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You are here: Home / Open Threads / Low-Impact Interlude Open Thread: “Murphy Brown” Is Being Rebooted

Low-Impact Interlude Open Thread: “Murphy Brown” Is Being Rebooted

by Anne Laurie|  January 24, 20187:02 pm| 140 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, Vagina Outrage, #notintendedtobeafactualstatement, All we want is life beyond the thunderdome, Clown Shoes

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#MurphyBrown reboot in the works next season at @CBS https://t.co/5OejnpDHD5

— Deadline Hollywood (@DEADLINE) January 24, 2018

I love both Candice Bergen and her most prominent avatar as much as anyone, but isn’t it about time we stopped relying on 30-year-old arguments?

Wait, a "Murphy Brown" reboot? That's crazy. That show was from a very, very different era, back when the vice president of the United States was a vapid, regressive conservative from Indiana.

— Greg Wyshynski (@wyshynski) January 24, 2018

Can't help but wonder about the overlap between “people who melted down when Murphy Brown had a baby out of wedlock” and “people who voted for a pussy-grabbing pathological liar.”

— shauna (@goldengateblond) January 24, 2018

Trump is in the papers for being a racist clown.

The vice president is a sexist moron from Indiana.

A drug epidemic is sweeping the nation but being ignored.

And Murphy Brown is set to premiere on television.

1988 or 2018?

— Charlotte Clymer?????? (@cmclymer) January 24, 2018

something that's maybe comforting to remember when Trump is yelling at some rando celebrity on Twitter is that the George H W Bush administration managed to get into fights with Murphy Brown AND The Simpsons so we've always been this dumb.

— Michael T Sweeney (@mtsw) January 24, 2018

I suppose the bright side of Murphy Brown is that it will probably cost $500 billion less than Amazon's "Lord of the Rings: Idea A Guy Wrote On A Napkin"

— James Poniewozik (@poniewozik) January 24, 2018

(On the other hand, if the news makes Mike Pence melt down in public… )

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Reader Interactions

140Comments

  1. 1.

    zhena gogolia

    January 24, 2018 at 7:12 pm

    I don’t see how this is going to work.

  2. 2.

    Yutsano

    January 24, 2018 at 7:19 pm

    @zhena gogolia: Same. Murphy Brown was a very topical sort of show for the 80s. I mean I loved it but the themes presented back then are almost normal in this day and age.

  3. 3.

    zhena gogolia

    January 24, 2018 at 7:21 pm

    @Yutsano:

    And Colleen Dewhurst is dead.

  4. 4.

    Yutsano

    January 24, 2018 at 7:23 pm

    @zhena gogolia: Why do I get the feeling this is going to be completely different thematically but they’re just going to keep the characters except a much older Candice Bergen?

    Also: no Colleen? CANCEL THE WHOLE DAMN MESS!!!

  5. 5.

    Anonymous at Work

    January 24, 2018 at 7:25 pm

    It wasn’t Bush picking those fights as much LOSING those fights.

  6. 6.

    zhena gogolia

    January 24, 2018 at 7:29 pm

    @Yutsano:

    I can’t imagine that Candice can pull off being a still-working journalist. I guess the model would be Barbara Walters or something.

  7. 7.

    NeenerNeener

    January 24, 2018 at 7:29 pm

    @zhena gogolia: As is the guy that played Eldon, her painter.

  8. 8.

    M. Bouffant

    January 24, 2018 at 7:32 pm

    It was bad enough when the movies became virtually all franchises & prequels/sequels, & it’s not that broadcast telebision has ever been a hotbed of originality, but we already have Will & Grace & Roseanne coming back, apparently w/ as many original cast members as possible, & now this.

    Guess show biz is officially over.

  9. 9.

    Peale

    January 24, 2018 at 7:35 pm

    It’s like those late seasons of Are You Being Served when they all move to the country to a farm. Or Laverne moves to LA with squiggy. its not likely these folks would all be at the same news network. Even the baby she had would be too old to be “cute”

  10. 10.

    zhena gogolia

    January 24, 2018 at 7:36 pm

    @NeenerNeener:

    Oh, I forgot about him, he was great!

  11. 11.

    Butthurt Jordan Trombone (fka XTPD)

    January 24, 2018 at 7:36 pm

    …have only heard of, not watched, Murphy Brown, but who could play Black Mike Pence?

  12. 12.

    raven

    January 24, 2018 at 7:38 pm

    Maybe they’ll redo the Magus!

