Fans of the series 'Married... with Children' probably remember Katey Sagal as a dramatic and always done-up wife who offered plenty of comedy alongside her on-screen husband. But she's also one of the faces of 'Sons of Anarchy,' a tatted-up and sassy personality that isn't afraid of a fight.
In real life, Katey is sort of in between those two personalities. While biker babe is her most recent gig, working alongside her husband and lead writer Kurt Sutter, Katey doesn't regret having spent all those years on a comedy where she played "tacky, orange-haired Peg Bundy," notes CBS News.
Not everyone loved the '80s show at first, though. It spanned a ten-year run on Fox and earned plenty of critical acclaim, of course. But CBS News quoted Katey as saying that one viewer, in particular, took issue with the show's content and, more specifically, with Katey as Peg.
Peg wasn't exactly the most respectable character, Katey has admitted, though it was purposeful acting on her part. Peg wasn't originally slated to be a more sleazy character, but Katey let the role grow organically, and that's who Mrs. Bundy became.
As Sagal recalled, one viewer launched a campaign against the show. It was the early days of trolling, so there wasn't any social media, but "anti-obscenity activist" Terry Rakolta led what CBS called a "nationwide boycott" of Fox to try and pressure the network to cancel 'Married ... with Children.'
But Katey wasn't resentful of the troll at all. In fact, Rakolta's "boycott" led to higher ratings than the show had previously experienced. Maybe Peg's salacious act was what viewers wanted after all!
After Rakolta's antics got the show on the front page of The New York Times, Katey and her co-stars decided to start sending the troll flowers. Each year, she elaborated, the crew would send Rakolta a bouquet.
What a way to troll a troll. But in reality, the cast probably did owe the dissenter a bit of credit. Bad press is still noteworthy press for a TV show, and there wasn't any social media to help the program go viral back then.
And despite those boycotts against the show, Fox didn't take any action to cancel the show prematurely. Instead, it earned accolades as the longest-lasting live-action sitcom on the network, plus the first show to broadcast in primetime.
Over 250 episodes propelled singer-turned actress Katey Sagal even further into the spotlight. The show even led to a decidedly more family-friendly show a decade later, where Katey played the toned-town matriarch Cate to the late John Ritter's Paul.