'Murphy Brown' Fully Embraces Political Controversy in Snarky New Ripped-From-the-Headlines Teasers

CBS released two new ripped-from-the-headlines Murphy Brown teasers to get fans prepared for the [...]

By Daniel S. Levine

CBS released two new ripped-from-the-headlines Murphy Brown teasers to get fans prepared for the show's long-awaited return.

Both teasers show Murphy (Candice Bergen) madly texting away with Miles Silverberg (Grand Shaud) and Frank Fontana (Joe Regalbuto).

In the first, Murphy texts Miles about Paul Manafort, President Donald Trump's former campaign chairman who was convicted on eight counts of related to tax fraud and bank fraud on Tuesday.

"I won our bet," Murphy writes. "You owe me dinner."

"That wasn't the bet," Miles replies. "You said he'd use an insanity defense. You lose."

"Truth isn't truth," Murphy replies, referencing Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani's comments on Meet The Press Sunday morning. "Where are we eating."

In the second teaser, Murphy and Frank text about Trump's rally in West Virginia Tuesday night.

"They played Tina Turner's 'Simply the Best' before he went on," Frank writes.

Murphy then rolls her eyes and replies, "In light of Stormy, 'Private Dancer' would have been better," referencing Stormy Daniels.

During the Television Critics Association Press Tour earlier this month, Murphy Brown creator Diane English said the new episodes will closely follow current events, just as the show did during its original run. One episode, titled "Hashtag Murphy Too," will focus on the #MeToo movement.

"I don't think there's a woman out here that hasn't had some experience with misogyny or misconduct," English said. "It's a powerful movement, and we wanted to do it justice. The episode is titled 'Hashtag Murphy Too.'"

According to English, the writers also stopped preparing for shows beyond episode nine because they did not want to get too far ahead of reality.

"We actually stopped developing stories when we got to episode nine because we don't want to get too far ahead. Some things are going to drop in September, I think, and as we get into our production schedule, it becomes more and more compressed," the executive producer said. "We air three weeks from the time we shoot the show and we're shooting digitally so we have the ability to pop in something extremely topical."

The new episodes will pick up after the original series ended in 1998, with Murphy now working on a cable news morning show with Frank, Miles and Corky (Faith Ford) back. Charles Kimbrough will also make a few special appearances as Jim Dial. Jake McDorman joined as Murphy's now-grown son Avery, who works as the only liberal voice on a conservative news network called Wolf News. Nik Dodani is also playing Murphy's social media director Pat.

Murphy Brown's 13-episode revival starts on CBS on Thursday, Sept. 27 at 9:30 p.m. ET.

Photo credit: CBS

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