Sally Struthers says her life dramatically changed after the success of “All in the Family.”
“It became apparent rather quickly that my life had completely turned upside down,” she tells Pvnew Tuesday.
The actress, 76, says that she and her on-screen husband, Rob Reiner, would go out for lunch at The Grove in Los Angeles, and “within two months, we couldn’t do that anymore.”
Struthers — who was married to William Rader during her time on the CBS show — laughingly adds that fans truly believed she was married to Reiner, who played Michael “Meathead” Stivic in the ’70s sitcom.
“When they saw me with my real-life husband, they [would] go, ‘Where’s your husband?'” she says.
When Struthers tried explaining to the fans that Rader was her actual husband, she said they refused to listen and insisted that she was married to “Meathead.”
“People are so funny,” she notes. “They get an idea in their head, they’re like an old dog with a bone.”
Struthers — who played Archie and Edith Bunker’s daughter, Gloria Stivic, on the show — says the sitcom, which ran from 1971 to 1979, was groundbreaking in so many different ways.
“The Bunkers came along and they flushed toilets,” she explains. “They didn’t have good manners at the table. They reached over one another for food … and they talked about real things.
“They peeled off the veneer. And you saw the less-than-perfect side of human beings. You saw the arguing and the vehemence and the bigotry. You can’t put the genie back in the bottle now. Everything got more honest after that.”
Despite the downside of instant fame, the mom of one says she is “grateful” for “All in the Family.”
“And over the years the gratitude has grown because it continues to open doors,” she tells us.
“It sounds like I’m bragging. I’m not bragging. I’m always dumbfounded,” she continues. “I don’t have to audition for theater. I get offered parts. I get people who call and say, ‘We want Sally to do this for us this year.’
“And that’s because they know that my name sells tickets and fills the seats. That wouldn’t have happened without the renown of ‘All in the Family.’ So, I’m grateful every day.”
For her younger fanbase, Struthers is equally beloved for her role as Babette Dell in “Gilmore Girls.”
“The best part of my life … is when I am met by a mother-daughter team because the mother will say, ‘Oh, we’ve loved you as Gloria.’ And the daughter will say, ‘No, she’s Babette.’ And they have a little argument in front of me and that just tickles me pink,” she gushes.
The “Gloria” alum calls the recognition “delightful.”
And Struthers is still busy working.
She’s just been signed to costar in a new Netflix comedy series called “A Classic Spy” opposite Ted Danson.
And she recently just wrapped up a critically acclaimed run of a comedy called “The Journals of Adam and Eve” opposite “Barney Miller” star Hal Linden. They’re hoping the play will soon move to New York.
“You know, I’m a little long in the tooth to travel around, yet I feel it’s that very life that’s kept me young and strong,” she admits.
“And that’s what I do. I keep moving, and I think that my favorite adage is, ‘You rest, You rust!'”
