“This is all the corporate decisions I don’t understand. But the nature of the show was it was a family show. Everyone was devastated. And it didn’t feel right to end it immediately. And it didn’t feel right to go on,” said Sagal. “Nothing felt right. So the powers that be made a decision to bring in James Garner, 

who played my father. And I think we took a month break and James Garner came back and they played it out as a real thing. Like the father in the family died.”

She said that the situation “didn’t make for very funny television.” However, the Married … With Children star said she believed the show should have sat in its sadness “for a little longer.”

“Then you have a single mother, raising the kids. And then the funny would come back eventually. They wanted right away funny. David Spade [who played Cate’s nephew] was right there within a couple of weeks after we were back,” said Sagal in the interview.