  13. 13.

    ruemara

    January 24, 2018 at 7:38 pm

    If we’re going back to 1989, I’m finally getting parachute pants.

  14. 14.

    Peale

    January 24, 2018 at 7:39 pm

    @M. Bouffant: amazon and Netflix and Hulu and Vimeo need steaming content.

  15. 15.

    zhena gogolia

    January 24, 2018 at 7:40 pm

    @ruemara:

    I somehow never managed to get a perm, maybe now’s the time.

  16. 16.

    Baud

    January 24, 2018 at 7:43 pm

    I hope they bring back Mr. Ed.

  17. 17.

    Mnemosyne

    January 24, 2018 at 7:46 pm

    I honestly don’t recall watching a single episode of “Murphy Brown,” but I was in college at the time, so I don’t think I was the target audience.

    I need to get the first two chapters of my novel ready for a contest and I’m kind of freaking myself out about it and thinking I may need to do a major rewrite. Ugh.

  18. 18.

    JPL

    January 24, 2018 at 7:47 pm

    For Big Little Lies fans, Meryl Streep has signed up to be Perry’s mom. I know Alexander Skarsgård won lots of award for his portrayal, but I hate him. Does this mean that I have to hate her. btw I still can’t watch Michael Emerson after his portrayal of William Hinks on The Practice.

  19. 19.

    Steeplejack

    January 24, 2018 at 7:49 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    Andrea Mitchell is the same age as Bergen (71) and still a working journalist.

  20. 20.

    JPL

    January 24, 2018 at 7:49 pm

    @Mnemosyne: Dan Quayle does. He was offended.

  21. 21.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    January 24, 2018 at 7:50 pm

    @Baud: The stable genius is in the White House.

  22. 22.

    Steeplejack

    January 24, 2018 at 7:52 pm

    @Peale:

    Amazon and Netflix and Hulu and Vimeo need steaming content.

    That’s what PørnHub is for.

  23. 23.

    Trollhattan

    January 24, 2018 at 7:52 pm

    @Baud:
    Wilburrrrrr!

  24. 24.

    Mike J

    January 24, 2018 at 7:54 pm

    Square Pegs with emo kids.

  25. 25.

    schrodingers_cat

    January 24, 2018 at 7:54 pm

    I remember Bergen from Gandhi, never watched Murphy Brown.

  26. 26.

    Gravenstone

    January 24, 2018 at 7:54 pm

    @Peale: Judicious typo, there.

  27. 27.

    Baud

    January 24, 2018 at 7:55 pm

    @?BillinGlendaleCA: An insult to Mr. Ed.

  28. 28.

    NotMax

    January 24, 2018 at 7:56 pm

    Acquaintance worked himself up to being a Big Honcho on the original show’s production team. Shall have make a mental note to check if he’s involved in this.

  29. 29.

    Mike J

    January 24, 2018 at 7:57 pm

    @Mike J: I am genuinely curious if kids these days self segregate based on musical preference. The very idea of an underground scene seems to mean less when top 40 is kinda dead, but on the other hand you only ever hear about same few top 40ish performers in mass media.

  30. 30.

    Roger Moore

    January 24, 2018 at 7:58 pm

    Can somebody on TV please come up with something new for a change? How many reboots do we need?

  31. 31.

    ?BillinGlendaleCA

    January 24, 2018 at 7:58 pm

    @Baud: Different stable.

  32. 32.

    zhena gogolia

    January 24, 2018 at 7:58 pm

    @Baud:

    Ooh, yeah! And “My Mother the Car”! I loved that show. Seriously.

  33. 33.

    zhena gogolia

    January 24, 2018 at 7:59 pm

    @JPL:

    That was so creepy.

  34. 34.

    zhena gogolia

    January 24, 2018 at 7:59 pm

    @Steeplejack:

    Depends how you define “working.”

  35. 35.

    Hungry Joe

    January 24, 2018 at 8:00 pm

    @Steeplejack: All right — this has to be done, and since none of you guys are stepping up, I guess I will:

    Re Andrea Mitchell / “working journalist”: You keep using those words. I do not think they mean what you think they mean.

  36. 36.

    dr. luba

    January 24, 2018 at 8:03 pm

    @Peale:

    its not likely these folks would all be at the same news network.

    Murphy Brown was about a 60 Minutes type of show. Did anyone ever retire from 60M, or do they all die in harness? (I ask becasue I quit watching decades ago.)

  37. 37.

    B.B.A.

