Bergen to star in ‘Murphy Brown’ revival on CBS
LOS ANGELES » Candice Bergen is returning to TV in a revival of “Murphy Brown,” the agenda-setting 20th-century comedy.
CBS said in a Wednesday announcement that it’s ordered 13 episodes of the sitcom for its 2018-19 season.
Diane English created the original series that starred Bergen as a hardcharging TV journalist. English is back as writer and executive producer for the reboot.
CBS suggested the show is ready for to embrace the current zeitgeist.
“As its 30th anniversary approaches, ‘Murphy Brown’ returns to a world of cable news, social media, fake news and a very different political and cultural climate,” the network said in a statement.
Bergen, who won multiple lead-actress Emmys for the original, will be an executive producer, CBS says. The 71-year-old actress will be reprising her role, while other casting wasn’t announced.
The series addressed hot-button social and political issues, drawing applause and the ire of critics including then-Vice President Dan Quayle. It ran for 10 seasons from 1988 to 1998.
“Murphy Brown” became a focal point during the 1992 George H.W. Bush-Bill Clinton presidential campaign when Quayle criticized a plotline that had the unmarried Brown having a child. He said it damaged family values.
When Bergen won her second Emmy for the role that year, she jokingly thanked Quayle and “the members of the cultural elite.”
Bergen won five Emmys for the role, finally taking herself out of the running in 1996 to give other actresses a chance. Overall, “Murphy Brown” captured a total of 18 trophies.
In the final season, a storyline about Brown’s breast cancer revived attention to the show as its ratings fell. In one episode, Bergen’s character smoked marijuana to ease the pain of chemotherapy, a move both praised and condemned.