Murphy Brown: The E! True Hollywood Story

[mickeymouseclubfan]

The year is 1988. Ronald Wilson Reagan, age 77, is about to end his 2-term U.S. Presidency; Thursday Nights are spent with Bill Cosby; and writer Diane English conceives and creates a newsroom situation comedy called "Murphy Brown" for execs at Warner Bros. Television, which soon greenlit the show.

For the title character, after pitching the show to the CBS Television Network, Diane wanted, from its inception, Candy Bergen to play Murphy; however, CBS wanted Heather Locklear (then known for her role on "Dynasty") to play Murphy.

After a meeting with then-CBS President Kim Masters, after Diane fought hard for Candy to play Murphy, Kim said to Candy, "Congratulations, Murphy" (info courtesy of the Warner Bros. Home Entertainment DVD Bonus Feature).

Candice Patricia Bergen, the daughter of famed ventriloquist Edgar Bergen, was born on May 9, 1946 in Los Angeles, California and spent more than 40 years trying to find fame in her own right before finding it as "Murphy Brown."

After stints as both a fashion model and photojournalist, Candy began her acting career soon after her father's death in 1978 of kidney failure at age 75 (days after announcing his Showbiz retirement). Candy's mother, Frances Westerman, whom Edgar married in 1945 when she was 23, was a commercial model known professionally as Frances Westcott (she died in 2006 at age 84).

Joining Candy in the show were veteran stage actor Charlie Kimbrough (born on May 23, 1936 in St. Paul, Minnesota) as Jim Dial, the anchor of the show-within-a-show F.Y.I., a fictional Wednesday-night news show based in Washington, D.C.; Joe Regalbuto (born on August 24, 1949 in New York City, New York) as investigative reporter Frank Fontana, who like Joe in real life, was comfortable with his male-pattern baldness, but in the show-within-a-show wore a toupee to conceal his baldness in the early seasons; Pat Corley (born on June 1, 1930 in Dallas, Texas; died September 11, 2006 in Los Angeles, California of heart failure at age 76) as Phil, the proprietor/bartender of the aptly-named Phil's, started by his father in 1919; Faith Ford (born Alexis Ford on September 14, 1964 in Alexandria, Louisiana) as Corky Sherwood, a former Miss America who loved Murphy but knew little about journalism; Bobby Pastorelli (born on June 21, 1954 in New Brunswick, New Jersey; died on March 8, 2004 in Los Angeles, California of an accidental Heroin Overdose after a life-long fight against drug addiction) as Murphy's aspiring artist/painter, Eldin Bernecky (who midway through the show's 10-year run became Nanny to Murphy's infant son Avery before Murphy fired him in Season 7, allowing, in a rare act of kindness, Eldin to pursue his own dreams of studying painting until returning at the end of the show's hour-long series finale); and Grant Shaud (born on February 27, 1961 in Evanston, Illinois) as Miles Silverberg, the show's executive producer who joined the F.Y.I. staff while Murphy was spending a month at the Betty Ford Clinic.

The pilot episode, "Respect," was filmed in February 1988 and was immediately picked up by CBS for its Fall 1988 TV season.

"Murphy Brown" made its debut on CBS on November 14, 1988 and right from the start was a winner, airing for the next 9 years on Monday nights at 9 P.M. ET/PT until moving to Wednesday nights at 8 P.M. in October 1997.

During its 10 years, "Murphy Brown" had many a controversy, most notably after Dan Quayle confused the character thinking of her as a real person in his famous "Family Values Deterioration" speech in 1992 after Murphy gave birth out of wedlock to baby boy Avery, choosing to raise him by himself.

The series also earned praise from real-life news journalists, many of whom appeared as themselves, among them Paula Zahn, Walter "And That's The Way It Is" Cronkite (TWICE, including an off-camera voice-over appearance), and Nickelodeon news anchor Linda Ellerbee (in the episode "The Summer of '77," in which Linda mentioned she auditioned against Murphy for "F.Y.I.")

Midway through the 2nd season, actor and radio DJ Jay Thomas (born Jon Thomas Terrell on July 12, 1948 in Kermit, Texas) joined the cast in a series regular role as Jerry Gold, a tabloid newsman and rival to Murphy's success who soon started a dating relationship with Murphy (and subsequently joined F.Y.I. after his tabloid news show was cancelled by a rival network).

