From Peg Bundy To Now: Katey Sagal’s Signs For 12th Regularly Scheduled TV Series
BEVERLY HILLS, CALIFORNIA – OCTOBER 26: Katey Sagal attends Friendly House 30th Annual Awards Luncheon at The Beverly Hilton Hotel on October 26, 2019 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images,)
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Fun factoid: Betty White, Cloris Leachman, Sharon Gless, and Katey Sagal share a remarkable distinction — they rank among the actresses with the most regularly scheduled live-action primetime TV series roles in television history. Excluding recurring or guest appearances, each has amassed at least nine series-regular roles over the course of her career, a rare feat in the medium. And now Katey Sagal is poised to add another.
Sagal has just signed on to star opposite Jane Lynch in a new NBC sitcom pilot, with the two playing longtime friends.
The scoop: Loosely inspired by the real-life friendship between therapists Pepper Schwartz and Janet Lever, who also serve as consulting producers, the series centers on Ginger (Sagal) and Jill (Lynch). Per the logline: “As they reflect on their pasts and look toward the future, the women discover that, despite everything, they wouldn’t change a thing.” The project comes from The New Adventures of Old Christine creator Kari Lizer.
BEVERLY HILLS, CA – (L-R) Host Jane Lynch and Katey Sagal attend the 14th Annual Costume Designers Guild Awards With Presenting Sponsor Lacoste held at The Beverly Hilton hotel on February 21, 2012 in Beverly Hills, California. (Photo by Christopher Polk/Getty Images)
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Sagal, of course, rose to fame as Peg Bundy, the lazy wife of Al (Ed O’Neill) and mother to Kelly (Christina Applegate) and Bud (David Faustino) on Married… with Children. Running for 11 seasons from 1987 to 1997, the series helped define the then-fledgling Fox network.
LOS ANGELES – OCTOBER 1988: Married With Children actors Christina Applegate, David Faustino, Ed O’Nell, and Katy Saga l(l-R) pose for a portrait in October 1988 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Aaron Rapoport/Corbis/Getty Images)
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Before Peg
Prior to that breakout role, Sagal appeared in the short-lived 1985 Mary Tyler Moore sitcom Mary — a post–Mary Tyler Moore Show effort that, as it turned out, did not “make it after all.”
A Career of Series Roles
Married… with Children proved to be just the beginning. Sagal went on to a wide range of series, spanning both sitcoms and dramas, including Tucker (2000–01), Imagine That (2002), 8 Simple Rules (originally titled 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter2002–05), Sons of Anarchy (2008–14), And this is Z (as the narrator, 2014–15), The Bastard Executioner (2015), Superior Donuts (2017–18), Rebel (2021), and The Conners (2018–25).
Cast members of “8 Simple Rules For Dating My Teenage Daughter” (Photo by M. Caulfield/WireImage)
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HOLLYWOOD, CA – AUGUST 30: Actors Kurt Sutter, Katey Sagal arrive at the Screening of FX’s “Sons Of Anarchy” Season 4 Premiere at ArcLight Cinemas Cinerama Dome on August 30, 2011 in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images)
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LOS ANGELES – FEBRUARY 6: An exclusive screening, live tweet and night of comedy and donuts with the cast of the new CBS comedy SUPERIOR DONUTS. The screening was followed by stand-up comedy performances by Jermaine Fowler, David Koechner, Maz Jobrani, Rell Battle and Darien Sills-Evans at El Portal Theatre in North Hollywood on Monday, February 6, 2017. Pictured (l-r): Maz Jobrani, Katey Sagal, Jermaine Fowler, Anna Baryshnikov, Judd Hirsch, David Koechner, Rell Battle and Darien Sills-Evans. (Photo by Monty Brinton/CBS via Getty Images)
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THE CONNERS – (Disney/Christopher Willard) LAURIE METCALF, NAT FAXON, SEAN ASTIN, LECY GORANSON, JOHN GOODMAN, KATEY SAGAL, SARA GILBERT, JAY R. FERGUSON, STONY BLYDEN, EMMA KENNEY (Photo by Christopher Willard/Disney via Getty Images)
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Animation and Voice Work
Also of note is Sagal’s enduring work in animation: she has voiced the one-eyed, hard-drinking Leela on Futurama across multiple network revivals, further underscoring the breadth of her television career.
Billy West, David Cohen, Phil LaMarr, Katey Sagal and Tress MacNeille attend the premiere of Futurama ‘Bender’s Big Score’ at the Cinerama Dome on November 15, 2007 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Chris Polk/WireImage)
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Also at NBC…
The Katey Sagal–Jane Lynch project marks one of two new sitcom pilots recently ordered by NBC. The second, Newlywedscomes from creator Gail Lerner (Will & Grace, black-ish) and centers on a later-in-life marriage. Lerner will executive-produce alongside Oscar winner Jamie Lee Curtis, Eric and Kim Tannenbaum, and Scott Schwartz. No casting has been announced for Newlyweds.