    January 24, 2018 at 8:05 pm

    @dr. luba: Charlie Rose was involuntarily retired. I don’t think that counts.

  38. 38.

    schrodingers_cat

    January 24, 2018 at 8:05 pm

    @Roger Moore: Hollywood seems to have the same problem, sequels, prequels and comic books are what seem to make the big bucks. I went to see the latest Star Wars installment because of all the hype it was getting. I was bored out of my mind. Mind numbing action without a pause, or any emotional impact on the participants.

  39. 39.

    NotMax

    January 24, 2018 at 8:07 pm

    Sample of precursor to the “new normal” on the original Murphy Brown.

    (No, not the clip with Wallace Shawn which have linked to previously.)

  40. 40.

    D Myer

    January 24, 2018 at 8:07 pm

    Old people don’t count unless they are support systems for younger people!

  41. 41.

    efgoldman

    January 24, 2018 at 8:08 pm

    @Peale:

    amazon and Netflix and Hulu and Vimeo need steaming content.

    Does this mean the new psycho FCC head wants to be able to have content control?

  42. 42.

    Yarrow

    January 24, 2018 at 8:10 pm

    LOL.

    MURPHY BROWN (2018-19)
    Episode 1: A prominent male colleague of Murphy’s is fired for sexual misconduct
    Episode 2: A prominent male colleague of Murphy’s is fired for sexual misconduct
    Episode 3: A prominent
    — Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) January 24, 2018

  43. 43.

    efgoldman

    January 24, 2018 at 8:10 pm

    @Steeplejack:

    and still a working journalist.

    For some unusual definitions of “journaliast”

  44. 44.

    ruemara

    January 24, 2018 at 8:10 pm

    @zhena gogolia: Why not, humanity’s gone insane. We should all perm and wear neon.

  45. 45.

    NotMax

    January 24, 2018 at 8:11 pm

    @zhena gogolia

    Will admit to watching it because am a sucker for anything with Ann Sothern. Even though only her voice was used.

    Remember the car was a Pierce-Arrow; don’t recall what year the model was.

  46. 46.

    efgoldman

    January 24, 2018 at 8:14 pm

    @D Myer:

    Old people don’t count

    The curb I’ve been kicked to, it hurts.
    And I can too, look: one… two…. six….

  47. 47.

    Kathleen

    January 24, 2018 at 8:14 pm

    @zhena gogolia: I still have clothes from the 80’s in my closet. Time to busta shoulder pad!

  48. 48.

    zhena gogolia

    January 24, 2018 at 8:15 pm

    @NotMax:

    You can’t go wrong with Ann Sothern.

  49. 49.

    Kathleen

    January 24, 2018 at 8:16 pm

    @JPL: I just got hooked on that series and spent a Sunday binge watching. Powerful performances. I just saw Streep and Kidman in The Hours and was blown away. Look forward to see them paired again!

  50. 50.

    NotMax

    January 24, 2018 at 8:17 pm

    FYI.

    Travel to the U.S. has been on the decline ever since President Donald Trump took office, and new data shows the slump translates to a cost of $4.6 billion in lost spending and 40,000 jobs.

    The latest data from the National Travel and Tourism Office shows a 3.3 percent drop in travel spending and a 4 percent decline in inbound travel.

    The downturn has also caused America to lose its spot as the world’s second-most popular destination for foreign travel, ceding to Spain. (France is in first place). Source

  51. 51.

    Kathleen

    January 24, 2018 at 8:18 pm

    @schrodingers_cat: I loved the show in the 80’s but I’m not sure a reboot will work. My Gen X daughter OTOH expressed delight on Twitter which kind of surprised me.

  52. 52.

    Kathleen

    January 24, 2018 at 8:21 pm

    @Steeplejack: I consider her a “presenter”, not a “journalist”.

  53. 53.

    No Drought No More

    January 24, 2018 at 8:22 pm

    I once thought Dan Quayle was as Indiana batshit crazy as they possibly came, until I got to know Mike Pence. “Oh my my, oh hell yes..”.

    Also: I’m reading the Year of Decision by Bernard DeVoto. The following passage describes the forebodings of two well known New Englanders in January of 1846 concerning the nation’s future. Longfellow had written a “poet’s premonition” four years before, and had repeated it in conversation with his friend. Their prescience was profound:

    “There is a poor, blind Samson in this land,
    Shorn of his strength and bound in bonds of steel,
    Who may, in some grim revel, raise his hand,
    And shake the pillars of this Commonweal,
    Till the vast temple of our liberties
    A shapeless mass of wreck and rubbish lies”.

