Moving to drama, Kennedy had a recurring role on the CBS primetime soaps "Knots Landing", for which she was also a writer and story editor. She scored as the proper, bigoted Ruth Sloan in the cult hit "Homefront" (CBS, 1991-93) and played a variation on the role as a snobbish socialite in "Savannah" (The WB, 1996-97). Returning to sitcoms, Kennedy was cast as the mother of a free-spirited woman who marries a blueblood in the highly touted sitcom "Dharma & Greg" (ABC, 1997- ).
While her TV-movie work began with "Thin Ice" (CBS, 1981), Kennedy is better recalled as the wife and mother of a practical joking family who finds the joke is on them in "Mr. Boggedy" (ABC, 1986), and its 1987 sequel. She also portrayed Patricia Kennedy Lawford in the miniseries "Robert Kennedy and His Times" (CBS, 1985). Her work in feature films has been limited. She did not begin appearing on the big screen until "Chances Are" (1989) and subsequently was mother to Harrison Mohr in "Immediate Family" (1989), and had small roles in "Pump Up the Volume" (1990), "Death Becomes Her" (1992) and "Buddy" (1997). In 1996, Kennedy published a memoir, "Taken to the Stage: The Education of an Actress", about working her way through casting couches and auditions to "working" status.