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After 20 years, Murphy Brown returns to the hospitality chair. In the revival, Candice Bergen's fiery and innovative presenter clashes with her son, who works for a conservative cable news channel.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
Shift now. The television series "Murphy Brown" returns to CBS Thursday, 20 years after the end of the original sitcom. NPR TV critic Eric Deggans spoke with star Candice Bergen and show creator Diane English about the relevance of "Murphy Brown" in the era of cable and social media.
ERIC DEGGANS, BYLINE: This is a question Diane English answers without hesitation. If Hillary Clinton had been elected president, would there be a revival "Murphy Brown"?
DIANE FRENCH: Probably not. If we had been approached, it would not have been as relevant as today. There is so much material here. It is difficult to get away from it.
DEGGANS: After the election, she spent nine months developing the first script. In this document, Murphy Brown has moved from the network to cable news. The new episodes of "Murphy Brown" often play as a rebuttal of the Trump face. In one scene, archive footage of Sarah Sanders is used to stage a scene where Murphy confronts the press attaché during a briefing at the White House.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MURPHY BROWN (2018)")
CANDICE BERGEN: (Like Murphy Brown) Why are you lying?
STUDIO AUDIENCE: (Gasps).
BERGEN: (Like Murphy Brown) I mean, how do we get back to our newspapers and magazines and networks knowing that the most basic principle of journalistic integrity to report facts is totally out of reach? If we can not reach the truth, why are we here?
Murphy is always relentless and she does not want to be older.
DEGGANS: This is the star Candice Bergen who describes the character who helped her to become a television legend. Bergen won five Emmy Awards in the '80s and' 90s playing Murphy Brown, a motivated investigative journalist who has just left the rehab center and who finally decides to have a baby as a single mother. In the renewal of CBS, Murphy comes out of retirement to resume the morning show on a cable channel. The contest – his son. He works for a conservative cable TV channel called The Wolf Network. Find? Bergen hopes that the new Murphy Brown, who is older than most women, is currently setting up a major cable news program, could open up new perspectives for former TV actors and older artists and producers.
BERGEN: So I'm 72 years old. It's old. And I think it can be helpful to see the type of work that people in their sixties and sixties are capable of. You are 40 times smarter. You have the same energy. And you have – now, you have something to say.
DEGGANS: From 1988 to 1998, Murphy Brown always had a lot to say. One minute, she was fighting a sexual stalker at her workplace.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MURPHY BROWN (1988)")
BERGEN: (as Murphy Brown) My knee is inches away from the sensitive area …
(TO LAUGH)
BERGEN: (as Murphy Brown) And if you do not swear to dismiss Corky or anyone in his company, you'll be crunching things you've eaten as a child.
(TO LAUGH)
DEGGANS: Then she reminded a distraught senator of the value of a free press.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MURPHY BROWN (1988)")
BERGEN: (Like Murphy Brown) Without the press, Watergate, the debacle of saving and lending and Iran-Contra may have never been unearthed.
UNIDENTIFIED PLAYER: (As a character) So?
DEGGANS: English says that by developing for the first time the idea of Murphy Brown, the stories that characterized the series have also frightened television executives. They feared that the public would not like a 40-year-old woman who just came out of the rehab. They suggested the young bomb Heather Locklear instead of the Oscar nominated Bergen. Addressing the Archives of American Television, English said the script had been saved from a stroke of luck.
(SOUND OF A RECORDED ARCHIVED)
ENGLISH: When we fired on the pilot, we were in the midst of writers' strike. I have returned this script. The next day, the strike occurred and I could not change a word.
DEGGANS: Despite their audacious stories, English says she was always surprised in 1992 when then Vice President Dan Quayle criticized the series in a campaign speech. And it has become a huge controversy.
(SOUND OF A RECORDED ARCHIVED)
DAN QUAYLE: It does not help things when primetime TV has Murphy Brown, a character who optimizes so-called intelligent, highly paid professional woman, mocking the importance of fathers by carrying a child alone and simply calling her a another choice of life.
DEGGANS: Murphy Brown and his baby landed on the cover of The New York Times, and the series tackled criticism head-on.
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "MURPHY BROWN (1988)")
BERGEN: (like Murphy Brown) These are hard times for our country. And looking for the causes of our social problems, we could choose to blame the media, the Congress or an administration in power for 12 years. Or we could blame myself.
DEGGANS: These days, English says that she was not necessarily trying to make history when she created the Murphy Brown character.
ENGLISH: I was just trying to put a character on TV who was like me and my friends. That – I did not necessarily see that. And it turned out that in the body of Candice Bergen, who is such an actress and actress, has made sure that she is revolutionary.
DEGGANS: At a time when women's issues are at the center of public debate, it's good to find a character with a legacy of empowerment and strong principles.
I am Eric Deggans.
(SONG SOUNDBITE OF YO LA TENGO, "SHADES OF BLUE")
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