MURPHY BROWN is back!

CBS has announced that it has ordered a reboot of MURPHY BROWN starring Candice Bergen.  I assume they'll reassemble as many of the original cast members as they can.  (A few have passed away.) 

Readers of this blog have been asking me what I thought.

I'm not sure of the reasoning, especially if networks are trying to attract the 18-49 audience.  I can't imagine anyone under 50 watching this show.  But CBS is very savvy and I'm sure they have a game plan for making on from it. 

The problem with MURPHY BROWN during its original run was topicality.  As a result those episodes today are incredibly dated.  There are references to politicians that wonks don't even know.  So I'm certain there's no thought of taking advantage of future syndication possibilities.  It'll have the same shelf life as THE DAILY SHOW. 

But I suspect a lot of the humor will be at Trump and the government's expense so I'll be watching.

And the bottom line for me is this:  MURPHY BROWN had some wonderful writers.  If creator Diane English reassembles them then I will be TOTALLY on board. 

It's also nice to see multi-cams making a comeback.   NBC recently ordered four multi-cam pilots including one from Mike Schur.   Now we just have to make sure the new crop of multi-cams are executed properly, and the original MURPHY BROWN staff is a big step in the right direction. 

from By Ken Levine