Ed O'Neil and Amanda Bearse feud started over a TV Guide cover

He was so fucking hot back then.

I didn’t watch that show, but if the cover was going to be 4 actors, wouldn’t it logically be the main couple and the 2 kids?

Was the other couple that central to the show?

Never mind Amanda and Steve. Ted McGinley should have been the TV Guide cover boy every week.

He was hot. Perfect dad-bod. I couldn’t take my eyes off his crotch when he sat on the couch and spread his long beefy legs.

Wait for her inevitable response - Is it because I am a lesbian?

They put a dog on it but not Bearse?

The dogs were cuter.

TV Guide feuds are very DL.

If it was that important to Amanda Bearse to be included on the cover, then why didn’t she approach the producers and fend for herself?

Why would she drag Ed ONeill into it, and put him in an uncomfortable position? Maybe she figured that O’Neill had clout and could change TV Guide’s mind. Pretty ballsey on her part.

[quote] Why would she drag Ed ONeill into it, and put him in an uncomfortable position? Maybe she figured that O’Neill had clout and could change TV Guide’s mind. Pretty ballsey on her part.

I think she was hoping that the stars would stand together in a show of solidarity and unity, and then blamed Ed for not supporting her.

Kind of how the stars of Friends stood together for a collective pay raise. It was about the same time as that.

All for one, and one for all.

But yeah, not so much.

Ballsy Vance and Frawley got a cover all to themselves.

But not photographed together.

a) Ed wasn't wrong that the Bundys were the stars and the in these early seasons and the neighbors were secondary

b) Ed is a real asshole for trying to get Amanda fired from the show over a dispute he had already won.

c) Over time Marcy became indefensible to the show

Green screens are the answer.

I agree she was indefensible.

ACK

Indispensable

R13 LOL I love that scene. Amanda could hold her own with the best of them.

Ed (& David F.) sound like real headaches to be around.

They both made fun of her short hairstyles, her wedding plans & more.

The set sounds like it was attack of the runaway egos with the Bundy 4.

Ed & Katey were rumored to have been picked up on a hot mic (behind the set) talking about how they could get rid of the neighbors for another season with the whole studio audience hearing them as well as Amanda in the the control room. AWKWARD!!!

Wait! I have another brilliant idea!!

[QUOTE]Kind of how the stars of Friends stood together for a collective pay raise. It was about the same time as that.

They're talking about the July-August 1989 cover. Friends didn't debut until 1994.

[quote] O'Neill, now 77, reflected on his tenure on the show, admitting his feud with Amanda Bearse was something he regretted.

You can take all the sincerity in Hollywood, place it in the navel of a fruit fly and still have room enough for three caraway seeds and a producer's heart. -- Fred Allen

People actually watched this show?

[quote] People actually watched this show?

I actually hated Married With Children.

It was just gross, lowbrow humor.

I know that it was supposed to be a parody of a trashy American family, but they still grossed me out.

That said, everyone knows about the show because it was very popular at the time.

Angry butch Lesbian pushes boundaries for special treatment and blames unfavorable outcome on ancillary straight white man

More at 10

I really miss the days when TV Guide was a thing.

It became unwatchable after year 5 or so.

[quote] People actually watched this show?

Yes, Nellie Sue, not everyone was watching Murder, She Wrote or The Golden Girls in those years.

I did a couple of plays with Ed O'Neill in regional theaters in the 1980s not long before he struck gold on TV. LOVED working with him, big sexy guy, very comfy with the gays even though he was not gay. A real mensch back then.

I also did some theater work with David Garrison, whose sexuality I could never quite figure out. Nice enough guy but kind of prissy.

Bob Denver and Tina Louise also had a huge fight over a TV Guide cover--Denver wanted Dawn Wells to share the cover of TV Guide with him and Louise for "Gilligan's Island," and Louise was furious she would have to share it with Wells. Denver won, and they never got along again (although to be fair everyone else on "Gilligan's Island" already didn't like Louise, who was a huge diva).

Interesting work situation. O'Neil and Bearse really started arguing in the last seasons and she said she was going to the producers and say it's him or me (she was the director). I wonder why she didn't go to the producers with that demand?

Wrong R28. Tina's problems with GI was always show related & not cast related. She invited the entire cast to her late 60s wedding & they all showed up except for the Prof. who had a prior engagement. The wedding photos of Tina & her castmates having a good time are all probably still on Pinterest if you're interested.

Bottom line is if she didn't like them there would've been no invites (as headstrong as she was) & none of the cast wouldn't have bothered to show up if she was that horrible behind the scenes.

