For longtime television viewers, little has remained as it once was. But over the last 30 years or so, there have been three comforting constants on the small screen: Christina Applegate, Kelsey Grammer and Julia Louis-Dreyfus. The familiar faces have been on the air — in one form or another and with varying degrees of success — almost continuously since the 1980s (with Grammer taking the longevity prize for his 22-year run as the voice of Sideshow Bob on “The Simpsons” and his 19-year run playing Dr. Frasier Crane). This season, each is back with a new series — NBC’s “Up All Night” (Applegate), Starz’s “Boss” (Grammer) and HBO’s “Veep” (Louis-Dreyfus) — all of which have already been picked up for a second season.

While viewers have relied on the steadfast on-screen presence of these actors, the trio has been around long enough to see the industry go through some dramatic changes.

Applegate, for instance, points out that the kind of content that used to get her “Married With Children” writers into trouble in 1987 is passé in today’s prime time. “It’s like Pollyanna compared to what they’re getting away with these days.”

One pleasant surprise for her has been the increasing numbers of women headlining comedy series, pointing to”New Girl” as a recent example. “Women still don’t get those props in the film world. I hope ‘Bridesmaids’ [ensures] that women are trusted a bit more to not just be the pretty girl,” Applegate says.

Louis-Dreyfus, who was on”Seinfeld”for 180 episodes, says the biggest difference she sees in TV these days is the way decisions are made. “The audiences are diminishing for network television, and that fuels a sort of fear-based decision-making. But at the same time, I feel more relaxed about it — maybe just ’cause I’m older now.”

And although Grammer concedes that shrinking budgets have made it tougher to make high-quality shows, “in a weird way, nothing’s changed for me.”

“I just like to do stuff that I’m proud of, and if nobody else is interested in that, then I’ll go tell my story somewhere else,” he says.

Christina Applegate
“Up All Night”

Looking for a new job was the last thing on Applegate’s mind when she was sent the script for “Up All Night.” She had just given birth to her first child and was busy adjusting to her new life.

“It was pilot season, so I was getting a lot of things coming at me at once, but this was the only script that made me laugh,” she recalls.

Although some of the characters’ relationships and jobs changed significantly during the development process, she says the dry wit of creator Emily Spivey was always the core of the show. And playing a character whose life so closely resembles her own made the role extremely comfortable for the new mother.

“I’ve never played someone that close to who I am and that close to my own personality and my own sense of humor. Her neuroses are my neuroses,” Applegate says.

In the freshman series, the actress who launched her career as Kelly Bundy on “Married With Children” plays TV producer Reagan Brinkley, who balances motherhood with her hectic job while her stay-at-home husband, played by Will Arnett, cares for their baby. Though it’s easy to assume that most of the humor comes from the foibles of parenthood, Applegate is quick to point out that once people tune in they’ll realize that the baby is not the focal point.

“It really is about relationships and just trying to make life work,” says Applegate, who’s also a producer on the series. “I hope that we get deeper into the struggles of life [next season], because that’s really funny.”

latimes.com