Ed O’Neill

OF CLIPPED ON HULU

Q: It’s nice to see Ed O’Neill working regularly again in “Clipped.” Didn’t he do another series in-between “Married … With Children” and “Modern Family”?

A: In fact, the actor – who currently plays Donald Sterling, the owner of basketball’s Los Angeles Clippers, in the FX-produced Hulu series – was a regular on several series during that period. Though NBC’s 2000 fantasy “The 10th Kingdom” technically was a miniseries, O’Neill played the Troll King in it over the course of nine episodes.

More traditional was the 2001 police drama “Big Apple,” which CBS aired for just over a month in 2001, with two of the eight produced episodes not televised (though they were included in a DVD set later.) The cast also included someone who would have much greater success with another New York-set CBS police drama afterward, “Blue Bloods” co-star Donnie Wahlberg.

O’Neill didn’t stay away from cop shows long, since his next series was ABC’s “L.A. Dragnet” (2003-04), executive producer Dick Wolf’s (“Law & Order”) take on the classic “Dragnet” show that had a couple of earlier TV incarnations under creator and star Jack Webb. O’Neill assumed Webb’s role as police detective Joe Friday (promoted to the rank of lieutenant), and another cast member was Eva Longoria, soon before “Desperate Housewives” came to be.

While O’Neill had a recurring role as a governor on NBC’s “The West Wing” after that, his other major series pre-”Modern Family” was HBO’s “John From Cincinnati’’ (2007), a single-season drama about California surfers. His character in that show still had police ties, since he was a retired cop; Austin Nichols played the titular John in a cast that also included Bruce Greenwood, Rebecca De Mornay, Luke Perry and Jennifer Grey.