When Married…With Children first aired on the Fox network, the show was a surprise to viewers as well as TV critics. It revolves around a family that is very dysfunctional, and that’s an understatement. They constantly argue and laugh at one another and greed seems to consume them. The family is nowhere near picture perfect, which is something people have never seen before on sitcoms. Then, something quite wild occurred on-screen – the appearance of daughter Kelly Bundy, a 16 year-old whose activities are very similar to the weekly doings of 40-year-old women who is divorced and on the hunt for a partner. Thanks to this hit American classic, we’ve dug up facts about the series you have surely never heard before.
Over The Top
As Katey Sagal did her audition for Peggy, she realized that she needed to land the role. Bills had to be paid and her career needed rescuing. Unlike other actresses who choose to go through the regular audition process, Sagal decided to go all out. When she first auditioned for the role of Peggy, Sagal dressed the part. She wore a short hideous dress, made her hair big, and put a LOT of makeup on. This was how she imagined Peggy. Sagal was so in the zone during the audition that she didn’t even once break character and continued acting as if she were Peggy. As what the producers of the show said, this was the reason why she got the part. Another actress that was bold and resolute was Christina Applegate. During her audition for Kelly’s part, she wore the most beautiful outfit she owned, and showed the producers the unseen beauty she would be able to bring to playing bratty Kelly. It would appear that her game plan worked.
Over The Top
First Episode
While the first episode of the show was being filmed, the producers had so little time they didn’t even include Ed O’Neill, the star of the show, when they cast the roles of his kids, Kelly and Bud. The result: O’Neill couldn’t stand the actors who got the part as his children on the show and said it was either him or them. The producers went into a panic and, in a rush, began the search for new actors. That’s how David Faustino and Christina Applegate got cast. Unlike before, Ed O’Neill got the chance to meet the two before they went onstage. Following the new members’ addition to the cast, episode one had to be shot again from the start, a move which set the production back a lot, yet was proven to be quite a good investment.
First Episode
