'Murphy Brown' returns to fight new culture wars

Murphy, a celebrity TV journalist, is being pushed by network executives to conduct an interview. It’s a chance to interrogate a Steve Bannon-like character who is a former senior adviser in the Trump White House and has a book to sell. “A ratings bonanza,” her boss insists.

Two weeks after that episode was filmed, The New Yorker came under heavy fire for inviting Bannon, a former senior adviser to Donald Trump, to its annual festival, criticized by staff and readers alike for daring to give him a soap box. That flare-up is just one reason producers and the stars of the series believe that “Murphy Brown” is as relevant now as it was in the 1990s.

“Over the last few years, it would get brought up and we would just dismiss it,” Bergen, 72, said in a recent interview about rebooting the show. “We thought, what was the point? But then we thought, hmm, it just seemed the time was right, which is, of course, because of the election.”

“The only thing I can thank him for,” she continued, referring to Trump, “is to have given us unplowed fields of material.”

The sitcom “Murphy Brown” returns to CBS after a 20-year absence Sept. 27. As with other recent reboots, including “Roseanne,” “Will & Grace,” “Full House” and “Twin Peaks,” most of the original cast has returned.

But “Murphy Brown” is re-entering a TV space very different from when it first aired three decades ago, and it may face the biggest obstacles to success out of any of those recent revivals.

Consider: TV news is currently a less-trusted institution than banks, the medical system and the criminal justice system, according to Gallup, far different from the 1990s. Can “Murphy Brown,” and its comedic celebration of TV journalism, resonate in this environment?

Fans who want to catch up on the original series will find it nearly impossible to stream thanks to expensive music rights issues (Motown songs were prominently featured in older episodes). Warner Bros., the show’s producer, recently struck a deal to have 18 of the original run’s 247 episodes to stream on CBS All Access (one of the smaller services) for a few weeks. But is that enough exposure to stoke interest?

And, perhaps most important, the show will have a definitive point of view — it will be anti-Trump and decidedly pro-press. Can that work on CBS, the home of Middle America’s favorite shows like “NCIS,” “Blue Bloods” and “Criminal Minds”?

“They’re not going to watch us anyway,” said Diane English, the creator of “Murphy Brown,” referring to Trump supporters. “I don’t think we’re looking to bring them into the tent.”

Bergen added, “We don’t want to shut down half of the country, but I think we just see that someone has to take them on.” (By them, she’s referring to the Trump administration.)

During its original run from 1988 to 1998, “Murphy Brown” was regularly a top 10 show in the ratings. It captured the best-comedy Emmy twice, and Bergen won the best actress in a comedy Emmy five times. During the 1992 campaign, Vice President Dan Quayle invoked Murphy and her decision in the series to have a child as a single mother, arguing that she was “mocking the importance of fathers.” It was a moment that brought “Murphy Brown” into the red-hot center of the culture wars.

For the revival, Murphy is the anchor of a new cable news show, à la CNN’s “New Day.” Her co-anchors also happen to be her old colleagues from “FYI,” the weekly newsmagazine they hosted in the original series: Frank (Joe Regalbuto) and Corky (Faith Ford). Miles (Grant Shaud) is back as her producer.

Murphy’s son, Avery, all grown up now, serves as the liberal correspondent on a rival morning show on a Fox News-like conservative cable network.

It is worth noting that by the time “Murphy Brown” went off the air, Fox News had been on the air for all of 19 months.

“We’re taking these characters from 1998 and putting them in a place now that is utterly different when we last saw them,” English said. “There was no social media, there was no fake news, alternative facts, all of this. Even cellphones were like toaster ovens.”

English, 70, had never really considered bringing the series back. She did not want to ruin its legacy, for one thing. But she was also intent on getting a new show on the air.

She had a comedy in the works about a morning television show with HBO. The network passed. She shopped a script with Warner Bros. about a group of White House speechwriters, inspired by the Pod Save America hosts. No one bit.

