Respect: That's The Payoff For Ed O'Neill After Losing The Ghost Of Al Bundy

IT took four years to lure Ed O'Neill back to series television after his decade-plus stint as the hapless Al Bundy on "Married . . . with Children."

But while NYPD Det. Mike Mooney - O'Neill's character on tonight's new CBS cop drama "Big Apple" - is described as "seasoned" and "cynical," that doesn't mean the ghost of Al Bundy isn't lurking somewhere nearby.

"He's nothing like Al, but there is comedy with Mooney," says the affable O'Neill. "But he's the kind of guy who doesn't think he's particularly funny, which I like.

"So it's by accident if he's funny - or by the fact that he's so weird and driven and neurotic."

Those words certainly don't seem to describe O'Neill, who took his time after "Children" went off the air to go through the many scripts that came his way. He also became the proud father of a baby girl, now 18 months old.

"I got offered some stuff, including a couple of shows that are going pretty well at the moment - without naming any names," he says, laughing. "But they weren't things I thought I would enjoy over the long haul, if they were successful.

"And I wasn't that unhappy having a lot of free time," he says.

O'Neill agrees, to a point, that playing Al Bundy for so many years had some effect on the TV roles he was offered.

"It's tough, man - I think I was hurt a little bit by it," he says. "Nobody gets out of [being typecast] completely without scars and wounds, but I don't think I would change anything.

"I'm glad I did ‘Married . . . with Children' and I liked making all that money and we all had a lot of laughs.

"But there's that dramatic side, which people seem to respect more. There's that level of respect that dramatic actors get that comedic actors often don't."

If that's the case, then O'Neill will certainly receive respect for the role of Det. Mike Mooney who, in tonight's "Big Apple" premiere, gets ensnared in a complicated web of intrigue involving both the NYPD and the FBI.

The show was created by "NYPD Blue" co-creator David Milch and "Miami Vice" creator Anthony Yerkovich - the two reasons, O'Neill says, he decided finally to accept this role.

"I always wanted to work with David Milch," he says. "We used to both frequent the same restaurant, Drago, up on Wilshire Boulevard and when he contacted me, I said sure.

"I thought I could do something with the part and I thought I'd take another shot. And after doing ‘Married' for 11 years, I figured it was time to do some drama."

Those years he spent on "Married . . . with Children" didn't only fatten O'Neill's bank account. They also gave him some perspective on the inner workings of network television - which he demonstrates when asked about going up against NBC powerhouse "ER" at 10 p.m. tonight.

"When I first heard about [the scheduling], they kind of softened the blow by saying we were going up against two reruns of ‘ER,'" he says.

"Then, of course, NBC puts a new episode up against us. I'm surprised they didn't get George [Clooney] to come back.

"But of course they're going to do that - I'd do that if I was them," he says of the NBC scheduling move. "We've all talked about it on the set. We're like everyone else when it comes to that.

"But then you go, OK, what's the next page I've got to learn? And you move on."