    [DeVoto]: Walking to Boston with Longfellow, hoping to lighten his dull mood, James Russell Lowell felt the pillars of the Commonweal begin to shake. It was a literary achievement of [President] Polk’s election that it had stiffened a dilettante into a serious writer. Lowell had written when the democrats triumphed:

    “Careless seems the Great Avenger; history’s pages but record
    One death-grapple in the darkness ‘twixt old systems and the Word;
    Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne,
    Yet that scaffold sways the future and, behind the dim Unknown,
    Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above his own”.

  54. 54.

    efgoldman

    January 24, 2018 at 8:22 pm

    @NotMax:

    The latest data from the National Travel and Tourism Office shows a 3.3 percent drop in travel spending and a 4 percent decline in inbound travel.

    Surely you’re not surprised. Every fucking thing he touches or has touched turns to shit.

  55. 55.

    ThresherK

    January 24, 2018 at 8:22 pm

    If they have an episode about White Liberal Guilt, this time can they refrain from using “White Liberal Guilt” as actual dialogue?

  56. 56.

    Mnemosyne

    January 24, 2018 at 8:24 pm

    @D Myer:

    Maybe our ideal should not be that people have to work until they die, even if the job is a glamorous one like journalism.

  57. 57.

    lgerard

    January 24, 2018 at 8:25 pm

    Wake me up when they bring back Alf

  58. 58.

    chris

    January 24, 2018 at 8:26 pm

    @ruemara: Gotta be better than the “Casual Corduroy Harem Pants” I saw in ad on this very blog.

  59. 59.

    Mnemosyne

    January 24, 2018 at 8:27 pm

    @Kathleen:

    I think it was Comedy Central that once had a commercial with a woman who was excited that her yellow power suit from the 80s still fit, except that she had to go through the metal detector sideways because of how wide the shoulder pads were. ?

  60. 60.

    Some Guy, Helvering

    January 24, 2018 at 8:28 pm

    Word is Trump has picked the next IRS Commissioner, a Beverly Hills tax attorney:
    http://thehill.com/homenews/administration/370420-trump-to-tap-tax-lawyer-as-next-irs-commissioner-report

    From his profile page at his firm:
    Chuck Rettig is listed by Chambers USA as the only Eminent Practitioner in the Chambers Category “Tax: Fraud – Nationwide.”

    Hmm. You wonder how Trump found him.

  61. 61.

    schrodingers_cat

    January 24, 2018 at 8:29 pm

    @NotMax: I am pretty sure we will see a decline in international students for the 2018 academic year.

  62. 62.

    NotMax

    January 24, 2018 at 8:30 pm

    Nothing to sneeze at. So much winning, chapter 9,673.

    It’s the height of an especially bad flu season, but the maker of Kleenex plans to close factories because it says facial-tissue sales are wheezing.

    Kimberly-Clark, which also produces Huggies diapers, Kotex feminine hygiene products, Cottonelle toilet paper and Scott paper towels, plans to cut up to 5,500 jobs and close or sell about 10 plants. The Dallas-based company blamed sluggish sales and a bloated production base.
    [snip]
    The move comes after competitors slashed prices on tissues, damaging Kleenex sales in North America.

    Savings from the recent federal tax cut would help fund the cost reductions. It “provides us the flexibility” to do so, Chief Financial Officer Maria Henry said on a conference call.

    The job cuts represent about 12% to 13% of the company’s workforce. The company said it would expand production at “several” other sites.

    Kimberly-Clark declined to disclose the locations affected by the maneuvers. The company has operations in some 56 countries and about 43,000 employees, according to its website. Source

  63. 63.

    joel hanes

    January 24, 2018 at 8:31 pm

    @Hungry Joe:

    Thank you.

  64. 64.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 24, 2018 at 8:31 pm

    @zhena gogolia:

    And Colleen Dewhurst is dead.

    I cried when it happened, I’m crying again now. Absolutely loved her!

    (Trivia: Dewhurst’s film debut was as an inmate in a mental asylum in the 1959 Audrey Hepburn vehicle The Nun’s Story.)

  65. 65.

    Baud

    January 24, 2018 at 8:32 pm

    @NotMax: Obama isn’t the president anymore. No one cares.

  66. 66.

    geg6

    January 24, 2018 at 8:33 pm

    I loved Murphy Brown. And Designing Women. Linda Bloodworth Thomason owned comedy then like Shonda Rhimes owns melodrama today.