“I felt like I was doing the best work of my life on some of these shows,” she said. “It was so frustrating.”

Last year, Peter Roth, the president of the Warner Bros. television unit, asked English to consider writing a “Murphy Brown” script after the speechwriter idea did not sell. Roth saw that the TV landscape was being inundated with revivals, and many were doing quite well in the ratings.

English reached out to her original cast to see if they were game. It turns out, several of them were all but done with show business.

Shaud, who played Miles, said he had moved to a “compound in Pennsylvania.” Ford, who played Corky, had left Los Angeles in 2012 and relocated to Louisiana, while still doing the occasional TV movie. Regalbuto, who played Frank, said he was in his pajamas when he got the email from English. It was around 6 in the evening.

“We all have been blessed to have been on this show, blessed to have good careers and done stuff,” Regalbuto said. “But personally, I was thinking: Should I take my pension?”

All of them agreed to return.

Bergen was also intrigued by the idea of returning but she had one condition: The show would need to be shot in New York, so she could stay close to her husband, Marshall Rose, who is not in any condition to travel, she said.

When Warner Bros. showed English’s script to Leslie Moonves, then the chief executive of CBS, it took all of two days for him to approve a 13-episode order.

“Les made it all happen,” Bergen said.

Which makes things slightly awkward. In July, CBS hired two law firms to conduct an investigation after journalist Ronan Farrow wrote about six women who accused Moonves of sexual misconduct or harassment. This month, Moonves stepped down after Farrow published a second article in which six more women detailed claims against him.

In a late August interview, before the publication of that later article by Farrow, Bergen defended Moonves.

“I think it’s vital that women have had, finally, the chance to put their stories out there and be able to voice what’s happened to them,” she said. “And it’s changed things forever. But I think there should be some parameters. I think Les’ behavior was — it was a different time. He was a different man. Is it behavior unbecoming? Yeah. But I go back with CBS, with the first ‘Murphy.’ I have great respect for Les.”

She added, “I would really hate to see Les go.”

In a statement, sent by her publicist after Moonves stepped down, Bergen said: “It has been hard to reconcile that man with the one I’m just learning about now. I stand in solidarity with the victims.”

The fourth episode of the revival of “Murphy Brown” will address the #MeToo movement, with the title #MurphyToo.

Contemporary themes will be vital to the series. And everyone associated with the show said that this is not a reboot for reboot’s sake.

“If Hillary Clinton was elected, there’d be no artistic reason for this show to be on the air,” said Steve Peterman, a producer who also worked on the original. “But because of the election and because the position the press is now finding itself in there were so many reasons for this show to come back. This isn’t a money grab. This isn’t a ‘let’s go out for one more swing at the fences.’ This was: We need to do this show.”

The revival of “Roseanne” was a major hit — before the show’s star self-immolation — in part because the main character was a Trump supporter.

“Roseanne did incredibly well in the middle of the country, but on the coasts it was not even in the top 20,” said Gary Dontzig, another producer. “So there. Murphy probably will be looking at huge numbers on the coasts and not a lot in the center of the country other than specific spots.”

CBS isn’t exactly hoping to scare away Trump supporters. Kelly Kahl, the president of CBS Entertainment, said he does not “think you’re precluded from watching the show if you voted for Donald Trump.”

He added: “Let’s not forget: This is a comedy. Yes, there’s some social commentary, but the idea here is to make people laugh.”

And, perhaps, to catch the interest of the man in the Oval Office. If Trump tweeted about the show, Bergen said, “It would certainly enrich our experience.”

English said the same.

“We were in the writers room talking about what the tweet would be,” she said “He’d say something about her being sad. She should have stayed back. Old. Very unfunny.”

She added, “It would be fantastic.”

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

'Murphy Brown' returns to fight new culture wars

In one of the first episodes of the rebooted “Murphy Brown,” the show’s title character, back at it after all these years, faces a quandary.

JOIN OUR PULSE COMMUNITY!