Brian Damage
11-27-2011, 12:20 PM
Katey Sagal, who played the bubbleheaded mother Peggy Bundy on "Married … With Children" for more than a decade, faced the same problem after the Fox sitcom left in 1997. After more stints on several comedy shows, Sagal has won widespread critical praise for her complex dramatic role as the biker gang matriarch on FX's "Sons of Anarchy."
"I kept getting scripts that called for a lowbrow, trashy housewives," said Sagal, married to show creator Kurt Sutter. "When you're in people's living rooms for 11 years as one thing, it's a combination of the industry doesn't see you any different and they don't want to see you any different. I had to go into a lot of rooms and show people that I didn't have red hair, high heels and leopard [skin] on at all times. It was tough."
But her "Married … With Children" costar Ed O'Neill said the shadow of Al Bundy was hard to escape. He appeared in the short-lived CBS cop drama "Big Apple," but he believes a potential "Deadwood" role got "pulled out from under me" because of his crass sitcom character.
"I felt like that was one of those situations where 'Married … With Children' hurt me," he said. "It's like you're pegged with the scarlet letter."
O'Neill ended up doing another failed cop drama, this time a remake, "L.A. Dragnet." From there he had a gig on HBO's short-lived surf noir drama "John From Cincinnati" and did a David Mamet play — "I wanted something that was unknown, something out of my element. A half-hour comedy was the last thing I wanted to do," he said, referring to his current role on ABC's top-rated sitcom "Modern Family." "I just wanted to do independent movies. Something more strikingly different. Maybe later."
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-dramedy-actors-20111127,0,3978248.story
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t256/melissadaleneal/al_peg1-1.gif
"I kept getting scripts that called for a lowbrow, trashy housewives," said Sagal, married to show creator Kurt Sutter. "When you're in people's living rooms for 11 years as one thing, it's a combination of the industry doesn't see you any different and they don't want to see you any different. I had to go into a lot of rooms and show people that I didn't have red hair, high heels and leopard [skin] on at all times. It was tough."
But her "Married … With Children" costar Ed O'Neill said the shadow of Al Bundy was hard to escape. He appeared in the short-lived CBS cop drama "Big Apple," but he believes a potential "Deadwood" role got "pulled out from under me" because of his crass sitcom character.
"I felt like that was one of those situations where 'Married … With Children' hurt me," he said. "It's like you're pegged with the scarlet letter."
O'Neill ended up doing another failed cop drama, this time a remake, "L.A. Dragnet." From there he had a gig on HBO's short-lived surf noir drama "John From Cincinnati" and did a David Mamet play — "I wanted something that was unknown, something out of my element. A half-hour comedy was the last thing I wanted to do," he said, referring to his current role on ABC's top-rated sitcom "Modern Family." "I just wanted to do independent movies. Something more strikingly different. Maybe later."
http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/la-ca-dramedy-actors-20111127,0,3978248.story
http://i162.photobucket.com/albums/t256/melissadaleneal/al_peg1-1.gif