  67. 67.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 24, 2018 at 8:40 pm

    @Baud:

    I hope they bring back Mr. Ed.

    I hope they bring back Life With Elizabeth. Betty White, represent!

  68. 68.

    Shana

    January 24, 2018 at 8:40 pm

    And they’ll never be able to update Jim Dial’s righteous rant about the service at the shoe department of Hecht’s a long gone DC area department store.

  69. 69.

    NotMax

    January 24, 2018 at 8:42 pm

    @Baud

    Obama isn’t the president anymore

    Huh? Say what now? (Frantically looks up Rod Serling’s phone number.)

    ;)

  70. 70.

    M. Bouffant

    January 24, 2018 at 8:44 pm

    @Peale: Every one needs “steaming content”.

  71. 71.

    NotMax

    January 24, 2018 at 8:45 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne

    Fortunately, Leave It to Beaver Jared was a no-go.

  72. 72.

    Baud

    January 24, 2018 at 8:45 pm

    @NotMax: Heh.

  73. 73.

    Booger

    January 24, 2018 at 8:46 pm

    @Steeplejack: LOL! You slay me!

  74. 74.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 24, 2018 at 8:48 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: Dewhurst went to zg’s alma mater – as did her two sons.

  75. 75.

    Gin & Tonic

    January 24, 2018 at 8:48 pm

    @Kathleen:

    I still have clothes from the 80’s in my closet.

    I bet two-thirds of the dudes on here will read that and say “so?”

  76. 76.

    Redshift

    January 24, 2018 at 8:50 pm

    @Roger Moore:

    Can somebody on TV please come up with something new for a change? How many reboots do we need?

    Come on, there’s more new stuff and more good stuff these days than at any time in my life. Im not going to begrudge them the nostalgia buffs they’re trying to grab.

    Over the weekend, I watched Counterpart, the new SF spy series with JK Simmons, and an episode of Electric Dreams, the Philip K. Dick anthology series, and they were both excellent.

  77. 77.

    Redshift

    January 24, 2018 at 8:53 pm

    @Baud:

    Obama isn’t the president anymore. No one cares.

    Well, duh. That’s why the Hillary Clinton administration is obviously to blame.

  78. 78.

    zhena gogolia

    January 24, 2018 at 8:54 pm

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    and you

  79. 79.

    Mike in NC

    January 24, 2018 at 8:56 pm

    Never watched Murphy Brown but as a 12 year old I was smitten by Candace Bergen in The Sand Pebbles with Steve McQueen.

  80. 80.

    NotMax

    January 24, 2018 at 8:59 pm

    @Redshift

    Tried, really tried, to find something – anything – in Electric Dreams to justify the time elapsed while watching, and couldn’t. Decidedly meh.

    Friend who writes scripts and science fiction for a living called me up last week (hadn’t heard from him in more than a year) specifically to grumble about the series.

    YMMV.

  81. 81.

    Steeplejack

    January 24, 2018 at 9:01 pm

    @Kathleen:

    She is on the Mideast trip with Mike Pence right now, “reporting,” not “presenting.”

  82. 82.

    Baud

    January 24, 2018 at 9:01 pm

    Was this discussed?

    Today the Democratic National Committee announced the recipients of the first wave of grants from the State Party Innovation Fund (SPIF) totaling nearly $1 million. These grants will ensure innovation and early organizing throughout the country to help elect Democrats up and down the ticket in 2018. SPIF is a first-of-its-kind, $10 million competitive grant program that incentivizes early organizing through state parties and supports efforts to engage African-American, Latino, Asian American/Pacific Islander, millennial, and rural communities.

    https://medium.com/@TheDemocrats/dnc-announces-state-party-innovation-fund-recipients-75aeb61e240e

  83. 83.

    SFAW

    January 24, 2018 at 9:02 pm

    @NeenerNeener:

    As is the guy that played Eldon, her painter.

    Robert Pastorelli.

    And Pat Corley’s gone, unfortunately.

    Re: My Mother the Car: too late for that, I’m afraid.

  84. 84.

    Omnes Omnibus

    January 24, 2018 at 9:03 pm

    @zhena gogolia: And me.

  85. 85.

    Steeplejack

    January 24, 2018 at 9:04 pm

    @zhena gogolia, @Hungry Joe, @efgoldman:

    Fuck all of you guys. I report; you decide.

    And I don’t remember Murphy Brown working all that hard either. She sure had a lot of time to dick around pointlessly with her painter, her relatives, her coworkers, etc.

