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5 fun facts about Ted McGinley, the so-called ''sitcom killer''
He took Brooke Shields to her prom!
Image: The Everett Collection
Some call him a "killer of TV shows." Some dub him the "sitcom-killer." Not us. We argue that Ted McGinley hardly deserves his reputation. The good news is, the handsome actor cheerily accepts and even somewhat relishes his reputation. "I don't know why, but I'm an easy target," he has said. "And I don't do anything to dispel it."
What earned McGinley this dubious reputation? Well, he joined a handful of his TV series late in their run. They ended shortly thereafter. Though not as quickly as people believe.
Happy Days, The Love Boat, Dynasty and Married… with Children all wedged McGinley's smiling personality into their casts in later seasons. While Roger Phillips, Ace Evans and Jefferson D'Arcy may not have been as popular as the Fonz, Isaac the Bartender and Al Bundy, they perfectly played into McGinley's personality and generated lots of laughs.
Perhaps you know him as fratboy Stan Gable from Revenge of the Nerds, as well. Here are things you might not know about McGinley.
1. He was captain of the USC water polo team.
With his beachy blond locks, it's no surprise that McGinley excelled at aquatic sports. He was a standout water polo player. "I played under Bill Barnett who was the Olympic coach," he told Swimming World Magazine in 2011. "I really enjoy it when I run into someone who I knew from those [water polo] days or somebody who remembers that I played. It means a lot to me."
Image: The Everett Collection
2. He was discovered in the pages in GQ Magazine.
How did McGinley transition from the swimming pool to the sound stage? Fashion. McGinley posed in photo spreads for the Valentino brand. You can see his best steely gaze for Valentino here. He appeared in the September 1980 issue of GQ, seen here. Casting director Joyce Selznick had pictures of Ted's modeling work all over the floor of her office. He did have a striking look.
Image: GQ
3. He made his screen and acting debut on Happy Days.
A couple of months after his GQ spread, a nervous McGinley made his screen debut in the Happy Days episode "Hello, Roger." In an interview with the AV Club in 2012, he said with a laugh, "I really was the guy I played, so my acting was horrible, and that came across. But I know it had to be very taxing for Henry [Winkler] and everybody, because I didn’t even know what comedy was, really. I didn't know the rhythms, the timing, or any of that. But that was a pretty good place to learn."
Image: The Everett Collection
4. He was nearly on a much shorter-lived show intead.
McGinley appeared in four seasons of Happy Days, a pretty healthy run. More proof that it's hard to say he "killed" Happy Days by joining the cast. He nearly booked a far more doomed series. The studio wanted to put the newcomer into the search-and-rescue action series 240-Robert, which starred another former college athlete, Mark Harmon. But Garry Marshall snagged McGinley first. "I was just so fortunate, because the other show [240-Robert] only went on for six episodes," McGinley told the AV Club. "I don't know what would've happened if I'd done that show. You just never know."
Image: AP Photo / Doug Pizac
5. He took Brooke Shields to prom in 1982.
In 1982, starlet Brooke Shields attended her senior prom at the Dwight-Englewood School in Englewood, New Jersey. Her date? Ted McGinley. "My date was Ted McGinley, if you can believe it, from Love Boat," Shields told the New York Post in 2010. "We were dating at the time and he said he would fly in from California to be my date." And who made her prom dress? None other than Valentino. It all comes back to Valentino. "It was just so funny to be posing in prom photo position in a Valentino dress. I didn't say it was Valentino — nobody in high school would have cared." A Valentino dress and a Valentino model!
Image: AP Photo / Doug Pizac
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that just never seemed to work out.
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