Reed continued to work in films appearing as Robin Williams' ex-wife in "Cadillac Man" (1990) but her comedic skills came to the fore and to the attention of a wider public when she co-starred as Arnold Schwarzenegger's partner in Ivan Reitman's "Kindergarten Cop" (1990). Reed was also seen in Tim Robbins' satiric take on American politics "Bob Roberts" (1992) and again co-starred with Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito in Ivan Reitman's medical comedy "Junior" (1994) as DeVito's pregnant ex-wife.
Reed has been equally active on the small screen since making her debut on the short-lived dramatic series "The Andros Targets" (1977). She has since starred in a variety of TV projects including the remake of "I Want to Live" (1983), about the execution of gangster moll Barbara Graham; "Scandal Sheet" (1985), starring opposite Burt Lancaster; the dedicated campaign manager in "Tanner '88" (1988), a realistic yet satiric look at an imaginary candidate running for president in the 1988 campaign; and in "Woman With a Past" (1992), she played a suburban housewife with a hidden criminal identity. Reed has tried her hand at weekly series TV with both "Grand" (1990) as a former beauty queen turned waitress, and "Family Album" (1993) about a family struggling with generational differences. Neither series survived more than a few episodes. She returned to series TV in 1995, portraying a judge and single mother in the NBC sitcom "Home Court".