You're A Good Woman, Murphy Brown

Oh my TV gods, did I miss Murphy Brown. This was my one of my absolute favorite TV show growing up. I loved “Murphy Brown,” who helped inspired my journalistic and writer aspirations with her take-no-prisoners style. The Murphinator was, and is, a lot to aspire to. And she continues to be the kind of brassy, bold voice we could use a lot more of in this day and age. Plus, they upped the awesome quotient by adding Tyne freaking Daly. So if the alt-right gets Roseanne, I’ll happily take Murphy Brown as one of our champions over on the left. Can you imagine these two going head-to-head in a debate? Oh, wait, we don’t have to. We remember the 2016 election. Murphy can’t come back soon enough.

Everything Old Is New Again, No Really

Well, it’s an exciting time if you’re a fan of 80s and 90s television. Why? Because it’s basically all coming back. “Will & Grace” is already back. “Heathers” is (dubiously) coming back. “Murphy Brown” is much less dubiously coming back (with Candice Bergen, huzzah). The “Charmed” witches are being rebooted to smash the patriarchy or something. And now a “Cagney & Lacey” reboot has a pilot order.

Now, I am 110 percent for female-fronted TV. Imma probably watch the hell out of these (except maybe “Heathers” - what is your damage, “Heathers?”). But I’d also like to note that we had a freaking great (fine, maybe not great but definitely fun) female buddy cop show on television recently and it was called “Rizzoli & Isles.” Ahem. Well, at least the “Cagney & Lacey” pilot is being written by Bridget Carpenter whose past producing credits include “Westworld,” “Parenthood,” “Friday Night Lights” and “Dead Like Me.” So that’s encouraging.



Anyway, bring on the ladies and the nostalgia.

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.