  86. 86.

    Ruckus

    January 24, 2018 at 9:05 pm

    @Mike J:
    Top 40 isn’t dead. There is a radio station in every major market that plays the same shitty top 40 songs, from 30-40 yrs ago, over and over and over and over and over and…… every day of the year. I know, that’s what is on at work. Which is why I wish it was dead. But it isn’t. It’s not even on life support.

  87. 87.

    NotMax

    January 24, 2018 at 9:05 pm

    @Baud

    The good: the grants.

    The bad: “incentivizes.” Ugh. Not unlike being gagized with a spoon.

  88. 88.

    Schlemazel

    January 24, 2018 at 9:06 pm

    @Steeplejack:
    Well, working, yes but I disagree with the rest of your description

    @zhena gogolia:
    Yes, on second thought I’d go with “employed” the rest of it is all wrong

  89. 89.

    Kathleen

    January 24, 2018 at 9:07 pm

    @zhena gogolia: I adore Ann Sothern.

  90. 90.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    January 24, 2018 at 9:07 pm

    @zhena gogolia: I have fond memories of it too. Jerry Van Dyke famously turned down a much more popular sitcom to do it. I forget which.

    Crap. In looking up Van Dyke, I find he died this month.

    Anyway, Wikipedia says he was offered the role of Gilligan, and also the Don Knotts part on Andy Griffith

  91. 91.

    Baud

    January 24, 2018 at 9:08 pm

    @NotMax: Kind of undermines the whole effort.

  92. 92.

    Kathleen

    January 24, 2018 at 9:08 pm

    @Mnemosyne: Ha! I still do love those shoulder pads though!

  93. 93.

    Gravenstone

    January 24, 2018 at 9:09 pm

    Jesus. Per Maddow, Manafort’s legal team apparently accidentally attached and uploaded their fucking case notes to a now published court submission.

  94. 94.

    Mike J

    January 24, 2018 at 9:09 pm

    @Ruckus: That’s an oldies station, not top 40.

  95. 95.

    D Myer

    January 24, 2018 at 9:09 pm

    @Mnemosyne: Agreed. That’s the last thing I meant to suggest. Indeed we all have a shelf life, then we’re “kicked to the curb,” where we belong.

  96. 96.

    Kathleen

    January 24, 2018 at 9:10 pm

    @SiubhanDuinne: YES!!!! Remember her driving her convertible?
    ETA Even though I was still in the womb throughout the run of the show…

  97. 97.

    Schlemazel

    January 24, 2018 at 9:10 pm

    @NotMax:
    The car was a bunch of old parts tossed together, not a real thing. I remember they claimed it was a 1928 Porter (must have been in the theme song because when I hear it in my head it is set to music)

  98. 98.

    Ceci n est pas mon nym

    January 24, 2018 at 9:11 pm

    @Yutsano: One episode I remember fondly is when the team goes to a team-building retreat. I suspect that one is timeless in the jokes.

    Team building and trust exercises are still a thing, right?

  99. 99.

    SiubhanDuinne

    January 24, 2018 at 9:12 pm

    @NotMax:

    LOL. Also too, OMG.

  100. 100.

    Baud

    January 24, 2018 at 9:13 pm

    @Gravenstone: Hahaha.

  101. 101.

    zhena gogolia

    January 24, 2018 at 9:13 pm

    @Gravenstone:

    The whole thing is the trial of Tim Heidecker, I keep saying.

  102. 102.

    john fremont

    January 24, 2018 at 9:13 pm

    @M. Bouffant: They need to give Cop Rock another chance. That show was original!

  103. 103.

    Ruckus

    January 24, 2018 at 9:13 pm

    @Mnemosyne:
    Thing is most of the old line “journalists” and “news entertainers” don’t come close to needing the money, like say a janitor would. Well except that they have to keep up the payments on the botox, tummy tucks and assorted age enhancing bullshit they do. And a few need to keep up on their liquor store payments, there would be hell to pay if they got that supply cut off.

  104. 104.

    dr. luba

    January 24, 2018 at 9:14 pm

    @B.B.A.: And Morley Safer and Mike Wallace worked there well into their dotage. They keep getting more and more correspondents, as few seem to leave…..

  105. 105.

    zhena gogolia

    January 24, 2018 at 9:15 pm

    @john fremont:

    I loved it. Anything with Peter Onorati.

