‘Murphy Brown’ is ready to ‘make some noise’
LOS ANGELES - Last season’s short-lived “Roseanne” revival blew an air kiss to President Donald Trump in its debut episode before it reverted to finding laughs in family and working-class woes, not politics.
Expect “Murphy Brown,” another reborn 20th-century sitcom, to be consistently faithful to its own roots.
Washington tumult, social issues and the role of journalism will be central when the sitcom starring Candice Bergen as a tough TV reporter returns Thursday night at 8:30 p.m. Thursday on CBS, said creator and executive producer Diane English.
The series is “here to make some noise,” English said in an interview.
The debut half-hour is “so ambitious and so fearless,” Bergen told a TV critics’ news conference. “During the taping, I turned to Joe (Regalbuto, her co-star) at one point and I said, ‘This show has no fear of anyone.’ ”
In the revival, former network reporter Murphy is now on cable with the frothily titled “Murphy in the Morning.” Along for the ride at the fictitious CNC news channel are her old “FYI” news magazine colleagues, including Regalbuto’s Frank Fontana, Faith Ford’s Corky Sherwood and Grant Shaud’s Miles Silverberg.
Jake McDorman (“Shameless”) joins the cast as Murphy’s son, Avery, a reporter at the competing and conservative Wolf — ahem — news channel. He’s liberal, but his work outside the Washington beltway “bubble” has given him an appreciation for different views, English said.
English initially hesitated when Warner Bros. studio executives approach her about bringing it back amid other successful revivals. But it was the aftermath of the 2016 election that made the difference.
“I started really thinking seriously about it as things in our country got worse and worse,” she said. “And I thought, ‘You know, all these shows are coming back but ours is the one that has the real reason to come back.’ We are about the press. We always were a politically and culturally relevant show.”