said that his sitcom — along with Roseanne and The Cosby Show — was “all [she] watched” growing up.

Clarkson thought O’Neill admitting he thought his own show would be axed was “hilarious,” telling her guest, “I loved every episode though. I actually love that y’all talked about subjects that people didn’t, but we all kind of did. I don’t know if your show, if Married… With Children, you’d be able to have that show now.”

O’Neill noted, “I think we were the only show before or after that dealt with the sex not being great in the marriage.”

He added, “Even in Roseanne, they would make up and go flying up the stairs. And as they’re running up the stairs, and I’m watching going, ‘Yeah, right.'”

He recalled an instance filming alongside Katey Sagal, who portrayed his on-screen wife, Peggy Bundy, where they “were arguing.”

“It was the only show we did in 265 shows where she was wrong. I was always wrong,” he continued. “So in this episode, she said, ‘I know I was wrong.’ And I said, ‘Yeah.’ And she said, ‘I apologize.’ And I said, ‘Great.’ She said, ‘Can we go upstairs?’ I said, ‘No, because after all, I wasn’t wrong here.'”

As for securing his breakout TV role, he shared how how he approached the audition, noting that when he read the role of Al Bundy, he “thought of the character as one of [his] uncles who was actually a judge.”

“But he was self-deprecating,” he added. “In other words, he expected things to go wrong, and he always was right. And that’s how Bundy struck me.”

As for the other actors auditioning, O’Neill said they “rightfully” took inspiration from Jackie Gleason in The Honeymooners.

“But I did it like — and I remember this happened to my uncle. He came home from work one day, and he went in and his wife, my aunt, was there,” he recounted. “And he said, ‘What’s for dinner, honey?’ And she said, ‘I ran over the dog in the driveway, Joe, it’s dead.’ He said, ‘But what’s for dinner?’ So that’s how I read it. And they hadn’t heard that.”

The Kelly Clarkson Show airs on weekdays. Check the website for local listings. Married… with Children is streaming on Hulu.