In late 1991, "Murphy" creator Diane English conceived a spin-off for Jay titled "Love & War," where Jay's character Jerry Gold was re-tooled and re-named Jack Stein, a fictional New York Post columnist based in New York City, New York who hung out at his regular watering hole called the Blue Shamrock, a local New York City bar/restaurant which Susan Dey, paired with Jay as Wally Porter, a recently divorced restauranteur, bought on impulse from its owner/bartender Ike Johnson (John Hancock).

"Love & War" was picked up for the Fall 1992 TV season by the CBS Television Network, where it debuted on September 21, 1992.

3 weeks later, on October 12, 1992, tragedy struck as John Hancock, the beefy, black, balding character actor who played Ike, dropped dead in real life of a Massive Heart Attack while watching TV after filming the show's first 8 episodes; John's remaining episodes were telecast in the subsequent weeks, after which his character, Ike, died with him in a special episode aptly titled "For John." Charlie Robinson (fresh off the successful 8-year, 193-episode run of "Night Court") was brought in to fill the void as Ike's kid brother, Abe, an unemployed Detroit auto worker who stayed on as bartender at the Blue Shamrock; after Susan Dey was abruptly fired at season's end due to her lack of chemistry with Jay Thomas, her character Wally, who by this time Jack had fallen deeply in love with, was written out as having left Jack for Paris, France; Annie Potts (fresh off 7 years as a "Designing Woman") was brought in to replace Susan as Dana Palladino, a woman who recently quit her job as a chef at a fancy French restaurant and subsequently became the Shamrock's new chef--and Jack's new love.

The following year, as a favor to Diane for spinning Jay off, the cast of "Murphy Brown" crossed over with "Love & War," though not in typical crossover fashion, with the Shamrock gang watching an episode of "F.Y.I."

However, after moving to Wednesday nights, "Love & War" quickly deteriorated in the ratings and was canceled by CBS in late 1994, with the last regular episode telecast on February 1, 1995 and the 6 leftover episodes telecast on August 18, 1995 in an all-new all-night marathon.

Meanwhile, "Murphy Brown" had several notable additions to the cast, including Scott Bakula (born on October 9, 1954 in St. Louis, Missouri) as Peter Hunt, who in 1993 joined the "F.Y.I." staff; Garry Marshall (born on November 13, 1934 in New York City, New York) as network President Stan Lansing; and Paul Reubens (born Paul Rubenfeld on August 27, 1952 in Peekskill, New York and raised in Sarasota, Florida from infancy up while spending summers in New York state) as Stan's nephew, Andrew III, who quickly became Vice President of Network Affairs until being demoted to mailroom attendant by his uncle due to increasingly bad behavior.

In late 1996, Grant Shaud & Pat Corley both left "Murphy Brown" after 8 seasons and 201 episodes; filling Grant's void was Lily Tomlin (born on September 1, 1939 in Detroit, Michigan) as new F.Y.I. producer Kay Sheply.

At around this time, Bobby Pastorelli was given his own sitcom, "Double Rush," about a failed musician running a Bike Messenger Service, a sitcom lasting 13 weeks from January-April 1995.

After being renewed for a 10th season in May 1997, Diane English announced that Season 10 of "Murphy Brown" would be its last.

A season-long story arc involved Murphy battling Breast Cancer, a battle she would beat in the hour-long series finale.

The hour-long series finale aired on May 18, 1998 at 9 P.M. ET/PT, with many a guest star helping bid a fond farewell to "Murphy Brown," among them Bette Midler (playing Murphy's final secretary), Julia Roberts (playing herself), Mike Wallace (as himself), Diane English (in an uncredited appearance as the nurse who told Murphy she'd beaten Breast Cancer), and the return of both Bobby Pastorelli and Pat Corley (Pat's character, Phil, revealed in the finale that he had been whisked away to Pennsylvania after learning too much about Watergate, only to be whisked away again for knowing too much about the Monica Lewinsky scandal that was then-currently happening).

In the years since, reruns have aired on the Lifetime Cable Network from 2000-2004, on Nickelodeon from 2005-2007, and briefly on TV Land in 2007 and can now be seen on the premium Encore Classic television network.

Before that, the show was syndicated to local stations from 1992-2000.

In addition, the complete first season of "Murphy Brown" was released on DVD in February 2005, albeit to poor retail sales.

