A scene from the final episode of Murphy Brown

Curtains close on influential 'Murphy Brown'

Web posted on: Tuesday, May 19, 1998 4:38:01 PM EDT

LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- It has been a landmark television season, filled with finales from many groundbreaking and long-running shows. First, "Seinfeld" ended with lots of media hoopla, then "Ellen" made a quieter exit. Monday night, it was "Murphy Brown"'s turn to go quietly into TV history, closing shop after 10 seasons on the air.

The sitcom "Murphy Brown," in which Candice Bergen played a tough, flawed journalist who co-anchors a network news program, was a ratings powerhouse in its youth. The show was known for taking on tough issues, starting with single motherhood -- the birth of Murphy's baby launched the show into the same political system which it lampooned every week.

Former Vice President Dan Quayle once condemed "Murphy Brown" for "mocking the importance of fathers"

'Am I glamorous?'

Then-Vice President Dan Quayle told the U.S. public that "Murphy Brown" glamorized single motherhood.

"I'm sure the media elite doesn't understand what i'm talking about, but the American people do," he said.

"Glamorized ... am I glamorous?" was the response from an incredulous Bergen.

As Quayle now tells it, his 1992 campaign comments about Murphy's pregnancy launched the current political focus on family values.

In middle age, "Murphy Brown" began a slow decline, drawing fewer viewers and influencing the political landscape less. Yet even as the show's end was near, its creators were still confronting important issues, tackling breast cancer over the past season.

George Clooney made a brief cameo in the final episode

Tear-filled final taping

Several stars came by to help with the send-off, including Julia Roberts and Bette Midler. In the show, the gang from the network news program "FYI" gathers in the bullpen for one last time.

The final taping was an intimate one, shared among friends, family, cast and crew.

"I remember the pilot like it was yesterday," Bergen told her colleagues gathered at the studio. "From the day I read that script, there was some kind of destiny to it."

Nearly everyone involved says their lives were changed by their years with the show. And nearly everyone was near tears as the cameras recorded their final lines.

"I think actually what was a struggle was this morning," said Joe Regalbuto, who played correspondent Frank Fontana on the show. "We all came in and all of us, everything just started flooding up."

Faith Ford, who played the perennially chirpy co-anchor Corky Sherwood, was in the same mood.

"I really tried to hold it when they did the first ovation," she said. "When I came out, though, that really caught me off-guard and I thought, you have to stop because I have to hold on."

'I was handed a gift'

Even Bergen, who excelled in playing a hard-nosed, hard-shelled journalist, admitted she was feeling a little weepy: "I couldn't hold it together today. George Clooney asked me if I was OK, and I practically collapsed. I couldn't stop crying, I had to go off sobbing like an idiot."

Bergen brought cast members into her dressing room, and presented each with a wristwatch as a parting gift. "That was the first tip that we were going," said Lily Tomlin, a relative newcomer to the show -- she stepped in as "FYI" news director after Christopher Rich (as Miles Silverberg) left.

"I'll start to cry now," Tomlin said, just for being "included the way I was included."

The show earned 18 Emmy Awards over its 10 seasons and 245 episodes. Now, as it all comes to an end, Bergen recalled her favorite line from the finale, saying that it captured her feelings about her time as Murphy.

The line was, "My point is that you never know what life has in store for you. But I do know that I was handed a gift the moment I walked into this place, and I thank God for that."

Correspondents Sherri Sylvester and Daryn Kagan contributed to this report.

Related stories:

• Seinfeld' not alone among sitcoms bowing out - April 5, 1998
• NBC's 'must-she TV' marking a trend among Big Three - Nov. 4, 1997

Related sites:

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• CBS "Murphy Brown" site
• Unofficial "Murphy Brown" site

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.

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