Married... with Children cast: Then and now
For 10 years, there were four fictional family members a lot of the world probably knew more about than their own in real life.
Yes, we're talking about the Bundys.
They've been off our screens for almost 30 years, but they're living rent-free in our hearts.
Read on to see what the cast of Married... with Children are up to now.
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Christina Applegate as Kelly Bundy: Then
It was the role that made her a household name, and even almost four decades on from being cast, Christina Applegate isn't going to forget that anytime soon.
Playing Kelly Bundy, the epitome of the "dumb blonde" stereotype whose teenage love life infuriated protective father Al Bundy (Ed O'Neill), Applegate later reflected on her time on the show, noting how O'Neill not only played her on-screen father but played a paternal role in her life off-screen.
"I don't even know how to explain this person. He raised me, so if you don't like anything about me, it's his fault," Applegate joked about O'Neill in an August 2024 episode of her podcast MeSsy, which saw O'Neill join her on the microphone.
Applegate added: "If you do like anything about me, also his fault."
"Years years of my life spent with this man and he's an incredible actor, he's an incredible human being," the actress, who is pictured here with O'Neill in 2012, continued.
Applegate, who was 15 when she was cast on the show, said O'Neill went through "everything" with her, including her mother's cancer battle.
Although O'Neill didn't attend her Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony in November 2022, Applegate says their relationship deepened over the years, and he's the person she speaks to most on the phone even though she avoids phone calls.
"I love our relationship now, Eddie," Applegate said on the podcast
"Like, our relationship now of me being 52 years old and the fact that you and I can talk on the phone for hours and giggle and talk about everything. Like, we talk a lot. I talk to you more than I talk to anyone else on the telephone."
O'Neill, for his part, told Applegate's co-host Jamie Lynn Sigler of his former co-star: "She was just, a pro. Yeah. It was great to work with her. It's hilarious. So that was, it was always fun to work with Christina."
He also said although Applegate and his Modern Family co-star Julie Bowen are "completely different people", they have one thing in common (aside from playing his on-screen daughters).
"The thing that you both have that I really like is, good hearts," O'Neill told Applegate. "You know, you're good-hearted."
Christina Applegate as Kelly Bundy: Now
Applegate, who is pictured here with her daughter Sadie LeNoble in January 2024, has largely disappeared from public life due to her battle with multiple sclerosis.
"Hi friends. A few months ago I was diagnosed with MS. It's been a strange journey. But I have been so supported by people that I know who also have this condition," Applegate wrote to the world in 2021, revealing her condition on X (formerly Twitter).
"It's been a tough road. But as we all know, the road keeps going. Unless some a--hole blocks it.
"As one of my friends that has MS said, 'We wake up and take the indicated action.' And that's what I do. So now I ask for privacy. As I go through this thing. Thank you xo."
READ MORE: What happened to Christina Applegate and why did she quit acting?
Ed O'Neill as Al Bundy: Then
Women's shoe salesman Al Bundy was Ed O'Neill's first big role, and while O'Neill and Applegate had a great relationship behind-the-scenes, the same can't be said about O'Neill's relationship with one of his other former co-stars.
"I did a thing on the show that I regretted. I did a thing on the show that involved Amanda Bearse that I regretted," O'Neill confessed to Modern Family co-star Jesse Tyler Ferguson in a 2024 episode of the Dinner's On Me podcast.
"We didn't get along, but we did for a long time," he explained.
"We were great friends. And I could guess, I don't want to speak for her, but it started when we got the cover of TV Guide."
Bearse (second from left) played the Bundys' neighbour Marcy Rhoades D'Arcy, and alongside on-screen husband David Garrison (left), had not been asked to join the cast for the cover photoshoot.
"Because they had a rule: only so many could be on the cover," O'Neill explained, noting exceptions had been made for the cast of Dallas and M*A*S*H in the past.
"We were lucky to get it. It was like the sixth year in or something, and we were thrilled to get the cover of TV Guide. It was big," O'Neill continued.
"And Amanda and David came out in unison from their dressing room. We were on the soundstage, and she said, 'We expect you to go to [co-creator] Ron Leavitt and tell him this doesn't work. We're all on the cover'.
"I should have said, if I was diplomatic, I should have said, 'Fine. I'll talk to him about it'. But instead I said, 'No, I'm not doing that. I'm sorry you guys aren't on the cover, I really am, I wish you were but we can't do anything about it. What do you want me to do? Lie to you and tell you I'm gonna go to bat for you? I'm not'."
O'Neill, pictured here with Applegate and Katey Sagal at Sagal's Hollywood Walk of Fame ceremony in September 2014, said he wishes he handled the incident with Bearse more diplomatically.
"And that's my regret," O'Neill concluded.
Ed O'Neill as Al Bundy: Now
O'Neill, pictured here in May 2024, went on to star in a slew of films and television roles following his time on Married... with Children, but of course what endeared him to a whole new generation of fans was his role as patriarch Jay Pritchett on Modern Family, which ran from 2009 to 2020.
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