The gang’s back
Comedy legend Murphy Brown gets the reboot treatment but all the old faces have returned for more political laughs.
There are two kinds of TV reboots. The first is like Magnum PI (2018current, see more on p55), where a show is remade with new actors playing favourite characters with all-new storylines. The second is like Murphy Brown (1988- current), where the cast return years after the show ended. “It is incredibly difficult for new actors to win over fans who loved the originals,” says Candice Bergen, who reprises her title role. “With our show, we thought that we had finished telling stories but the world has changed and opened new doors – and a lot of it has been politically motivated. But that’s what Murphy Brown was and is – a politically themed comedy that gets people talking about serious issues.”
TRASHING TRUMP
New season 11 is set in the current world and it zooms in on President Donald Trump from the word go, explains show creator Diane English. “I’ve got many friends who voted for Trump but they are not the same people who go to political rallies and scream ‘lock them up’ at journalists.” She adds that President Trump’s attacks on media has inspired her to go a little above where reality is and how people behave “since the potential for that violence spilling over is very real and very in your face. Sometimes you look at a political rally and you wonder if someone’s going to pull out a gun and start shooting. My journalist friends do worry about this and it’s at the forefront of their minds”.
BEING BACK
Making the decision to bring back not only the character but the rest of the cast too was a huge decision that both Candice and Diane took seriously. “The network has never said no to a single thing we’ve asked. We needed to be topical,” says Diane. “We have the political angle, there’s also sexual harassment in the workplace, illegal immigration… we’ve taken a strong standpoint with this reboot and we have done some of our best work with these 13 episodes.” Getting back into the swing of filming was a little more hectic for Candice, who admits that “it was a lot easier in 1997 when we filmed season 10. Twenty years takes a lot out of you but there’s still a lot of fight left in Murphy. Watch out, Donald!”