Ted McGinley Had Actual Beef With the Nerds in ‘Revenge of the Nerds’

True or false, Rich Eisen asked Ted McGinley on a recent episode of his eponymous talk show: “You actually had a beef with the nerds on the Revenge of the Nerds set at first, and it took you a few weeks to warm up to them.”

“True,” said McGinley without hesitation. The actor played Alpha Beta president and star quarterback Stan Gable in the film, sworn mortal enemy of the Lambda Lambda Lambda nerds. And according to McGinley, the plot’s animosity spilled over into off-the-set hate. “I didn’t start the beef,” McGinley claimed (but would you expect any less from an Alpha Beta?). The actors who played the nerds “showed up with some serious attitude, they showed up with some serious nerd attitude, which I was not expecting.”

According to McGinley, the nerd actors “were separatists. They wanted no part of us. And so after a while, I was like, ‘Wow these guys a bunch of losers.’”

But the beef didn’t last forever. As production continued, McGinley explained, the actors spent a lot of evenings filming together and “that was like a campfire every night and we found a lot of common ground. But initially, yeah. It was pretty rough for a while.”

Was there anyone in particular leading the nerd beef? “It was the two leads,” McGinley said without calling out Robert Carradine and Anthony Edwards by name. “Well, actually, the truth is Booger was no trip to the beach either, I got to say.”

Ah, Booger. Curtis Armstrong, who played Dudley “Booger” Dawson, has mixed memories of McGinley as well. In his book Revenge of the Nerd, Armstrong cops to the nerd actors forming their own sort of fraternity, while acknowledging that McGinley wanted in on the fun. But unlike his Stan Gable character, McGinley was conservative in every way — no sex or drugs on the set for him. That put him on the social outs with the rowdy nerd actors.

One night, McGinley showed up at one of their parties anyway. A large joint was passed around, which he politely declined. “I just don’t think it’s for me,” he said. “Drugs are just … not my thing.”

“How do you know if you don’t try?” goaded Armstrong/Booger. Soon, the whole room applied peer pressure, and McGinley agreed to take his first puff. He waited a moment, but there seemed to be no effect. Try again, urged Timothy Busfield, who played Poindexter. So McGinley took another inhale — still nothing. The party continued.

“After a few moments, we hear a throaty giggle coming from deep in the interior of Ted McGinley,” remembered Armstrong. “We all stared. The giggle got louder as he doubled over in hysterics. After a moment, he tipped forward helplessly on the floor, by now screaming with laughter.”

Revenge of the Nerds fans might think that story sounds familiar. That’s because Busfield outright stole McGinley’s reaction and turned it into Poindexter’s pot-fueled “I feel nothing” moment at the first Lambda Lambda Lambda bash. 

Armstrong’s story puts McGinley’s final remarks to Eisen into a completely different perspective. “As time went by, we all got along great,” McGinley said. “Almost too great.”