Netflix recently renewed the dark comedy Dead To Me, starring Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini, for a second season, weeks after the series debut. Applegate has been doing the press rounds accordingly, and in the process, she dropped a surprising “fact” to NPR. The former teen-queen of hairspray and fishnet tights revealed that she always understood Kelly Bundy of Married… With Children to be a virgin. Anyone who watched the show will be surprised by this knowledge, given the Fox series’ heavy sexual innuendo and constant jokes from Bud Bundy about his sister’s social life.
Even though it must be noted that Kelly was a total airhead, she never discouraged the perception, especially when giving Bud advice on how to launch his own sex life. Her dialogue actually included lines such as such as, “[Yo]u say to her, ‘I think you are the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen. I’d like to share a night of incredible sex with you. No names, no questions, no regrets.'” Yet apparently, Kelly was a chaste but “ditzy” teenager, as she told NPR:
“Ditzy, yeah? Lazy thinker. I guess, you know, I had to play her as a genius. You know, in her own mind, she’s a genius – and a virgin, actually. So those are my little secrets that I had about her. You know, she was really, like, kind of a product of that time.”
Applegate took up the role at age 16, and people still commonly associate her with Kelly Bundy, although all of the Bundy actors have dealt with that issue at times. Katey Sagal previously disclosed (at a 2016 ATX Festival panel) that Kurt Sutter wrote her Gemma role on Sons of Anarchy specifically “to kill Peggy Bundy.” That’s a testament to how the first Fox sitcom, despite its inherent banality, made a lasting mark on pop culture. Ed O’Neill and David Faustino still can’t shake their Al or Bud personas either, but perhaps they were simply too believable in their roles. Hopefully, they’re still getting some nice residuals, two decades after that series ended.
(Via NPR)
