Katey Sagal Measured Married With Children’s Success by Peggy’s Hair
Katey Sagal says she first realized Married With Children had become a bonafide hit for Fox when the network started buying her wigs.
Rebel actor Katey Sagal recently revealed that she knew her first major television series Married With Children was a hit when Fox started buying her wigs.
“I think the first we knew, is when they bought me a wig,” Sagal shared during an interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live! “Because for the first three years, I would just do my own hair.” She added, “And then, all of a sudden, they started dishing out money. Like, wigs are not cheap. So [they] got me a wig.”
In addition to discussing the addition of a wig budget, Sagal detailed the first public event that solidified the show’s success in her eyes. “I’ll never forget, Ed [O’Neill] and I went on a promo tour, and we went into some parade. And there we are, dressed as Peg and Al — I mean it was wild — waving, and there were so many people there.”
She added, “And Ed and I, I mean we thought nobody was gonna really watch it because it was so irreverent and it was so not like anything else on TV.” Sagal also joked about the show’s irreverence being the reason she was cast as the over-the-top Peggy Bundy in the first place, nothing that she wasn’t like anything else” on TV at the time.
“And yeah, it really took off,” Sagal concluded. “Of course, Fox played it three times a night, right in a row. It was like, you couldn’t miss it, so…” Married With Children aired on Fox for 11 seasons from 1987-1997. The series starred Ed O’Neill as Al Bundy, Katey Sagal as Peggy Bundy, Christina Applegate as Kelly Bundy and David Faustino as Bud Bundy. Sagal currently stars as Annie “Rebel” Bello on ABC’s Rebel.
Rebel stars Katey Sagal, John Corbett, Andy Garcia, Lex Scott Davis, Daniella Garcia and Kevin Segers. The series airs on Thursdays at 10 p.m. on ABC. Rebel will also be available outside the U.S. on the Disney+ streaming service beginning in May.
