Best Known As: Jefferson D'Arcy on TV's Married With Children
When Ted McGinley joined the ABC show Dancing with the Stars in 2008 he was billed as the "sitcom scene-stealer," a reference to his long career in sitcoms, from Happy Days to Married With Children. McGinley's big break came when he joined Happy Days for its final seasons, from 1980 to 1984 (the show began in 1974). He's worked steadily in television ever since, from The Love Boat (1984-86) to Hope & Faith (2003-06; he played Megan Fox's dad in the show). Although cinés know McGinley for his role as the fair-haired fratboy in Revenge of the Nerds (1984), he's probably best known for his turn as Jefferson D'Arcy, Al and Peg Bundy's friendly neighbor, in seven seasons of Married with Children (1991-97).
Ted McGinley was on The Love Boat, but he didn't play Isaac the Bartender. That was Ted Lange. McGinley played the boat's photographer, Ashley Covington "Ace" Evans.
Career Highlights: Revenge of the Nerds, Daybreak, Deadly Web
First Major Screen Credit: Happy Days: Season 10 (1983)
Biography
Dividing his time more or less equally between big- and small-screen work, actor Ted McGinley enjoyed a considerably successful tenure as a character player, almost always appearing as beefcake heartthrob types. He began his career in the early '80s, with small roles in Garry Marshall's satirical farce Young Doctors in Love (1982) and the lurid Joan Collins telemovie Making of a Male Model (1983), but achieved his first significant break in the sitcom venue, as English teacher-cum-basketball coach Roger Phillips on the final four seasons of Happy Days (1980-1984). Fortuitously, at about the same time that Days folded, the producers of The Love Boat (on the same network, ABC) tapped McGinley to play photographer Ace Evans -- a last-ditch attempt to save the program from sagging ratings. The strategy ultimately failed when Boat ended its lengthy run in 1986, but in the meantime, McGinley landed what became a recurring role as jock Stan in the first three installments of Revenge of the Nerds.
Eventually, McGinley also joined the cast of the long-running Married...With Children from 1991 through 1997, playing chauvinistic layabout Jefferson D'Arcy (second husband of the Bundys' neighbor Marcy Rhoades), and essayed roles in theatrical films including Physical Evidence (1989), Wayne's World 2 (1993), and Dick (1999). The late '90s and 2000s found McGinley evincing a heightened presence in television once again, first on Aaron Sorkin's critically worshipped yet short-lived seriocomedy Sports Night (1998-1999), then as Charley Shanowski on the sitcom Hope & Faith (2003-2006). ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
McGinley began his career in modeling. After a casting director spotted a picture of him in GQ,[1] he was cast in comedy series Happy Days as Roger Phillips (nephew of the Cunninghams), a role he played from 1980-1984. During the run of Happy Days, he landed a role in the 1982 comedy Young Doctors in Love.[2] After Happy Days ended in 1984, McGinley appeared in Revenge of the Nerds where he played Stanley Gable, the head of the jock-run Alpha Beta fraternity and the primary antagonist of the Lambda Lambda Lambda nerd fraternity. He went on to appear in regular roles in television series including The Love Boat and Dynasty.[3] He then went into the role of Jefferson D'Arcy on Married... with Children from 1991-1997.[4] He had recurring roles on Aaron Sorkin's TV shows Sports Night, as Dana's boyfriend Gordon, and The West Wing as a TV news anchor. From 2003-2006, he played Charley Shanowski on Hope & Faith.[5]
McGinley has been called "the patron saint of shark-jumping" by jumptheshark.com founder Jon Hein. This is a reference to the popular and enduring shows which have featured him in their declining years. Such shows include Happy Days, The Love Boat and Dynasty.[6] Hein writes that this is not a comment "on Ted's fine acting skills" and that "he has a great sense of humor about it, too".[7] In one episode of Married... with Children (a show that stayed on the air for six seasons after McGinley's addition to the cast) McGinley himself spoofed this fact by momentarily breaking the fourth wall by asking Al "Another picture, captain? I mean, Fonzie? ....Al?". A 2003 edition of People Magazine that focused on McGinley's casting on Hope and Faith was titled "Ted McGinley is Not a Killer", referencing his reputation for causing shows to jump the shark, albeit his somehow means to cause Married with Children to have greater seasons than before he joined the cast.
In 2008, McGinley became a contestant on the seventh season of Dancing with the Stars, and was paired with pro dancer Inna Brayer. Ted was the second to be eliminated in the competition.
