MURPHY BROWN: Fake News

Murphy Brown was one of the first (and formative) shows that I watched as young girl. With my mother watching with me, we explored all of the feminist ideals in Murphy’s life as she battled working at a broadcast news show.

This week a new version of the show is back – with most of the same old faces – but some news to focus on week in and week out.

Cara and I want to focus on some old tropes and new twists in each week’s recap.

Old News

Roz: I will always love a good jab at Murphy’s revolving pool of secretaries. (Should we call them an administrative assistant now?) This week she interviewed a new one, Hilary Clendon, who has plenty of work as a Secretary (of State) and proficient with issues around emails.

Cara: The callback to Murphy’s classic secretary issue was a great one, and the play on Hillary Clinton’s experience as secretary was cute. I liked seeing a lot of the old faces, but the best old news for me was #DanQuayle. It was a a small line, but I think it showed us that the show wasn’t going to shy from courting controversy, perhaps more intentionally this time around. Murphy’s password, Arethaforever has got me humming the show’s unofficial theme song, “Natural Woman.”

“Fake News”–“Fake News”–Multiple Emmy Award winner Candice Bergen returns as the eponymous broadcast news legend in the revival of the groundbreaking comedy series MURPHY BROWN, which premieres Thursday, Sept. 27 (9:30-10:00 PM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Pictured L-R: Joe Regalbuto as Frank Fontana, Grant Shaud as Miles Silverberg, Candice Bergen as Murphy Brown, and Faith Ford as Corky Sherwood Photo: Jojo Whilden/CBS ©2018 CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved

New News

Roz: I need someone to explain to me how Avery is working for Wolf News and how he’s conservative to Murphy’s progressivism. But I appreciate that he’s around to help her with Twitter. That her first tweet went viral was an added bonus.

Cara: I don’t know that Avery is supposed to be conservative, but I do think he’ll be used as a kind of voice of the people responding to Murphy’s politics. I guess we’ll see how it plays out. I like Jake McDorman a lot, and he gives me hope that they can do something fresh with this show. The show doesn’t feel particularly new. It is relying heavily on what it once was, but the show was once groundbreaking, so it would be great for the show to find a way to do that again.

Murphy Brown airs on CBS at 9:30 on Thursdays.