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Sunday April 24, 2005

Rules and recognition of Katey Sagal

EVELYN TEO meets Katey Sagal, the unassuming lead actress of 8 Simple Rules, in the United States.

After John Ritter's demise, Sagal carries on as the sole lead.
KATEY Sagal in person is nothing like Peg Bundy, the big-haired and brazen character she played in the old TV sitcom Married ? with Children, the role for which she’s probably best known before starring in 8 Simple Rules.

The 50-year-old was articulate, polite and downright personable when international journalists caught up with her on the set of 8 Simple Rules at The Walt Disney Studios in Los Angeles three months ago. The actress was not unlike her character, Cate Hennessy, on the popular sitcom.

Sagal co-starred with John Ritter on the family comedy based on W. Bruce Cameron’s best-selling book 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter.

The sitcom revolves around the Hennessy family – Paul (Ritter), an overprotective dad and well-loved writer; Cate, his devoted wife with whom he raises his teenage children: Bridget (Kaley Cuoco), the blonde and ditsy daughter; Kerry (Amy Davidson), the sardonic and brainy middle child; and Rory (Martin Spanjers), the youngest and only boy.

But Ritter’s sudden death in September 2003 changed things and it was reflected in the episodes dealing with the loss of his character in that fateful second season of the show.

The cast of 8 Simple Rules (from bottom): James Garner (Jim), Kaley Cuoco(Bridget), Katey Sagal (Cate),Amy Davidson (Kerry), Martin Spanjers(Rory) and David Spade(C.J.).
“A lot of people related to what we did,” reveals the 178cm (five-foot-ten) Sagal. “People wrote us letters and said, ‘Thank you for showing us that life goes on (after the death of a loved one).’ I’m so proud of us for having faced the odds because who knew that this would last and the show would keep an audience?”

It is now 8 Simple Rules’ third year and Sagal remains the sole lead on the sitcom. However, the Californian-born star is not one to hog the limelight.

“I take my bow last but I think this has always been somewhat of an ensemble show. I believe that even when John was here this was an ensemble show about a family. I’m okay with taking a bigger role since the support system is so great – James Garner, David Spade and those three phenomenal kids. So, it’s been fine.”

Veteran actor Garner and stand-up comic Spade joined the show in its sophomore year as Cate’s retired dad Jim and her sarcastic nephew C.J. respectively. “Slowly, we all started to laugh again. David brought some of that wackiness back, and Jim – who knew he was this funny?”

She is excited by the prospect of Cate getting back to the dating scene. “Cate realises she’s not just a single mum, she’s also a single woman. There are a few flirtations. There are some possibilities. You know, there’s a younger guy who hits on her – that’s fun,” she says, laughing.

In one episode, Ed O’Neill (who played the head of the dysfunctional household in Married ? with Children) shows up as an old flame of Cate’s. It is a clever nod to the memorable Bundy family.

“Ed kind of whisks me away on his motorcycle and wants me to run away with him. That was really fun for us,” she discloses. “It was the first time we’d done anything like that since Married ? with Children ended eight years ago.”

Sagal has no trouble relating to Cate’s single mum situation. She raises her own children, Sarah and Jackson, who turn nine and 11 respectively this year, by herself most of the time. The twice-divorced actress tied the knot again last October, a few months after releasing her second album, Room, a contemporary folksy blues effort, on her kateysagal.net website (her debut album, Well, came out in 1994). Husband No.3 is Kurt Sutter, one of the writers on TV series The Shield.

“My regular life is all about raising my children. I go to school every morning,” she explains. “I pick them up as much as I can.”

Her kids love 8 Simple Rules, she says. They come to the tapings and her daughter even reads the scripts because she aspires to be an actress one day.

“Working on 8 Simple Rules is great for raising children because it’s a part-time job. I only work 22 weeks out of the year. I get one week off every month,” she tells journalists.

Katey Sagal reunites with former Married . . . with Children co-star Ed O'Neill in an episode of 8 simple Rules.
Sagal was born into a showbusiness family. Her father was a director while her mother, a singer. “My father gave me a realistic view of the entertainment industry so I didn’t go into the business thinking it was going to be easy. I struggled,” she recalls.

She started singing at the age of five and much later, she found herself working as a background singer for the likes of Bob Dylan, Bette Midler, Etta James and Gene Simmons.

Music is her first love but she was drawn to acting too. While doing a musical in the mid-1980s, she was picked to join Mary Tyler Moore on the short-lived comedy series titled Mary.

That led to an 11-year stint on Married ? with Children (from April 1987 to June 1997) which earned her a total of four nominations at the Golden Globes in the Best TV Comedy or Musical Actress category. She did a few feature films like Maid to Order and The Good Mother but none of those gave her the recognition television did.

She then went on to do the voice of Leela, a beautiful one-eyed alien, for four years on the hilarious and zany animated series, Futurama, before landing the starring role on 8 Simple Rules.

So what is it about TV sitcoms in particular that keep her coming back for more? “The schedule is pretty darn good,” she acknowledges. “I love the ‘live’ audience. Not that I wouldn’t be interested in doing another kind of television show, it just seems like this is what has come my way. I don’t make a lot of plans about it. I’ve always wanted to just work and do things that are interesting to me, and I get to do that.”

  • The third season of ‘8 Simple Rules’ airs on 8TV, Sundays, 3.30pm.

    Related story:
    8 things you should know about Season 3

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