Airing through the 1980s and '90s, Married ... With Children brought a lot of laughs. But there's one guest star they probably wished they reconsidered.
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Late comedian Sam Kinison hijacked the set when he appeared as a guest star in the fourth season. Ironically, enough, Kinison was originally up for Al Bundy on the show but turned it down. When he appeared as a guest star, Kinison instantly proved that he was a loose canon and wouldn't have worked (via New York Post).
For instance, things didn't get off to the best start. The comedian greeted both the cast and crew by dropping his pants and mooning them. Realizing that he ought to make a better first impression than that, Kinison ended up inviting the group to his birthday dinner. Kinison had hoped to make amends, but the comedian just couldn't help making a well, moon, out of himself.
"We never liked working with comedians, because they come in with their character already. What were we going to do, tell Roseanne how to do her 'domestic goddess' thing? We were gonna tell Sam Kinison how to do his thing? There'd be fighting all the time," Michael Moye says in the book.
The next day Kinison was late to the set. Again, he wanted to apologize. Rather than just a simple apology and changing his behavior, Kinison brought strippers to the set. He had the strippers serve the cast their lunch. It sounds like Kinison wanted the set to be a party. While wild, Kinison's antics appeared at least good natured. You can't say the same thing about threatening to shoot the director.
Comedian Threatened 'Married ... With Children' Director
Directo Gerry Cohen went to Kinison's house one evening. He was looking for his girlfriend, who was friends with the comedian. In response, Cohen got the other end of a barrel. Kinison waved a gun at the director and threatened to shoot him. It's safe to say that the crew was glad Kinison hadn't been cast as Al Bundy.
"His attention-getting antics on the stage made working with him a challenge and provided some eye-opening examples of what he would have been like to work with on a regular basis," writes Richard Gurman in his new book, Married ... with Children vs. The World: The Inside Story of the Shock-Com that Launched Fox and Changed TV Comedy Forever. It proved to be a difficult experience for everyone but Kinison apparently.