  106. 106.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    January 24, 2018 at 9:16 pm

    @Gravenstone: I went out to dinner after hell broke out three or four times this afternoon, and Maddow is reporting hell broke out two or three more times while I was out.

    Trump’s attorneys are walking back his pledge to testify under oath

  107. 107.

    raven

    January 24, 2018 at 9:19 pm

    @Schlemazel:

    The TV car started out as a hot rod built by Norm Grabowski. Grabowski was well known in the hot rod community and also built the Kookie T used in 77 Sunset Strip. The Grabowski car combined a 1924 Ford Model T touring body with a Chevy 283 V8 and Powerglide automatic transmission. It’s said that the car also has parts from a Maxwell and a Hudson. Grabowski sold his car to prop man Kaye Trapp. Trapp, along with special effects expert Norm Breedlove (father of land-speed record-setter Craig Breedlove) modified the car to become a “1928 Porter” for the pilot.

  108. 108.

    Ruckus

    January 24, 2018 at 9:19 pm

    @Mike J:
    No it’s not. It was a top 40 station decades ago and it still has exactly the same fucking playlist. It wasn’t horrible the first 5000 times, but the decades have not been kind.

  109. 109.

    Gin & Tonic

    January 24, 2018 at 9:20 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: I’ve seen purportedly intelligent people on TV saying that if he simply ignored any Mueller subpoena, or pled the 5th, there’d be hell to pay, politically. By now I’ve come to believe that he could wipe his ample ass with the subpoena with no political consequences. He was right: he could shoot somebody and not lose any support.

  110. 110.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    January 24, 2018 at 9:21 pm

    Maggie Haberman @ maggieNYT
    Trump open to a path to citizenship for DACA recipients after 10 – 12 years. His statement sent White House scrambling

    Seung Min Kim
    So funny the Senate gang of six immigration plan happens to have a …. 10-12 year pathway to citizenship for them (10 for current DACA holders, 12 for other Dreamers)

  111. 111.

    Schlemazel

    January 24, 2018 at 9:22 pm

    If they want reboots I’d vote for Night Court, Cheers, either of the Newhart shows, Barney Miller, WKRP, Taxi. Now, none of them could be carried by their original cast but I would love to see writing that good on TV again.

  112. 112.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    January 24, 2018 at 9:25 pm

    @Schlemazel: they ought to do this in some kind of update-of-the-week format. It would be interesting to see what different writers/producers could come up with. Some sincere, some farcical.

    I loved WKRP, but with both Mr Carlson and Les Nessman (four time winner of the Buckeye Newshawk Award, and a coveted Silver Sow) gone to their reward…

  113. 113.

    NotMax

    January 24, 2018 at 9:26 pm

    @Schlemazel

    either of the Newhart shows

    No one remembers the blink and you’ll miss it short-lived third series, Bob.

  114. 114.

    Schlemazel

    January 24, 2018 at 9:26 pm

    @raven:
    yup, that was pretty much what I remembered. A quick search shows it was in the opener so that explains the song I hear when I say “1928 Porter”
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9vOxPUFF0T0

  115. 115.

    Dorothy A. Winsor (formerly Iowa Old Lady)

    January 24, 2018 at 9:26 pm

    I recently recalled an old Mary Tyler Moore episode in which Ted Baxter is running for some award and to up his favorables, he prays on the air. Lou Grant goes nuts and Mary has to get between him and Ted and tactfully explain to Ted that he shouldn’t pray on the air. It was treated as a funny moment. Can you imagine a show today treating praying that way no matter where it happened?

  116. 116.

    Schlemazel

    January 24, 2018 at 9:27 pm

    @NotMax:
    I even remember that he road a toy train off stage.

  117. 117.

    Mike J

    January 24, 2018 at 9:30 pm

    @Ruckus: By definition, if the songs they play are not in the top 40, they aren’t a top 40 station. If those songs are over 20 (10? 30?) years old, it’s an oldies station. Even if they don’t act like it.

  118. 118.

    Schlemazel

    January 24, 2018 at 9:31 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:
    What ever happened to Harry Anderson? Selma Diamond is gone but Moll and Marsha Warfield and the other are going strong. But, like I said, they would need to be recast for most of these

  119. 119.

    NotMax

    January 24, 2018 at 9:34 pm

    @Schlemazel

    There’s writing as sharp today. It’s just that one now has to search beyond the over the air broadcasters to find a lot of it.

  120. 120.

    Schlemazel

    January 24, 2018 at 9:41 pm

    @NotMax:
    There is a lot of good writing but most of it is not doing sitcoms.