His hatred of her was sexists and homophobic because he's a giant douche. Also the kid who played the son was also a homophobic ass. No surprises here - people hate who they are afraid they might become, it's about them, and you can't change it. But when they have power over you, they make your life miserable.

I love Ed.

R31 = Boris, try English.

Ed is homophobic? lol. He just did a gay sex scene a few years ago. David Faustino always calls out homophobes on social media. Not sure where you’re getting your info. No one likes Amanda. She’s always been a pain in the ass. It’s why she wasn’t hired for the upcoming “Married with Children” animated series. Her odious personality is well-known in Hollywood. It’s why she gets no work. She burned too many bridges with her bullshit.

What's a workplace without some drama? True unanimous harmony just doesn't happen in spaces where everyone has opinions and egos and their own motivations. Couple that with the outsized personalities in Hollywood, and it's no wonder not every production ended on friendly terms.

The drama on Gilligan's Island is hard to verify, but sometimes what's unspoken is more powerful than what is. That show was a big deal, both in terms of its ratings and the merchandise empire that came out of it. So, like with many other media properties, any interview surrounding Gilligan's Island was pretty heavily monitored and controlled by the network. CBS was pretty diligent in what its stars could and couldn't say about one another in the press. They were, after all, the meal ticket. And if CBS wasn't happy, you could guarantee none of the involved actors would be either.

However, there are some clues within a January 1965 edition of TV Guide. These clues point to some serious acrimony between series star Bob Denver (Gilligan) and Tina Louise (Ginger Grant). If the island was paradise, then the TV Guide article pointed toward the trouble in it.

"[Bob] Denver will not say why he and the glamorous Tina [Louise] do not get along, nor will any of the castaways—they just ignore her, and she ignores them.

"Between scenes, while the other six principals chat and tell jokes together, she sits off by herself. And recently when Denver was asked to pose for pictures with her, he adamantly refused."

While much is left to speculation, it appears as though the hard feelings weren't just one-way. As it turns out, it may have been the production as a whole that left a bad taste in Tina Louise's mouth.

"Part of Louise's dissatisfaction with the series was that she had expected to be the star of the show."

While she wasn't given top billing for any of Gilligan's 98 episodes, Tina Louise was inarguably an important part of the show's success. But, because of the series' indelible mark on pop culture, Louise was mostly typecast as Ginger types for the rest of her career. That might sour anyone on a show and its crew.

Riiiight, Ed O’Neil, is a homophobe who does a podcast with one of his closet friends, gay actor Jesse Tyler Ferguson. Amanda, fuck off.

[quote] Angry butch Lesbian pushes boundaries for special treatment and blames unfavorable outcome on ancillary straight white man

I remember hearing that he wasn't straight.

I never once thought of Ed O'Neil in a sexual way. Am I straight?

R34 She's a director with many credits to her name.

In this interview, he basically tells her his problem with your was because she was a lesbian.

R35 It's been implied that Tina's agent (or manager) was desperate for some cash & wanted 1 of his stars to get a big contract so when he saw the Gillian's Island script, he changed the front of it to just G.I. & told Tina it was a new sit-com called "Ginger's Island" & that she was the lead (which is what she told her team she was looking for). He had read the script on her behalf (as many actors can't read everything that's been sent tot hem) & she signed the contract trusting him.

The way I heard it Tina goes to the table read & after Denver reads for the lead "GilIigan" she asks confusingly "Is my name Gilligan now?" which brought everyone at the table read to start laughing at her. After it was explained to her (probably be Sherwood) that she wasn't the lead & that the name was indeed "Gilligan's Island" not "Ginger's Island" she fired her manager & tried to get out of the contract. TPTB had a long casting call for the role & flat out refused which is why she was so unhappy on the set for those 3 years. The contract was binding back then (but now she probably couldn't filed some motion to have it torpedoed) & even though the creep was fired he made what I recall the amount of about $4 million off of her as past of each episode she shot had to go to his bank account & she had no recourse. Whenever the network moved the show to a new time slot she had hoped it'd be cancelled but it always held its own no matter how many times it changed slots.

The other castmates were like "grin & bear it" but she couldn't as she wondered if the role (as 5th in the opening credits) would typecast her & her lead role show would never happen. The other castmates didn't believe that they'd be typecast but as the show was over Tina was indeed right. The Professor couldn't go back to westerns, Gilligan's new sit-com brought in the Skipper actor to boost the ratings (it didn't) & The Howells had to take roles on Sherwood's The Brady Bunch to keep themselves in the public eye. Mary Ann disappeared from tv pretty much after her role ended on GI.

