'Married with Children' ran for a long time - from its 1987 start, it finished in 1997, meaning that by the time she was done, Applegate as Kelly Bundy had seen two entire sets of children through high school who didn't realize they liked girls until they saw her. She had another prolonged television run in the 90s, starring as the title character in 'Jesse,' but the decade was mostly about films for Applegate, as have been all the years since.
Applegate's first notable film role was 1991's 'so bad it's good' classic 'Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead.' Things improved for her from there, with a significant role in 1996's 'Mars Attacks.' We don't imagine she knew that she was accepting what may be her definitive role when she became Veronica Corningstone in 2004's 'Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy' but that's how things have turned out. She doesn't seem to mind though; she came back for the 2014 sequel.