  121. 121.

    WaterGirl

    January 24, 2018 at 9:46 pm

    @Baud: I hadn’t seen that before. I have to say I am liking the new DNC I have been seeing of the past couple of months.

  122. 122.

    Groucho48

    January 24, 2018 at 9:48 pm

    @schrodingers_cat:

    She was very good in Sand Pebbles and okay but condescending to Ghandi in that movie.

    That’s about all I’ve seen her in. I probably caught parts of Murphy Brown, but, was working evenings at the time, so didn’t see much TV

  123. 123.

    Shana

    January 24, 2018 at 9:51 pm

    @Schlemazel: Or Frank’s Place. Loved that show. I gather the reason it’s never been rerun is problems with the rights for the music they used.

  124. 124.

    zhena gogolia

    January 24, 2018 at 9:51 pm

    @Groucho48:

    She’s great in Starting Over with Burt Reynolds.

  125. 125.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    January 24, 2018 at 9:54 pm

    I’ve never seen Murphy Brown (it’s never on ME TV), but I love her performance opposite Steve McQueen in “The Sand Pebbles”

  126. 126.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    January 24, 2018 at 9:59 pm

    @Groucho48: but then again, she was playing Margaret Bourke-White, who was a real life person, who probably was condescending.

  127. 127.

    NotMax

    January 24, 2018 at 10:03 pm

    @David Merry Christmas Koch

    Doubt it’s the cable company, as it is the only channel where it happens so I attribute it to the originating signal, but my soundbar refuses to acknowledge that ME TV contains audio.

  128. 128.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    January 24, 2018 at 10:09 pm

    @NotMax: don’t know, but perhaps its because their shows are all mono while today’s shows are all stereo. maybe the soundbar only processes stereo.

  129. 129.

    Steeplejack

    January 24, 2018 at 10:21 pm

    @David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:

    Murphy Brown is on Antenna TV, another third-tier bottom-feeder channel, if you have that on your system. In fact, it’s on right now. Coming up: Becker and Coach.

  130. 130.

    (((CassandraLeo)))

    January 24, 2018 at 10:24 pm

    @NotMax: A lot, but not all. Arrested Development and Community aired an awful lot of their best episodes on network television, to name probably my favourite two examples. Modern Family isn’t as consistently sharp as it used to be, but it still has its moments.

  131. 131.

    Steeplejack

    January 24, 2018 at 10:25 pm

    @NotMax:

    MeTV is on my shit list because about four months ago they preëmptively zoomed all their shows up to widescreen aspect ratio. Really irritating for Perry Mason—my daily beacon of truth and justice in the ongoing Trump nightmare—and other oldie shows.

  132. 132.

    schrodingers_cat

    January 24, 2018 at 10:31 pm

    @Groucho48: I am not a huge fan of that movie. She looked nice, though!

  133. 133.

    SFAW

    January 24, 2018 at 10:37 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    but with both Mr Carlson and Les Nessman (four time winner of the Buckeye Newshawk Award, and a coveted Silver Sow) gone to their reward

    Umm, unless he’s died in the last 24 hours, Richard Sanders is still on this side of the grass.

  134. 134.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    January 24, 2018 at 10:39 pm

    @SFAW: LET THE UPDATE BEGIN!

  135. 135.

    Librarian

    January 24, 2018 at 10:40 pm

    @Ruckus: I believe the point that Mike J was making was that current top 40, with current songs, is dead.

  136. 136.

    Mike E

    January 24, 2018 at 10:52 pm

    That episode with Paul Reubens as her secretary…lulz

  137. 137.

    efgoldman

    January 24, 2018 at 11:49 pm

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist:

    I loved WKRP

    At the time i was in radio. I knew all the characters as archetypes of real people.

  138. 138.

    Groucho48

    January 25, 2018 at 12:52 am

    If we are going to bring back a “liberal” show, it should be Maude, with a character at least as acerbic as Bea Arthur and she should get an abortion around episode 6.

  139. 139.

    agorabum

    January 25, 2018 at 1:05 am

    They forgot one on the list:

    President has dementia

    Trump is in the papers for being a racist clown.

    The vice president is a sexist moron from Indiana.

    A drug epidemic is sweeping the nation but being ignored.

    And Murphy Brown is set to premiere on television.

    1988 or 2018?

  140. 140.

    David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch

    January 25, 2018 at 6:26 am

    @Groucho48: atleast bring back someone with bazoongas as nice as Adrienne Barbeau’s

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