‘Married… With Children’ Ended 25 Years Ago: See the Cast Now
Thirty-five years ago, on April 5, 1987, the then-fledgling Fox network expanded into primetime with the premiere of Married… With Children. And 25 years ago, on June 9, 1997, the sitcom ended after seven Emmy Award nominations, 11 seasons, 259 episodes, and a whole lot of controversy.
The show starred Ed O’Neill as the cranky shoe salesman Al Bundy, Katey Sagal as work-shy housewife Peggy Bundy, and Christina Applegate and David Faustino as their pickier kids, Kelly and Bud. Amanda Bearse and David Garrison, meanwhile, played a neighboring couple… at least until Ted McGinley replaced Garrison as Bearse’s onscreen husband.
The show was never a ratings sensation, but it certainly made a stir with its politically incorrect and oft-offensive humor. (“It was a mean-spirited and misogynist show,” Bearse told News Corp Australia in 2018. “It was just so completely inappropriate.”)
Now that Married… With Children has been off the airwaves for 25 years, however — and now that an animated reboot is in the works — scroll down to catch up with those core cast members.
Married… With Children, Seasons 1-11, Now Streaming, Hulu
Ed O’Neill (Al Bundy)
O’Neill was married with children again (and just as cantankerous) as Jay Pritchett on Modern Family, picking up four Screen Actors Guild Awards alongside the rest of the ABC comedy’s ensemble. And last month, the actor was cast in the upcoming FX limited series The Sterling Affairs, where he is set to play disgraced former Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling.
Katey Sagal (Peggy Bundy)
Sagal starred as Cate Hennessy on the ABC sitcom 8 Simple Rules between 2002 and 2005 and picked up her first Golden Globe Award in 2011 for her role as Gemma Teller Morrow on the FX crime drama Sons of Anarchy. More recently, she starred as Annie “Rebel” Bello in the ABC’s legal dramedy Rebel, and coming up, she’ll reprise her role as the voice of Leela in Hulu’s Futurama reboot.
Christina Applegate (Kelly Bundy)
Applegate is a star and executive producer for Dead to Me, playing widow Jen Harding on the Netflix dramedy and earning nominations at the Emmys, Golden Globes, and SAG Awards for her performance. Last year, she announced she had recently been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
David Faustino (Bud Bundy)
Faustino had a brief role on The Young and the Restless in 2017, but he has spent recent years doing voice acting for shows like The Legend of Korra, Winx Club, and Dragons: Race to the Edge. Last month, he attended a Race To Erase MS gala in Los Angeles and told HollywoodLife that Applegate has been “pushing through” her “challenging” first year post-diagnosis.
Amanda Bearse (Marcy Rhoades)
In one of only a handful of post-Married onscreen gigs, Bearse appears in the new rom-com Bros, playing the mother of Luke Macfarlane’s character. And in 2018, she directed the off-Broadway play Party Face, starring original Parent Trap actress Hayley Mills.
David Garrison (Steve Rhodes)
Garrison’s latest TV credits are his guest spots on The Good Wife, 30 Rock, Madam Secretary, and Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt.
He has also kept up his Broadway career, appearing in the shows Wicked, The Visit, and The Great Society.
Ted McGinley (Jefferson D’Arcy)
McGinley’s recent roles include recurring parts on the Netflix dramedy No Good Nick and the Lifetime Movie Network miniseries Keeping Up With the Joneses. He also competed on Dancing With the Stars in 2007 and was the second celebrity to get eliminated from the ABC competition’s seventh season, just ahead of Kim Kardashian.
