Forest Gump

As we wind up our “Work It Out” blog series, we finish with a working crew that was very close on and off the set, a television show about a television show, Murphy Brown.

Created by Diane English, the show aired on CBS in the fall of 1988 and ran for a decade. In 2018, a reboot of the original cast had a one-season run of 13 new episodes when we got to catch up on life with the characters.

Murphy Brown is about an investigative journalist, Murphy Brown (Candice Bergman), who works for the news show FYI. I can’t imagine anyone other than Bergen in the role, but English had to fight hard for her because CBS president Kim LeMasters wanted Heather Locklear to have the role.

She is a recovering alcoholic and has a quick wit. Murphy strongly advocates for the integrity of journalism, the unjustness that can be found in politics, and feminist rights. One of her well-known frustrations is that she was so hard on secretaries, they never lasted long and we saw a long string of them come and go during the ten years. Murphy would have 93 of them during the show. One of the best secretary scenes was when Marcia Wallace who played Carol on The Bob Newhart Show worked for her. Murphy finally found a secretary that she loved and then at the end of the show, Bob Newhart appeared as Dr. Hartley and begged Carol to return to work, so she did. In one episode, Murphy finds out that there is actually a support group made up of her former secretaries.

Rounding out the cast was Jim Dial (Charles Kimbrough) who tends to live in the past a bit, Frank Fontana (Joe Regalbuto), Murphy’s best friend, who calls her “Murph.” He is a great reporter but is also a bit insecure. There is a running gag that the producer make him wear a toupee which he hates. Miles Silverberg (Grant Shaud) is that producer; he’s a Harvard grad and overachiever and doesn’t bond with the cast right away. Corky Sherwood (Faith Ford) is a former Miss America. She and Murphy don’t hit it off immediately, but Murphy learns to respect her during the run of the show, and they also become very close. Murphy’s other “person” is Eldin Bernecky (Robert Pastorelli). Eldin is a house painter; he worked around her house for six seasons and he gave her lots of advice and becomes like a brother to her. Then there is Phil (Pat Corley) who owns Phil’s Bar where the crew congregates. The bar is said to be a Washington DC institution and has its share of political knowledge and secrets.

We also get to know (1) Avery Brown (Colleen Dewhurst), Murphy’s mom who is a museum curator. When Dewhurst died in 1991, the producers had Murphy’s mom pass away as well. Murphy named her son Avery. (2) Bill Brown (Darren McGavin), Murphy’s dad, a newspaper publisher. He married a yoga teacher younger than Murphy. Dewhurst won two Emmys for her appearances on this show, and McGavin was nominated in 1990. (3) Audrey Cohen (Jane Leeves) is Miles’ girlfriend for seasons 2-5, but their relationship ended when she took the role of Daphne on Frasier.

In 1991, Murphy became pregnant. The father is her on-again, off-again ex-husband. He does not want to get tied down raising a baby, so Murphy becomes a single parent. One fun scene was Murphy’s baby shower which included several famous guests including Katie Couric, Joan Lunden, Paula Zahn, Mary Alice Williams, and Faith Daniels, all well-known news journalists. Baby Avery was played by Haley Joel Osment. Osment would grow up to play roles in more than 100 movies and television series including Forest Gump, The Sixth Sense, and Thunder Alley where he played Harry Turner.

In the revival, Murphy comes out of retirement to go on the air for a show called “Murphy in the Morning.” She brings back her colleagues Frank and Corky and has Miles produce it. Jim meets them once in a while but chooses to stay in retirement. Pat Patel (Nik Dodani) is their social media manager. Murphy’s son Avery (Jake McDorman), who was a baby when the show ended, has his own news show that competes with his mom but the two of them are very close. Murphy is a die-hard liberal and her son is much more conservative. Phil’s bar is still the place to hang out, but it is now run by Phil’s sister Phyllis (Tyne Daly).

Mother and son don’t see eye to eye often. Photo: variety.com

The original show was loved by critics from the beginning, but it took longer to establish an audience. In the third season, it became a top-ten hit and was number three the next year. The show was nominated for 62 Emmys and won 18. After Bergen won five, she declined to be nominated any longer.

By the ninth season, ratings were declining. Shaud left the show and Lily Tomlin took over his role as executive producer Kay Carter-Shepley. For the last season, Murphy is diagnosed with breast cancer. Bergen was presented with an award from the American Cancer Society because there was a 30% increase in the number of women getting mammograms.

Unfortunately, you cannot buy the DVD set to watch. I read that the first season did not sell as well as expected, so they stopped releasing them. However, the music used in the series seems to be the primary reason. The show used a lot of Motown classics that resulted in astronomical licensing fees for every episode and costs were prohibitive for DVDs.

