Murphy Brown

Candice Bergen's "Murphy Brown" is one of the best sit-coms ever made, but it also had it's share of controversy during its 10 years at CBS. Bergen played the title character, who I felt was a step-up from Maude Findlay's character, complete with the deep voice. She's an anchorwoman for FYI News (a CBS affiliate) in New York. With the outstanding performances of Grant Shaud as hyperactive studio boss Miles Silverberg, Faith Ford as perky Paige Davis-like Corky Sherwood, and the hilariously wooden Jim Dial (Charles Kimbrough), this show had some endearing characters.

Of course, the show is remembered for being the site of some controversy. Everyone remembers the war of criticism between Bergen and then U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle when the VP criticized Bergen's character becoming a single mother through insemination. Also, one of the greatest episodes of all sitcoms was when Murphy Brown used an episode to take a nasty swipe at CBS for the poor efforts it had made since 1985 to wrest the Nielsen crown away from NBC. Since that time, CBS had been getting its head kicked in repeatedly by Brandon Tartikoff's Peacock network. Murphy's FYI was to announce the fall line-up and she wasn't pleased with the effort "CBS" was making. One of the shows to come was going to have a chimpanzee as its star. Who couldn't forget the ending credits with Bergen announcing to all the affiliates about when the show with the chimp was going to be (including non-CBS city Montreal, Quebec). Ironically, a year or two later, CBS turned it around and won the Nielsen ratings. The episode with Candice's husband. the late Louis Malle is another great one as well.

I was more of an off-and-on fan of this show, but when this show was on, Murphy Brown was as good as any sitcom around.