Morgan Fairchild Revealed How Jerry Falwell Boosted Her Career
What To Know
- Morgan Fairchild became a prominent television star in the 1970s and ’80s by portraying confident and glamorous women on hit shows.
- The Moral Majority criticized Fairchild for being “too sexy for TV,” which ironically increased her fame.
- Fairchild reflected that the controversy over her on-screen roles ultimately boosted her career.
Primetime television in the 1970s and ’80s was overflowing with flawless goddesses who ushered in a new era of powerful women. If they weren’t running corporations with perfectly feathered hair, they were strutting into scenes to stir up drama, tempt heroes, or topple rivals with a single arched eyebrow. These glam icons didn’t just steal the spotlight; they defined it. And few did it better than Morgan Fairchild.
Fairchild used her impeccably styled looks and sharp talent to master the art of playing confident, ambitious, and often deliciously dramatic women. She helped breathe life into elegant, powerful, high-drama characters on shows such as Search for Tomorrow, Dallas, Falcon Crest, and Flamingo Road.
But not everyone enjoyed her brand of feminism, and the Moral Majority at the time attempted to take her down for her on-screen “sinful” ways.
In a recent appearance by Morgan on Jimmy Kimmel Live, Kimmel presented the Falcon Crest star with her 1981 cover of People, featuring her with the headline “Is She Too Sexy for TV?: Morgan Fairchild of Flamingo Road is What the Moral Majority is Shouting About.”
NBC/courtesy Everett Collection
It seems almost quaint now, but at the time, Fairchild was called out for being too scandalous for prime time. Fairchild then went on to explain that their outrage helped her career.
“This is a group led by a guy named Jerry Falwell, who was a troublemaker under the guise of Christianity, and yet he seemed to raise quite a bit of money for himself,” explained Kimmel. “Is this something that upset you?”
“No. Actually, this was when I was doing Flamingo Road and I had shot the cover [of People] and shot everything, then Ronald Reagan got shot and so our cover and the whole story got bumped and then they didn’t know what to do with us,” explained Fairchild.
“We were in that interim, you know, where we didn’t know if the show was picked up,” continued Fairchild. “Then Reverend Falwell and [Reverend Donald] Wildmon declared me too sexy for TV, and honey, the religious group handed me my cover back.”
Lorimar Television/Everett Collection
Instead of banning the blonde bombshell, the outcry had a Barbara Streisand effect on her career, as the scandal brought attention to both the actress and the fledgling series. As a result, the Dallas actress landed her first magazine cover.
At the time, Fairchild took issue with their objections as they were not lambasting her, but her characters. “I thought it was very amusing at the time, like being on Richard Nixon‘s hit list,” Fairchild told the Los Angeles Times in 1988. “But the (subtext) really bothered me. I’m about the straightest person I know in this town. I don’t drink, smoke, do drugs. I’m basically a pretty old-fashioned girl, and here these people were denouncing the character I play, and though they weren’t labeling me as such, they were denouncing me.”
But now, years later, Fairchild laughed at the attempt to topple her career.
“So, this actually helped. It gave you a boost. It backfired on them,” laughed Kimmel.
Fairchild was quick to respond: “Honey, censorship is not new.”
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