A Look at ‘Rebel’ Star Katey Sagal’s Varied Roles, From Murderous Mom to Cyclops Captain
Suffice it to say, you’ll never catch Katey Sagal playing the same character twice. In her decades-long career, Sagal has played a mutant, a murderer, a mystic, and dozens of other roles. Even her sitcom wife characters are different: You’d never mistake Married… with Children’s Peggy for 8 Simple Rules’ Cate.
Now, the Golden Globe winner is leading her own TV show, playing the title character in ABC’s legal drama Rebel, the first series created by Grey’s Anatomy/Station 19 showrunner Krista Vernoff.
To celebrate Sagal’s latest star turn, we’re recapping some of her best TV parts to date, with characters both comedic and deathly dramatic. Read on to revisit those roles.
Rebel, Series Premiere, Thursday, April 8, 10/9c, ABC
Peggy Bundy in ‘Married... with Children’ (1987–1997)
After a supporting role in the short-lived Mary Tyler Moore sitcom Mary, Sagal hits the big time as the shopaholic, sex-starved housewife Peggy Bundy on this ’90s Fox sitcom. Sagal told TV Insider in 2019 that she gets asked about a possible Married revival a couple of times each year: “Everybody’s working, so it feels like there’s no time to do that. It’s funny: The Bundys probably couldn’t get it together.”
Turanga Leela in ‘Futurama’ (1999–2013)
Never mind her lack of depth perception: This cyclopean mutant is the kick-ass captain of the Planet Express Ship. The actress voiced Leela in the original Fox animated comedy, the Comedy Central revival, four TV movies, and two video games.
Cate Hennessy in ‘8 Simple Rules for Dating My Teenage Daughter’ (2002–2005)
In the ABC sitcom that eventually became known simply as 8 Simple Rules, Sagal played nurse, mother, and linchpin of the middle-class Hennessy family. Sagal gamely carried the show after the sudden death of John Ritter — her onscreen husband — during the filming of Season 2.
Helen Norwood in ‘Lost’ (2005–2010)
Sagal plays a tragic figure in this ABC drama — the one that got away for John Locke (Terry O’Quinn). The two characters met in an anger management support group, but as hard as she tried, she couldn’t get him to give up his obsession with his con-man father. (The couple have a better alternate history, though, in Season 5’s flash-sideways.)
Gemma Teller Morrow in ‘Sons of Anarchy’ (2008–2014)
This queen of the SAMCRO motorcycle club made TV Insider’s list of “Worst Moms in TV History” after she signs off on the murder of her first husband, plots to have her son kill her second husband, brutally murders her daughter-in-law, and then persuades her son to go through with matricide. On the bright side, Sagal’s performance on the show earned her a Golden Globe in 2011.
Annora of the Alders in ‘The Bastard Executioner’ (2015)
Sons of Anarchy creator Kurt Sutter, Sagal’s husband since 2004, brings Sagal onboard for his next FX show, as well. In this historical drama, she plays the mystical healer Annora of the Alders, a guide for the title character.
Louise in ‘The Conners’ (2018–2021)
Sagal has appeared in 20 episodes of this Roseanne revival so far, playing a Casita Bonita bartender who happens to be one of Dan’s (John Goodman) old flames. “She’s always had a thing for him,” Sagal told TV Insider in 2019. “It’s like when you’ve had a crush on someone in high school; you kind of carry that in your brain and your heart always: ‘Gee, maybe that was the one.’”
Annie “Rebel” Bello in ‘Rebel’ (2021–present)
In a legal drama inspired by Erin Brokovich’s life, Sagal leads the cast and plays a “blue-collar legal advocate” and a “funny, messy, brilliant and fearless woman who cares desperately about the causes she fights for and the people she loves,” as ABC teases in a press release.
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