How ‘Murphy Brown’ Kept Hillary Clinton Cameo a Surprise

The Murphy Brown revival shocked fans Thursday night during its premiere episode when it introduced its most prolific secretary yet: Hillary Clinton. The newly revived show managed to keep the former Secretary of State’s cameo a total secret despite the constant threats of leaks and spoilers — here’s how.

Star Candice Bergen, who preciously called Clinton “probably the jewel in the crown of our chain of secretaries,” told E! News that CBS and the Murphy Brown crew used tactics worthy of the Secret Service to keep people from spilling the presidential candidate beans. Bergen said there were confidentiality agreements in play.

CBS also cut the scene entirely from the advanced screeners provided to press, and series creator Diane English said while filming the scene, they operated under a closed set, meaning only essential personnel were allowed, roughly 30-40 people “at most.”

“We kept everybody away just to prevent any leaks. Everybody was sworn to secrecy,” English said, adding that it “wasn’t an easy road” to get her onto the politically-charged series.

“You just don’t call her up, there’s a lot of people you have to go through,” English said. “I would love to be a fly on the wall when America saw it for the first time because we really kept it on lockdown.”

“We were very excited, of course. It was just moving on so many levels,” Bergen added.

The episode took a tongue-in-cheek approach to Clinton’s dialogue. When Murphy asked Clinton if she had any previous secretarial experience, Clinton responded, “For four years I was a secretary… I was a secretary of a very large organization.”

“I do have some experience with emails,” Clinton later said.

“”How are you with team work? You know, putting on a news operation is a huge operation,” Murphy said.

“Oh, I get that completely. Everyone works together. It takes a village,” Clinton added, referring to her book.

Murphy told Clinton she was a little overqualified, and would get back to her soon. Clinton then handed over her business card, and went down the elevator.

On her business card was her email address: hillary@youcouldhadme.com.

English had previously teased a “top secret celebrity guest” and hinted that the person would be a real-life public figure playing themselves. “We have an enormously famous person in our first episode,” she told reporters at the Television Critics Association Press Tour Panel in August.

Murphy Brown‘s 11th season comes 20 years after the original series ended in 1998. Candice returns from retirement to host a new cable show with Corky Sherwood (Faith Ford), Frank Fontana (Joe Retgalbuto) and Miles Silverberg (Grant Schaud) all returning. Murphy’s son Avery (Jame McDorman) hosts a show on the rival Wolf News.

Murphy Brown airs Thursdays at 9:30 p.m. ET on CBS. The new season will run 13 episodes.