After losing her husband of 15 years, Louis Malle, to Cancer in 1995, making her a single mom to their then-10-year-old daughter Chloe (now a writer for Vogue Magazine at age 30), Candy found love again with Marshall Rose, a New York businessman and himself a recent widower with his own adult daughter, Wendy; they've been happily married since the year 2000.

Charlie Kimbrough, a.k.a. Jim Dial, is the father of son John Kimbrough, an aspiring musician and frontman for the band Walt Mink; like Candy Bergen, Charlie became a real-life widower after the death of his wife, Mary Jane. He has been married since 2004 to his old friend Beth Howland, Vera to "Alice."

After leaving "Murphy," Grant Shaud found short-lived success on the FOX/Dreamworks sitcom "Oliver Beene" in 2003, which lasted a single season.

Colleen Dewhurst, who played Murphy's mother in early episodes as a regular, died of Cancer in 1991 at age 67; her death was written into the show, with Avery also having died midway through Season 4.

At the time of his accidental Heroin Overdose, Bobby Pastorelli was about to be arrested and charged with the murder of his ex-girlfriend, Gia, the mother of his elder of 2 infant daughters, Gianna (who became an Orphan after Bobby died). He was also survived by his sister, as well as his girlfriend Jade Carter, and his younger infant daughter, Giannina, with Jade.

Pat Corley, in 2006, was admitted to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles for Open-Heart Surgery; he died that September of heart failure.

That same year, Darren McGavin, another regular, playing Murphy's father, died at age 83 of natural causes.

Faith Ford, meanwhile, co-starred with Kelly Ripa on the 2003-2006 sitcom "Hope & Faith" (produced for Disney-owned ABC by Walt Disney Television).

Jay Thomas is now a radio talk-show host for Sirius Satellite Radio.

In 2013, after a 42-year courtship, Lily Tomlin came out publicly as gay and married partner Jane Wagner.

Paul Reubens is bringing back Pee-Wee Herman from the dead with Pee Wee's new NetFlix movie, nearly 25 years after retiring Pee Wee Herman (which Paul originated as a member of the improv group The Groundlings after moving to Los Angeles from his hometown of Sarasota, Florida, subsequently playing Pee Wee in his own HBO Network special and his own CBS saturday-morning sitcom "Pee Wee's Playhouse").

Scott Bakula, after leaving "Murphy," starred in the 4-year run of the Star Trek UPN spin-off "Enterprise," returning to the Sci-Fi genre 8 years after NBC canceled his Sci-Fi series "Quantum Leap" in 1993 after 4 seasons of 97 episodes.

Garry Marshall, best known for creating "Happy Days" and its spin-offs "Laverne & Shirley," which starred his sister Penny, "Mork & Mindy" and "Joanie Loves Chachi," celebrated his 80th Birthday last November and is a successful movie director with such films as "Beaches" & "Pretty Woman."

I should also mention that Jay Thomas, in real life, has been happily married to wife Sally since 1987, with whom he has 2 teenage sons and has lived in Los Angeles since relocating there from his hometown of New Orleans, Louisiana (where he was raised soon after his Kermit, Texas birth by his Italian American parents); in addition, Jay is also the biological father of J.T. Harding (born c. 1980), whom he gave up for adoption when J.T. was a baby.

J.T. Harding, as an adult, is an aspiring country musician who's written songs for, among others, Blake Shelton & Kid Rock. Jay & J.T. reconnected when J.T. was an adult after J.T.'s adoptive father, Larry Harding, died in 2008; Jay & J.T. have bonded in the years since.

I should also point out that in 1995, Paula Korologos (born on June 2, 1970 in Great Falls, Virginia), known professionally as Paula Cale since her marriage to musician Steve Cale (which ended in divorce in 1999), joined "Murphy Brown" as fictional former MTV VJ McGovern as a series regular for a handful of episodes that year. Paula is the daughter of retired Republican politician Tom Korologos (who became a real-life widower when Tom's wife, Joy, died of Cancer in 1997, when Paula, their daughter, was aged 27; he's since married Ann McLaughlin, a woman he met soon after Joy died).

Also, in 1958, at age 11, Candy Bergen appeared as a civilian contestant on "You Bet Your Life," competing against host Groucho Marx's daughter Melinda.

"Murphy Brown" was produced by Shukovsky English Entertainment in association with Warner Bros. Television and is Distributed for syndication by Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution.

[king of comedy]

I wished I had seen this. Sounds good.