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The new hit sitcom airs 8 p.m. Tuesdays on ABC. Ritter portrays Paul Hennessy, an ace sports columnist and middle-aged overprotective father who volunteers to work from home in order to help raise three kids — two of them teenage girls. The gangly, 46-year-old actress plays Cate, the pragmatic stay-at-home wife forced back to nursing in order to help out financially as their growing chil- dren — ranging in age from 13 to 16 — are poised to enter college. Ritter, who made his mark as the beleaguered chef, Jack Tripper, on Three's Company (1977-84), and Sagal, who earned considerable fame as lazy, sloppy housewife Peg Wanker Bundy on Married ... With Children (1987- 97), met when she played an old geezer's fat girlfriend on the telefilm Chance of a Lifetime (1998). "There was a certain chemistry between us, and we became good friends while doing the movie," says Sagal. "John happens to be a lovely, hum- ble and sincere human being who was so supportive that he read with me at all the important auditions. It's a very important project for us as we both have had similar hurdles and some challenging transitions to get here. "People don't want to see Peg Bundy and Jack Tripper anymore — and we couldn't wait to show the public our new characters." Always Working It also galls Sagal that she has worked — while raising two kids as a single mom — nearly nonstop since Married ... With Children dissolved, and nobody seems to have noticed. Among other things, she starred in two sitcoms — Tucker (2000) and Imagine That (2002), the short-lived series starring Hank Azaria — as well as a hilarious comedy pilot called Earth Scum (2001) that simply rolled over and died on a network executive's shelf. "Even people in the entertainment industry wonder where I've been dur- ing the last five years," fumes Sagal during lunch — three lettuce leaves and a $5 glass of water. "I keep telling them that I've been working, working on development deals and pilots every year since Married was canceled. "Things just got screwed up — we shot 13 episodes of Tucker, but only three aired. We only shot six Imagine That segments; only two were broad- cast. I think they burned them all." She has had the starring voice since 1999 in Matt Groening's Futurama as Capt. Turanga Leela, the one-eyed commander of a space delivery ship zipping around the Milky Way in the year 3000. Sagal does not let her chil- dren by ex-husband/musician Jack White — Sarah, 8, and Jackson, 6 — watch the biting show, which is target- ed for adult audiences. However, Sagal maintains hero sta- tus with her children through voice work as the lead character's mom in the Saturday morning cartoon Recess and by co-starring in the Disney Channel cable movie Smart House. "It also made me a big hit with their friends, so it was very cool," she says, laughing. Perhaps best of all, they are able to have a pretty normal life, according to Sagal, who looks totally different from Peg Bundy. "Married... With Children still airs somewhere every day, but I just didn't look like myself on that show (clothes, makeup and lighting may also have had something to do with it), and I'm seldom recognized on the street." Starring in a half-hour situation comedy, which only requires working late once a week on tape night, Sagal is able to maintain her domestic life, too.