In 1984, she co-starred on ABC's short-lived television drama Paper Dolls, and then appeared on Falcon Crest as attorney Jordan Roberts from 1985 to 1986.

Fairchild then moved to New York City, where she secured her first credited onscreen role as the maniacal Jennifer Pace in the daytime soap opera Search for Tomorrow from 1973 until 1977.

[1] The same year, Fairchild made the television film The Initiation of Sarah and also had a recurring role on the sitcom Mork & Mindy.

[6] In that same year, she also co-starred in another primetime soap opera Paper Dolls playing modeling agency owner Racine.

In 1985, she joined the cast of the soap opera Falcon Crest, playing the glamorous lawyer Jordan Roberts for a season.

In 1985, Jon Lovitz on Saturday Night Live created the "Tommy Flanagan, The Pathological Liar" character who claimed outlandish achievements for himself, culminating in the grand illusion that his wife was Morgan Fairchild.

The obvious remoteness of such a possibility, and its mainstream comic appeal, was testimonial to Fairchild's broad popularity and desirability.

In 1994, Fairchild appeared in an unexpectedly campy advertisement campaign for clothing retailer Old Navy, with Joan Collins and other formerly familiar faces on television.

She played herself in the comedy films Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (1994), Holy Man (1998) and Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story (2007).

In 2006, she was cast in yet another of her "rich bitch" roles in the MyNetworkTV series Fashion House, playing Sophia Blakely, a rival to Bo Derek's character, Maria Gianni.

In 2007 she appeared on Two and a Half Men where she was cast as a cougar who propositions Charlie Harper with the line "What has multiple orgasms and hums?"

The ensemble cast is made up of Fairchild, Loni Anderson, Linda Gray, Donna Mills, and Nicollette Sheridan.

[21][22] In addition to her work as an actress, Fairchild has long maintained a strong role within the Screen Actors Guild, now SAG-AFTRA.