Tina's betrayal of trust made her have issues with the GI show which runs hot or cold depending on what mood she is in (Ex. = Tina would talk to Howard Stern about the show but refused to do a little script he wrote for something castaway related "because it had to much GI in it" as she said.). I believe Stern aired that exact segment where she actually says that after she refused to say the words in the script probably to get back at her.

R37 yeah I heard that too

R11 And Viv is still getting covers. She just graced the cover of Closer magazine a couple of weeks ago. She must sell. I think this is her third one!

Only on DL do you get the tea on the Tina Louise/Bob Denver feud.

The Bob Denver/Tina Louise battle would make the most shocking of Feud series.

I can't believe all the comments re: how hot Ed was. Ugh.

I thought he came out.

More Denver/ Tina tea = Since Tina had a star contract (which is what she wanted = a star vehicle sit-com where no one could come after her in the opening credits ala Mary Tyler Moore Show & the big 3 on the original Star Trek show.). This was what prevented TPTB from using the rhyming end tag to the new lyrics "The Professor And Mary Ann" that they had intended on using. Tina was like if you let me off of this shipwreck of a show, you guys can do whatever you want but they refused to let her out of her contract so Season 1 (the black & white one) ran with "and the rest". Most fans at home thought they were geniuses for coming up for "Where's the Professor and Mary Ann?" & "hey it even rhymes". How dumb are they for not using it (not knowing it was Tina's star contract that prevented them from doing so). It was the second most asked question of the cast & crew after when are they going to be rescued.

It might never have changed but Bob Denver had in his STAR contract that his name can appear anywhere in the show from the start (which the new song had) or at the end of the credits (like I think Larry Hagman had in Dallas or some others I can't recall just now) so he (unknown to the cast during it's original run) went to TPTB & said if we can't get the song to be done as it was originally done then I want my name at the end like the "rest" which caused the whole song to collapse. TPTB went to Tina & told her of what was going down & that they still wouldn't let her out of her contract but they'd give her some $ to make that clause in her contract go away so they gave like $20 grand & she said fine. Bob & Tina didn't get along on a film they did together before the show & one reason she didn't like the show was that someone she didn't get along with was the power broker on the set as he demonstrated in the "and the rest" & would also tell her to get to the set for taping as she spent lots of her time in her dressing room crying over what went down.

It's been presumed that she avoided uncaring Denver & not the rest of the cast. Denver taking Wells side on the TV guide cover was another dig at Tina & reminding her she had no power as #5 in the cast (she had at times hated the "Mary Ann or Ginger question" that dogged her from the show's start & it's possible the TV Guide cover came from that perpetual headache for her). Denver seemed to have it out for her yet again by revealing in his book that she was cheating on her husband with guys in her dressing room during the show which really ticked her off. He seemed to really enjoy throwing salt into her wounds from the time they met until he passed away.

Also Howard Stern showed the Tina Louise clip "The script has too much GI stuff on it" on the E! Network broadcasts of his radio show around the year 2000. I don't know if Tina knew she was still being filmed while she said it but it might be on YouTube somewhere.

Dawn On Tina =

The majority of the audience probably watched the show to hear the dad's misogynistic remarks about the wife and to see the teenage girl's revealing outfits, not for the peripheral cast...and TV Guide knew that.

Did TV Guide show all 10 members of the 8 Is Enough cast or just a couple?

Maybe if they saw entire casts of big shows like The Waltons together on a cover that they thought just 6 on one cover was no big deal.

Did the cast of S. Trek TNG (which had 9 at one point) get all of those cast members on a single cover?

I recall by the time S. Trek Voyager came around that cast of 9 got 3 different covers of 3 actors each to make everyone happy (so maybe the MWC cast helped out other shows with this representation issue). I would think it definitely helped out women & racial minorities with the whole white male leads dominance of the 70s & 80s tv shows.

Betty Lynn wanted a solo TV Guide cover, but had to learn to share.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐄𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐆𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫

Gilligan's Island was scheduled for a fourth season, and TV Guide even announced that the show was going to start off with a 'one hour special'. THEN - suddenly - at the last minute, Gilligan's Island and Run Buddy Run (two 1/2 hour shows) were cancelled to make room for "Gunsmoke!".

Decades later, "The Original Giligan's Island Fan Club" purchased a script copy of the last episode "Gilligan The Goddess", and discovered several forth season 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘱𝘰𝘴𝘢𝘭𝘴 which were yellowed and deteriorated.

1)"Proportional Potions": Gilligan finds a drink which makes him miniaturized.

2)"Another Start Is Born" or "Bye Bye Birdy": Ginger climbs aboard a rowboat (Titanic Jr.) and gets rescued.

