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Key Points Jerry Falwell’s criticism made Morgan Fairchild a symbol of “too sexy for TV.” The controversy unexpectedly got her on the cover of People magazine. Fairchild wasn’t upset and continued a successful TV career despite backlash. Morgan Fairchild found herself at the center of televangelist Jerry Falwell and the Moral Majority’s culture war when they decided her turn in Flamingo Road should be the poster child of what they believed was “too sexy for TV” in 1988. In a recent interview, Fairchild revealed that their grandstanding actually landed her on the cover of People magazine. Fairchild, 75, appeared as a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live! on Tuesday, November 11. When host Jimmy Kimmel asked if Falwell’s outrage “upset” her, she surprisingly admitted that it doesn’t upset her when she looks back on it. RELATED: ’80s Supermodel, 71, Says She Broke Down While Recalling Devastating Betrayal “Actually, this was when I was doing Flamingo Road and we had shot the cover and shot everything,” the former Dallas star explained. “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 because we were in that interim, you know, where we didn’t know if the show was picked up.” She went on to say the unexpected outcry from Falwell ended up changing everything. “Then Reverend Falwell and [Reverend Donald] Wildmon declared me too sexy for TV, and honey, the religious group handed me my cover back.” This wasn’t the first time Fairchild has spoken about the conservative group’s backlash that ultimately led to her first magazine cover. “I thought it was very amusing at the time, like being on Richard Nixon’s hit list,” the Paper Dolls alum told The Los Angeles Times in a 1988 interview. “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.” News ‘80s TV Bombshell, 67, Makes Rare Appearance Looking Nearly Unrecognizable Whitney Danhauer
