'Married... With Children' stars expose behind-the-scenes drama of beloved sitcom

Fox News

26-07-2025

"Married… With Children" wasn't all laughs behind the scenes.
Stars Christina Applegate and Katey Sagal candidly shared how brutally honest the cast members were on the set of the iconic '90s show.
"We were a sarcastic, cynical bunch," Sagal admitted on her "Pie" podcast, with husband Kurt Sutter. "You weren't safe, really. You turned your back, somebody's going to talk s--- on you."
Applegate, their guest on the podcast, chimed in and recalled the moment she realized people were trash-talking her while she was steps away in her dressing room.
"I could hear being talked s--- about in my dressing room on the monitor," she said. "I'd come up from rehearsal and I can hear everybody on set, literally talking s--- about me."
"I was like, 'Wow, I was just there 20 seconds ago,'" she shared of her reaction.
Sagal played Applegate's onscreen mother on the show, which ran from 1987 until 1997.
Applegate previously revealed that the pressures she faced on "Married … with Children" led to her developing an eating disorder.
In March, the "Dead to Me" actress opened up about being a child star and how it deeply impacted her health being in the spotlight.
"Playing that character kind of did things to me in my psyche that were no bueno – like anorexia," she explained on her "MeSsy" podcast while speaking to guest Sagal at the time.
"Yeah, a pretty bad eating disorder started when I was doing that show that lasted for a really long time," she said.
Applegate said that she never told anyone about the disorder and was "very, very private about it."
"I would hide in bathrooms to eat, because I had so much shame around eating that I would hide on the airplanes, like when we went to London," she said. "I remember hiding in there to eat like one shrimp, 'cause I was so afraid if anyone saw me eat that they'd think I was going to try to get fat or something. I don't know. I was in such a dark space."
Sagal agreed that Applegate was "very much scrutinized" on the show because she was the "sex symbol."
Being a sex symbol at 17 would "f--- with" anyone's head, Sagal said, adding that "it was a very misogynistic show."
"Chrissy was very much scrutinized and tried to keep in a box," Sagal continued. "… So they put her in tighter skirts and shorter skirts, so, there was a lot of that."
Applegate admitted that the provocative wardrobe choices were actually her idea.
Her character, Kelly Bundy, was originally written as a "tough" "biker girl," but she said she was inspired by a girl interviewed for the 1981 documentary, "The Decline of Western Civilization: Part II: The Metal Years."
"And she had this big f---ing hair, and a white Lycra dress, and I went to the wardrobe department and I said, 'We're changing this, We gotta represent the zeitgeist of this rock, slutty video vixen thing that's going on in the world right now where the men and the women all look the same. You know? They have the same hairdos.' So, that's where she came from."
Set in Chicago, the series revolved around the Bundy family. Sagal and Applegate starred alongside Ed O'Neill, David Faustino and more.