3)"An Eye For An Eye": Ginger Grant is replaced by Miss Krissy and Miss Sally.

4)"No Bill For This Tab": Guest star portrayed by Tab Hunter appears.

5)"Ahoy Matey": Modern day pirate 'Silver Long-Johns' comes to the island.

6)"Eye Detect You": Gilligan thinks he's Dick Tracy and ruins rescue.

7)"Who's The Dodo?": Professor tracks what he thinks is the rare Dodo bird while Gilligan finds a lamp which when rubbed brings forth a genie.

8)"Laugh until It Hurts": Comedian Paul Lynde guest stars to 'test' jokes on the castaways.

9)"My Favorite Alien": A silly alien lands on the island.

10)"I Hear You": A singer (Bobby Vinton?) guest stars as Mary Ann's, Miss Sally's, and Miss Krissy's favorite singer

The ultimate TV Guide cover.

On what planet was Ed O’Neil ever considered hot?

[quote] On what planet was Ed O’Neil ever considered hot?

On Planet Weird City.

R53 - they all sound terrible but the earlier seasons were hardly Moliere. How were they going to write-off Ginger?

R55 Not mine!

R57 She was going to leave the island via raft (that brought Missy Sally & Miss Krissy mentioned above) but lapse into a coma by head injury so she couldn't tell anyone about Gilligan's Island & its whereabouts. She'd be the only castaway considered alive with the rest lost at sea. Less searches meant less chances of rescue & more seasons (but it wasn't meant to be).

[quote] On what planet was Ed O’Neil ever considered hot?

Al Bundy was the very definition hot daddy on a sitcom. Welcome to plant Earth.

^Planet!

Call Ryan Murphy! We have his next FEUD! Sara Ramirez IS Amanda Bearse! Sterling K Brown IS Ed O'Neill.

^Ryan Gosling as David Faustino and Margot Robbie as Christina Applegate! Ratings gold!

Amanda Bearse is MY role!!!!

Directed by,,,,,,,,MELANIE MAYRON!

This show was disgusting. I'm still upset that boycott didn't get it cancelled.

[quote]I recall by the time S. Trek Voyager came around that cast of 9 got 3 different covers of 3 actors each to make everyone happy

The Star Trek Voyager set was constant DRAMA. That could be a whole separate thread.

R60 must lead an extremely sheltered life to honestly believe that blob was ever hot.

Randomly: Back in the late-90s & early-00s, I used to see Ed O'Neill at the Laurel Canyon dog park all the time. He had a yellow Labrador retriever (and one of those long-handled tennis ball launchers). I spoke to him a few times & he seemed pretty friendly. The first time, he approached me to ask what breed my dog was. I got that a lot at the dog park. I had an Irish Terrier, which are fairly uncommon (at least in Southern California), and he said, "That's one good-looking dog."

Maybe he was trying to hit on you, R69.

You know I have the same trouble with Vivian and Bill. Not everyone can be a star.

Some people can be so unforgiving.

I just noticed Lani's prominent camel toe at R52. Maybe that's what got the second tier cast members banned forever from TV Guide covers.

I didnt appreciate Ed O'Neil's sexiness until the movie Dutch, Thinking about how he could loosen up a ridged spoiled brat.

Rigid

amanda is lucky she did not piss off Ed too much.

After being introduced to Brazilian jiu-jitsu by his friend writer/director John Milius, O'Neill has trained for 22 years under the mentoring of Rorion Gracie.

Ed is a BEAR.

it's usually publicists and producers and TV Guide editors that choose the subject covers; they could have shot one with Amanda and Ted, the other without.

Now, nobody cares about publicity because they can generate it themselves on social media.

Sandra Bernhard dated Amanda Bearse when Amanda was on All My Children in the early 80s. Apparently she was very, very mean to Sandra (who I’m sure was a real walk in the park herself).

Just watched all 3 parts of that TV Academy interview with Ed. Love how honest he is, confident when he knows he's right but totally self-deprecatory when he knows he isn't or just doesn't have an answer. Just as I remember him.

All young actors should watch this interview. Great insights in beginning and maintaining a career in acting.

Amanda was in Fright Night. She was an icon in horror circles before she was Marcy Rhodes D’Arcy.

R11, is that an actual TV Guide?

She was lousy on All My Children. The fact that she landed on a sitcom that became a hit is one of the luckiest stories in show business relative to her lack of talent.

I hadn’t thought of Amanda Bearse in decades with she showed up in Bros. And was the recipient of Billy Eichner’s character’s most obnoxious needling.