Although this was a well-written show, the then-current political references do date it a bit, but then again, that was part of the show’s mission, so it’s hard to have it both ways. While I appreciate this show, if I’m going to watch a series about a group of coworkers, I would probably gravitate to The Mary Tyler Moore Show or M*A*S*H but Murphy Brown would definitely be in my top ten work shows.

When you mention the name of Sally Field, different generations of women remember her for different roles. That is because she has continued to find quality movies and television shows to add to her resume. Beginning her career in 1965, 52 years later she is still appearing in respected films. The woman who started out as Gidget, a typical teenager has become Mary Todd Lincoln. Let’s take a look at her long and admired work.

Sally Margaret Field was born in 1946 in California. Her mother was actress Margaret Field. Margaret is a descendent of a passenger on the Mayflower and William Bradford, governor. Her parents divorced in 1950 and her mother then married stuntman Jock Mahoney. Sally graduated from Birmingham High School in Van Nuys where she was a cheerleader. Her classmates included Michael Milken and Cindy Williams.

Her first acting job was the role of Frances Elizabeth Lawrence, or Gidget, as she was nick-named in the 1965 series. Field was perfectly matched as the all-American girl Gidget; she lived with her widowed father, a college professor (Don Porter). Her older sister Anne was married, and she and her husband John felt compelled to watch over Gidget. Gidget spent most of her time surfing and hanging out with her best friend Larue played by Lynette Winter. The show was based on the book and Sandra Dee movies which were very popular, but the series was cancelled after only 32 episodes due to low ratings.

In 1967, she accepted the role of Sister Bertrille on The Flying Nun. The show featured a nun who was assigned to a convent in Puerto Rico. Her coronets and small size allowed the trade winds there to lift her up, and she was able to fly. This series was also based on novel, The Fifteenth Pelican by Tere Rios.

She also appeared in her first movie in 1967 – opposite of Kirk Douglas in The Way West.

Sally has been married twice, first to Steven Craig from 1968 to 1975. The couple had two sons, Peter and Eli. Following that marriage, Sally was involved in a long relationship with Burt Reynolds. In his book which came out in 2015 he said that she was the love of his life and definitely the one that got away. Sally then married Alan Greisman from 1984-1993 and they had one son, Samuel.

Field appeared in several television series in the 1970s and finally received a role as The Girl with Something Extra in 1973. For 22 episodes, she starred with John Davidson as her husband who realizes on his wedding night that his wife has ESP. Hopefully she was able to alert him that the show would be cancelled before the end of the season so he could start looking for a new job.

After this tv series flopped, Field became a serious movie actress. She appeared in many critically acclaimed movies during her career, including Smokey and the Bandit (1977), Norma Rae (1979), Smokey and the Bandit II (1980), Places in the Heart (1984), Steel Magnolias (1989), Mrs. Doubtfire (1993), Forest Gump (1994), Legally Blonde 2 (2003), and, most recently, Lincoln (2012).

In the late 1990s, Field added to her resume, directing several shows including the tv film The Christmas Tree in 1996, one episode of From the Earth to the Moon in 1998, and the feature film Beautiful in 2000.

In 2000, Field returned to television with a recurring role on ER between 2000 and 2006. She played Abby Lockhart’s mother, Maggie, who has bipolar disorder. She won an Emmy for the role in 2001. She starred in The Court in 2002 which only lasted for six episodes.

In 2005, Sally was diagnosed with osteoporosis. She created the Rally with Sally for Bone Health campaign which encouraged early diagnosis of the condition using bone-density scans.

Her last television role was matriarch Nora Walker in Brothers & Sisters which was on the air from 2006 until 2011. Originally the role of Nora was played by Betty Buckley. The producers decided the character would take a different direction and offered the part to Field. She also won an Emmy for Lead Actress in a Drama Series for this show in 2007.
In 2014 Sally received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, located front of the Hollywood Wax Museum.

2017 found Field in a Broadway production of The Glass Menagerie. She was nominated for a Tony award for best actress in a play for the performance.

In addition to her Emmys listed above, Sally won an Emmy for outstanding lead actress in a miniseries or movie for Sybil in 1977. She won Academy Awards for best actress in Norma Rae and Places in the Heart. Her acting performances have been nominated for awards 57 times.

Sally Field is a well-respected and award-winning actress who has continued to find projects as she ages which is not always easy for women in film. At 70, Field appears much younger and energetic than other women her age. She has continued to fight for causes she is passionate about. Her acting portfolio has definitely been a career to be proud of.

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How pop culture influences us

Murphy Brown: FYI

From Gidget to Mary Todd Lincoln: The Highly Respected Career of Sally Field