Many of you probably know Ed O’Neill as the older dad in Modern Family, Sofia Vergara’s husband. But if you got exposed to 80s and 90s television, Ed O’Neill is hilarious Al Bundy in the sitcom Married with Children (1987-1997).

If you love Modern Family, Married with Children’s comedy might be too obvious and over-the-top for you. And I love it for exactly that reason. I still couldn’t get in to Modern Family; I’m still in love with the ridiculously dysfunctional and hilarious family that is the Bundys.

And since a lot of people know Ed as a funny actor, it might comes as a surprise that he is also great at drama. Hell, he was discovered for the role of Al Bundy while he was playing Lenny (from Of Mice and Men) on stage.

Let’s take that in for a second. An actor plays a heavy, significant role on stage. A producer likes him. A year later, they’re casting a sitcom. He remembers Ed’s performance and suggests they try him out. Others think he is crazy, but casting had failed to find the ideal leading actor at that point. So they try him out, and by luck (or intuition), he goes with a different approach. Instead of the angry portrayals of fellow actors, he does resigned.

And voila! They get Al Bundy right.

The moral of the story is do what you love, do it well, and never give up. And it never hurts to use your own take and voice on projects.

To sign off, below is some Bundy footage: