Christina Applegate: From “Heart of the City” to “Married With Children” and more

Christina Applegate, at left, with co-star Jonathan Ward, in the 1986-1987 television series "Heart of the City."

Source: Facebook/Lethbridge Historical Society

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She will forever be the ditzy blonde daughter of Al and Peggy Bundy on “Married With Children”. That may have been how she got her start. However, to me, Christina Applegate will be the daughter of a police detective struggling to balance his job with raising two teenaged children after his wife is murdered.

Today, I read that Applegate, who has been stricken with Multiple Sclerosis, has a bucket list and plans to start ticking items off it with the time she has left. She was also clear she does not know how much time that is, because she has not been.

Troubled daughter
When I was in Grade 12, so the 1986-1987 TV season, a show debuted on Channel 7 of the peasant vision dial that really caught my attention. It was one of the first shows I recall about a police detective that did not begin and end with him solving the case, nor him at work down at the police station. “Heart of the City” had all that, but it also focused on the home life of a detective who was raising two teenagers, a son and daughter, after their mother is murdered.

Christina Applegate played daughter Robin Kennedy, while Robert Desiderio played father Wes Kennedy and Jonathan Ward played son Kevin Kennedy. What I will always remember is how rebellious Robin seemed. She always looked so angry.

I distinctly remember making a point of watching the show Saturday nights, but it only lasted that one season for a total of 13 episodes.

For her efforts, Applegate won a Young Artist Award in 1987 for “Heart of the City” for Exceptional Performance by a Young Actress in a New Television Series.

Applegate brought a decent resumé to her role as Robin Kennedy. Her career would really take off in the late ‘80s propelling her to success in the decades beyond.

The years before
Christina Applegate got her start as a child actor, at the age of three months to be exact, on the daytime soap opera “Days Of Our Lives” in 1972.

She had her first actual child role nine years later in an episode of “Father Murphy” in 1982. She played a young Grace Kelly in the biopic “Grace Kelly” in 1983, and had guest spots in “Charles in Charge”; a 10-episode stint in “Washingtoon” in 1985; and guest spots in 1986 in “Silver Spoons”; “All is Forgiven’; and “Still the Beaver”; and in 1987 in “Amazing Stories”; and “Family Ties”.

Her career changed dramatically in 1987.

Kelly Bundy
Christina Applegate landed the role of ditzy Kelly Bundy on the FOX comedy “Married…With Children”, a show that seemed to go against the grain of comedy of the time. Not only was Kelly a ditz, but promiscuous and clueless about that, causing potential problems.

I would not actually see an episode of “Married…With Children” until the summer of 1990, when it was back to back with “The Simpsons”, another popular show I had seen just once. “Married…With Children” really didn’t resonate with me at all.

It found an audience though, because “Married…With Children” ran for 11 seasons from 1987 to 1997 for a total of 259 episodes.

For her efforts Applegate was nominated for a Young Artist Award in 1988 for Best Young Actress Starring in a New Television Comedy Series; and won a Young Artist Award in 1989 for Best Young Actress Starring in a Television Comedy Series.

As the ‘80s ended, Christina Applegate was just beginning, and had a stellar career that would contiune to this day had Multiple Sclerosis not derailed it.

The years after
Applegate would find success in both film and TV.

She appeared in movies such as “Don’t Tell Mom the Babysitter’s Dead” for which she was nominated for a Young Artist Award for Outstanding Young Ensemble Cast in a Motion Picture; “Wild Bill”, a biographical drama about the last days of western lawman Wild Bill Hickok; “Mars Attacks!”; “The Big Hit”; “Wonderland”; “Just Visiting”; “View from the Top”; “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy”; “Wake up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie”; “Employee of the Month”; “Going the Distance”; “Hall Pass”; “Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues”; “Vacation’; and much more.

She earned much critical acclaim with her work on television.

She appeared in an episode of “21 Jump Street”; as well as guest spots in “Highlander”; “Mad TV”; and “Pauly”; was the title character in “Jesse” for 42 episodes, where she was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a Television Series Musical or Comedy; and had a guest spot in “Friends“, where she won an Emmy for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series and was nominated a second time.

Applegate was in “Samantha Who?” for 35 episodes as well. That was a great show, garnering her Emmy award nominations in 2008 and 2009 for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, and Golden Globe nominations in 2008 and 2009 for Best Actress in a Television Series Musical or Comedy.

She appeared in 35 episodes of “Up All Night”; was in eight episodes of “So You Think You Can Dance”; had gust spots in “Web Therapy” and “The Grinder”; and much more.

Applegate was also in 30 episodes of “Dead to Me”, where she was nominated in 2019, 2020 and 2023 for an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series, and an Emmy in 2020 for Outstanding Comedy Series. She was also nominated for a Golden Globe in 2020 for Best Actress in a Television Series Musical or Comedy.

On November 14, 2022 Christina Applegate was honoured with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

In 2023, she announced because of her illness she probably would no longer act on camera, but would be open to voice work.

Parting thoughts
Early on it was obvious that Christina Applegate could act. In “Haert of the City”, she was rebellious and angry, trying to channel the pain and hurt of losing her mother, while in “Married…With Children”, she was a ditz and could not be taken seriously. You could not see two more diametrically opposed roles.

Another tribute to her talent is the fact that, after 11 seasons and 259 episodes as Kelly Bundy, she was not typecast. Instead, she continued exploring new and different roles that attracted a lot of attention and earned her a bunch of Emmy and Golden Globe nominations.

It is too bad her Multiple Sclerosis forced her from acting in front of the camera, because she had so much more to give.

Yet, at the same time, it is a good time to look back on a career, that went from “Heart of the City” to “Married…With Children” and so much more.