My Weekend Crush

On the “Today Show” all this week, they’ve been reuniting casts of old hit TV shows. Now, I don’t normally watch Today. Considering my bedtime is usually only a couple hours before it starts, it would be way too masochistic even for me. But I do browse its guests to see if anyone is worth scrounging up the clips of afterward. And lo and behold who popped up Wednesday but the cast of “Murphy Brown.” Damn, that brought back memories. “Murphy Brown” was my absolute favorite sitcom in high school. At the time I wrote for the school paper and was an all-around newshound, so it was right up my proverbial alley. And then there was Candice. Candice Bergen is one of those fantastically forthright women that you almost forget is also incredibly gorgeous because what she says is so terribly interesting.

As Murphy Brown she wore a mean pantsuits and asked the tough questions. She loved Aretha Franklin and sang along joyfully off-key. But then the decision to have Murphy become a single mom incurred the idiotic scorn of an idiotic vice president. I recall being so outraged, so incensed that this dullard of a man had the audacity to call a fictional character’s decision to become a mother amoral, it galvanized my political activism. Of course Candice, and the show, couldn’t have handled the situation better. “Glamorized single motherhood? What planet is he on?” While I haven’t followed Candice’s career as faithfully post-Murphy, I still smile every time I see her and think of how much she inspired me. Here was an intelligent, respected, opinionated, funny and successful woman who took on a sitting vice president. Now that’s what I call a role model. I even still have this issue of Time among my cherished keepsakes. Murphy Brown for president, indeed. Happy weekend, all.