Christina Applegate and Katey Sagal are reminiscing on their time on the legendary sitcom Married With Children. The two starred as mother and daughter on the show, alongside Ed O'Neill and David Faustino. And now, they're revealing what it was really like.
Christina and Katey reunited on the Pie podcast with Katey's husband, Kurt Sutter. Christina explained she didn't feel like she belonged on the Married With Children set because she wasn't "into sarcasm and *expletive* talking and negativity.
"We were a sarcastic, cynical bunch," Kate agreed. "You weren't safe really. You turned your back, somebody's gonna talk *expletive* on you."
The show aired from 1987 to 1997, showcasing what life was like for a working dad and a mom who dreamed of a bigger life. Christina played the rebellious daughter. While the set was a bit stressful, Christina explained on her own podcast, MeSsy, that Katey was a "safe space" for her.
"You had lived a lot of life and a lot of scarring and things had taken place," she told Katey. "And now you were on that side of strength. And I needed that. I needed that so badly in my life, a stable person."
Katey responded: "And I [had a] sense that there was nobody really for you to — I guess what I'm saying is I became very forthright with my journey [with sobriety], which I think opens the door for other people, i.e. you, Chrissy, to be forthright with yours."
Because the Married With Children stars were an on-screen family, that energy seeped into their off-screen lives too. Christina told her MeSsy listeners that Ed practically raised her.
"Years and years of my life spent with this man and he's an incredible actor," she said. "He's an incredible human being."
Christina and Katey reunited on-screen in the Netflix show, Dead to Me. Katey played Linda Cardellini's mom in the show's second and third seasons.
"This season, I actually work with Christina. When I was on last season, I was Linda's mom and you just saw me in prison," Katey told Entertainment Tonight in 2021. "In fact, Christina called me up, I was just over at her house a couple of weeks ago, and we were so excited."
She continued: "She is truly like my daughter. Like for real."
Both Ed and Katey attended the ceremony when Christina received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. The actress lives with Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and uses a cane to walk. At the ceremony, Katey stood behind her to physically support her while she gave her speech.
"It's so Katey to, like, steal the thunder," Christina joked.
The actress is unsure of her future in the industry. In 2023, she told Variety: "How can I handle it? How can I go onto a set and call the shots of what I need as far as my boundaries, physically?"
But, with Christina's well-known candor, she revealed to the LA Times that she's "doing a *expletive* ton of voice-overs to make some cash to make sure that my daughter's fed and we're homed."