Part 2 of the Married..with Children Power Rankings, where we get to the real meat of the rankings, the top 3. Part 1 can be located here.
3. Christina Applegate (as Kelly Bundy) – There’s a huge gap between the bottom four and the first three. All of the top three have had incredibly impressive careers and I’m not really confident in how I ranked them; the continuing level of success of their current shows could change their ranking at any time. Applegate gets points as the main star of her current show, but it’s only been on for one season and hasn’t reached the level of success of the current shows of the top two. Applegate was the initial breakout star of the show and has had the most film work. She appeared in The Big Hit and quickly got her own series, Jesse, which was given the prized but cursed 9:30 Thursday slot on NBC and lasted two seasons. Over the first half of the 2000s, she appeared in films Just Visiting, The Sweetest Thing, and View from the Top, and appeared in two episodes of Friends as Rachel’s sister. She was in Employee of the Month, Surviving Christmas and Will Ferrell smash Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy as Veronica Corningstone. She got another series called Samantha Who? which aired on ABC and lasted two seasons. She lent her voice to the last two Alvin and the Chipmunks movies as one of the Chippettes, and appeared in Going the Distance and Hall Pass. She’s now starring in the first season of NBC’s Up All Night with Will Arnett.
2. Ed O’Neill – In the year Married…with Children ended, he appeared in small David Mamet movie The Spanish Prisoner. He was in 1999’s The Bone Collector and appeared in 2000 NBC fantasy miniseries The 10th Kingdom as Relish, the Troll King. In the early ‘00s, he starred in a couple of failed TV series. First, on CBS, he starred as a police officer in Big Apple, which lasted just eight episodes. Next, he starred in a Dragnet remake on ABC, which lasted a whole season, changing dramatically halfway through, and failed either way. He appeared again in David Mamet films Spartan and Redbelt. He shows up in four episodes of The West Wing as Pennsylvania Governor Eric Baker, who campaigns on and off for the Democratic presidential nomination, and eventually is offered the Vice Presidency in Matt Santos’ administration. He was in episodes of 8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter, Twenty Good Years and The Unit, and co-starred in failed one season David Milch show John fromCincinnati. In 2009, he was cast as family patriarch Jay Pritchett in Modern Family, and seems likely to play that role for many years to come as the show has become a bona fide hit.
1. Katey Sagal (as Peggy Bundy) – She appeared in three episodes of That ‘70s Show as Hyde’s mother. She was in TV movies Mr. Headmistress, Chance of a Lifetime, God’s New Plan, and Smart House. She voiced a character in several episodes of kids’ cartoon Recess. She co-starred in the short-lived 13 episode series Tucker on NBC in 2000 and in Hank Azaria-led Imagine That in 2002. She was a regular cast member in 8 Simple Rules, playing the wife of John Ritter, who died soon after the first few episodes of the second season were filmed. The series lasted three seasons. Starting in 1999, and continuing on and off to the present day, she has voiced the character of Leela, a one-eyed mutant space captain, in Futurama. She was in a handful of episodes of Disney Channel kids show Higglytown Heroes. She was in TV movies Three Wise Guys and Campus Confidential. She was in episodes of Ghost Whisperer, The Winner, and two of The Shield. She was in a five episode arc of Boston Legal and a four episode arc of Eli Stone, and was in three episodes of Lost as John Locke’s girlfriend. Currently, she stars as Ron Perlman’s wife on FX’s Sons of Anarchy, now in its fourth season. She beat out Ed O’Neill by appearing in another series other than her current one that aired multiple seasons, along with her continuing apperances in now 114 episodes of Futurama.
Television, the Drug of the Nation 
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