# Murphy Brown (1988)

> A hard-driving, recovering alcoholic network newsmagazine anchor returns to her job and keeps her ferocious edge in a newsroom full of rivals.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/3061

## Facts

- Seasons: 10
- Episodes: 247
- Episode runtime: 24 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: comedy
- Created by: Diane English
- Network: CBS
- Cast: Candice Bergen, Faith Ford, Joe Regalbuto, Charles Kimbrough, Lily Tomlin, Grant Shaud, Robert Pastorelli, Pat Corley
- TMDB rating: 7.0/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0094514/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: mild
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: none
- Tone: witty, sardonic, brisk, irreverent, cutting

## What critics say

Audiences rated the series as mixed, with its sharp lead performance and topical newsroom satire landing well in early seasons while later seasons drew weaker reactions.

## Synopsis

Murphy Brown (1988-1998) is a American network sitcom created by Diane English for CBS, running ten seasons and 247 episodes of twenty-four-minute comedy. Candice Bergen plays Murphy Brown, a sharp tongued, hard as nails news anchor who returns to the fictional newsmagazine FYI after a stay at a residential treatment center. Over forty, single and proud of having broken glass ceilings in a male-dominated field, she is one of the hardest-hitting personalities in American media, though neither warm nor sympathetic. Faith Ford plays her junior colleague Corky Sherwood, while Joe Regalbuto and Charles Kimbrough round out the newsroom team. The engine of the show is the friction between Murphy's ambition, her recovery and her blunt personal style, set against the daily grind of producing a weekly news broadcast. Each episode is a self-contained workplace comedy built on office rivalries, political news stories and personal entanglements. The tone is brisk, witty and cutting, with a sardonic edge that never fully softens. Fans of Sports Night, 30 Rock and The Newsroom will find resonance in its satire of television journalism and its prickly, unapologetic lead.

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- [The Larry Sanders Show (1992)](https://ember.film/tv/1807)
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