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Sarah Huckabee Sanders at Murphy Brown, kind of.
Photo: CBS
When I ask Diane English, the designer and the star of Murphy Brownhow she's doing, the first word she uses is "harassed".
It's Tuesday morning and the English is mired in the usual multitasking of a showrunner: overseeing the post-production of a recently filmed episode, while preparing for the recording of 39, a forthcoming film in which Jim Dial (Charles Kimbrough), FYI anchor, receives a lifetime award of excellence. (She calls it a "particularly big" episode that involves "a big ballroom scene and many sophisticated costumes," as well as some big guest stars: Bette Midler, John Larroquette, and Katie Couric.)
English must also find time for press interviews such as this one, in which she will discuss "I (Don) Heart Huckabee" on Thursday night and her surprise "cameo" from the press secretary of the White House, Sarah Huckabee Sanders. In addition to explaining how Murphy Brown falsified his confrontation between Murphy and Sanders ("We have dedicated one of our writer's assistants to the organization of each press conference"), she also talked about the politics of television on the network , his standoff with the head of CBS Les Moonves, disgraced, and what to expect in the next episode of the week on the theme # MeToo.
In this week's episode, the hunk is obviously Murphy sneaking into the newsroom and confronting Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Was there a conversation in the writers' room about whether she should assume a false identity? It's funny, but it definitely breaks a journalistic ethic.
Yes, the character discusses it. She tries to enter through the usual channels and can not do it. In the end, the comedy wins, so we left disguised.
You had a replica of Sanders on the set, but you've also incorporated some real news footage to make it look like it's really there. What's involved putting all of this together?
Well, we already did it once during the first iteration. Murphy had been banished from all the white houses and it was the original George Bush [presidency]. When he was at the White House, we incorporated real images from a press conference with a double voice and a double body.
So, you've done that before.
Yes, and we had fun doing it, so we decided to do it again. We have dedicated one of our writer's assistants to organize each press conference with Sarah Huckabee Sanders. We found five where she wore the same dress and her hair was the same, so we had a lot of choice for facial expressions and words. It took several weeks. Then you buy the footage you want and edit it in the show. We hired a double voice, a double audition, and our wardrobe staff had to make the dress as close as possible. It took a village.
How do you audition the duplicate body?
They enter the casting agent's office, record videos and rotate 360 degrees. We chose someone who looked like his size and height and whose hair was on his shoulders.
You name Sarah Huckabee Sanders, and of course you talk about Trump as well. But there are other cases where you do not like, like using Wolf Network instead of Fox News and naming a character in an upcoming episode "Ed Shannon" instead of Steve Bannon. Why do you have to change some names and not others?
If he had been called Steve Bannon, Steve Bannon should be called to become an actor. This is the obvious reason why we could not use his name – we were creating a character that looked a lot like Alex Jones and himself. With the Wolf network, it gives us more leeway because people are litigious and we can not really use the Fox logo. We thought that we could certainly have more fun with a fictional version, rather than let the CBS and Warner Bros legal department blow our necks all the time.
In the first episodes, you do not hide anything from being a partisan show. On a public broadcast network like CBS, do you have notes to mitigate that?
Until now, they have not told us: what is surprising, frankly. We definitely have a point of view and they knew what they were getting. We were not going to provide any false equivalence if the other party was fanatical. That's why we came back, so to give a voice to, I guess you would call that resistance. Anyone in the White House has the chair of intimidation, so we are the antidote.
I think maybe because Stephen Colbert's show was in the washroom before Trump's election, then that he put himself thoroughly on the administration and the that he became the number one, they might have looked at this and said, "Well, that's not such a bad thing. "Democrats are not really immaculate. In the end, they take a little heat.
How does this compare to your experience in the initial race? Did the network ever tell you anything about Dan Quayle or anything like that, or were they indifferent?
Totally hands.
when we spoke last week, you mentioned that the episode #MeToo was being added to the calendar, so it will be released next week. Can you give me a general idea of the scenario of this episode?
This is called "Murphy Too". It's so much in the mind now. I was listening to Mr. Ford's testimony, as in most countries, and it is very strange how far we have come to this point. Murphy was young, we'll just say it. Many parallels there. That's why we're moving forward, we do not want to miss our chance.
You wrote that, I suppose, well before the publication of Dr. Ford's allegations?
Oh yes, it was written months ago.
Obviously, there was a #MeToo crisis at CBS recently with Les Moonves. Has this affected what you could do with this episode?
Not at all. We were asked if the network had asked us to put it on hold or to modify it and, again, we went totally unnoticed. Not even the suggestion of it.
There is a very powerful scene inside, surrounded by some very funny stuff from a seminar on sexual harassment and the confusion that many people have about what is appropriate and what is not. . It comes from a generational point of view and you are single, married, gay, straight, old, young. We take all these points of view and incorporate them into the script.
I'm in my mid-forties and a lot of women I've talked to about these issues are in their 50s, which is not much older. But there is a big difference of perspective.
Yes, totally. Our staff is very young writers of the millennium and there is a big difference between them and us, baby boomers, you see? We put everything in the script. We all learned a lot from each other. Ironically, we filmed this episode the day the studio scheduled our seminar on sexual harassment. So we started the morning with the seminar, as happens in the show.
I'm sure you've seen the piece that Design women creator Linda Bloodworth-Thomason wrote on the harassment that she faced CBS. Murphy Brown broadcast at the same time and featured one of the strongest female characters in the network. Have you had any experiences where you felt like being shot?
Not at all. It really was a total surprise. No, I have never had anything like it.
What do you think explains the difference?
I do not know, you should ask him. I do not really know because it's not my experience and I was not aware of her experience. It's not like it's elsewhere. I had to continue the network and the several years ago for breach of contract, and we did not talk long after that. For the most part, I left the network and continued my activities. But I have never had the experience of anyone trying to thwart my career in any way.
What was the breach of contract?
There was an agreement in place that was not signed by Les, which was signed by the previous CBS government before it came in, and it was a very, very rich agreement. He came in and he looked at the question and said, "Mmm, I do not think so." That was our interpretation of it. It lasted a few years with lawyers' letters without us going anywhere. So, finally, we had to file a lawsuit and everything was settled.
To your satisfaction?
Yes
I'm sure you're exhausted by the current season, but have you ever thought about what a season two might look like? What can you do if there is a blue wave in the midterm elections?
We do not really think about it. We are just trying to keep our head out of the water here. The climate could change, but I think we will have this guy in the White House by 2020.
We have a whole list of things we have not seen for these 13 [episodes] that we would like to explore if we are lucky enough to get another one.
Is one of the items on your list an episode about, for example, an appointment to the Supreme Court?
Yes, we will definitely have to see how that goes. We can not do anything about it in this week's episode or the week after, until we see what happens on Friday. Then we will find a way to adapt it.
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