[quote]The fact that she landed on a sitcom that became a hit is one of the luckiest stories in show business relative to her lack of talent.

I would hardly call Amanda untalented. She was hilarious as Marcy and could certainly go toe to toe with Ed and Katy. Marcy had some of the funniest scenes in the series, and Bearse directed numerous episodes.

I remember her character coming on AMC as sort of a replacement for Kim Delaney's Jenny, who this 10 year old gayling thought was the most beautiful, perfect woman who ever lived (Laurance Lau, was the only male beautiful enoiugh for Kim).. Suffice to say, Amanda was no Jenny Gardiner, that's for sure!

This show in first-run and in syndicated reruns has always been my guilty pleasure, with The Bundys & Company's "fuck you" attitudes to societal convention and mores all around the outside of their little home, back yard and world (oh, and Al's shoe store lol). It was actually not conceived as a parody of trashy sitcoms, but instead as a contrast to all the yuppie-perfect-family shows that proliferated in the early and middle 1980s. I think what's low-brow is to look down on the show's oftentimes clever writing matched well with the personalities of its different castmembers, who seemed at least on the TV screen to gel together well, and to have really good comic abilities and timing. In fact, I thought the show's madcap plots and humor, outrageous and admittedly unfathomable in today's TV world, became more hilarious as the later seasons progressed. There was something especially fun about how "MWC" made un of everybody and everything, and said it out loud, that most viewers thought to themselves but would usually not ever admit.

Good post r88. The 1980s were full of horrible family sitcoms that were perfect, upper middle class and boring. Married With Children and Roseanne was a reaction to that and not surprisingly they were both huge hits.

As batshit insane as Roseanne later became, she was fantastic in the 80s and 90s and very funny.

Had a friend who worked on Sons of Anarchy who said Katy Segal was the biggest cunt that ever cunted, and was utterly loathed by cast and crew.

[quote] The 1980s were full of horrible family sitcoms that were perfect, upper middle class and boring. Married With Children and Roseanne was a reaction to that and not surprisingly they were both huge hits.

[quote] As batshit insane as Roseanne later became, she was fantastic in the 80s and 90s and very funny.

Roseanne is still one of my favorite sitcoms despite Roseanne Barr being batshit crazy. I like that the show wasn't always rainbows and sunshine and showed the reality of families struggling. I still occasionally watch episodes on Peacock.

r91 the show still holds up. A pretty realistic slice of working class American life, and it was also funny as hell.

It's a shame what happened with Roseanne, she was so sharp and astute and so funny. She really had a lot to say about class issues and domestic issues in America. A pity she lost her damn mind with Trump and all the QAnon conspiracy shit.

I think MWC’s sweet spot was season 2 - 5. In the first season, Peg actually did some housewife duties and she and Al actually liked each other. Season 2 was when they became the malcontents that we all know and love. After season 5, some of the jokes became stale and the writing wasn’t as sharp and witty. By the time they added the kid Seven and the “No M’a’am” storylines, it was all but over.

I THOUGHT THE BITCH WAS WHITE!!!!!!!!!!!

I think Bearse was at best a very mediocre talent on MWC. Her early performances were so pathetic, you wondered if she had any training at all. It was early Fox remember and the talent on the network was in short supply. As the show progressed and they defined her character, she got better, but she was still unable to really build a stereotype the way everyone else on the cast did, even Ted McGinley. The fact that she's had such limited success after MWC does speak to her talent, or perhaps her unpopularity in the business.

O'Neill has been discussing his "feud" with her a lot and he admits he made several mistakes.

Amanda came across very well in the early episodes as a bougie, white collar, WASP-y wife. As the show progressed, we learned that Marcy and Steve were just as depraved as the Bundys were, but they were just better at hiding it. Amanda's various scenes where Marcy has a flashback or had one of her sexual outbursts were hilarious, and a lesser actress would not have been able to pull them off (the scene at R13 is just one of many examples).

Another classic Marcy scene where she gets a little too into her storytelling.

Whaaaaaa?? Oh come on. Amanda Bearse was key to the show, especially during the show’s peak years. I always thought she was scream. The whole cast worked together well.

I first encountered Amanda on All My Children.

Had a crush on Al Bundy back in the day. Weird, I know.

Agreed R98. Without her why would there have been a Jefferson? Half the fun of the show was the contrast between Marcy & who she was married to at the time.

Marci is a chicken

This was one of the funniest episodes from season 1. The characters are slightly different.

Marci’s sick fantasies

I'd rather hear more love, more stuff about Ed O'Neill.

“What’s wrong? Don’t you want me anymore?