CBS' 'Murphy Brown' is back, 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 9:30 p.m. EDT Thursday on CBS, said creator and executive producer Diane English.

The series is "here to make some noise," English said in an interview, sketching out a few of topics to be featured in the season's 13 episodes: "We're doing an immigration episode, we're doing a midterm-elections episode. We're doing a Me Too episode," she said.

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.

Murphy and her colleagues "are trying to present the facts in a straight down the middle way," English said. "Their show is issue-oriented and facts, with no personal opinion."

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 of the Washington beltway "bubble" has given him an appreciation for different views, English said.