It's unusual for a situation comedy to cause major political controversy. But such was the fate of Murphy Brown, the saga of a hard-driven news reporter who was respected for her skills and performance, but usually--as a good teacher would point out--did not work and play well with others.

CBS executives didn't think Candice Bergen--the beautiful and accomplished daughter of ventriloquist Edgar Bergen--could handle a sitcom. (That's despite the fact Bergen proved her chops as a guest-host on Saturday Night Live and in the film "Starting Over".) Still, creator and producer Diane English--who helmed such comedies as Foley Square and My Sister Sam--wanted Bergen for the role of Murphy Brown, a correspondent for the fictional television newsmagazine "FYI", whose hard living (and hard drinking) catches up with her. English got her way despite the fact that she had to audition for the head of programming at CBS.

When the show premiered on November 14th, 1988, Murphy had just returned from a stint at the Betty Ford Center to the Washington D.C. studio where "FYI" originates from (Wednesday nights at nine on CBS). Her co-workers include best friend and investigative reporter Frank Fontana (Joe Regalbuto), and stuffed shirt "FYI" anchor Jim Dial (Charles Kimbrough). Murphy also had to work with a brand-new executive producer--an inexperienced youngster (in his mid-20's) named Miles Silverberg (Grant Shaud). His job: to get more young viewers watching "FYI". To that end, Miles hired beauty queen and Southern belle Corky Sherwood (Faith Ford), whose perky personality and virtual lack of journalistic skills didn't sit well with Murphy.

But then, a lot of things could set Murphy's temper flaring and the withering sarcastic quips flying. Such as not having a competent secretary (a running gag that had Murphy go through no less than 93 secretaries during the show's run); a house painter named Eldin (Robert Pastorelli) who could never seem to get her upscale townhouse finished; and various politicians (mostly Republicans; Murphy was a died-in-the-wool Democrat). But for the times when she needed some no-nonsense advice, Murphy could turn to Phil (Pat Corley), the owner of the nearby bar where the "FYI" gang hung out.

CBS had high hopes for Murphy Brown, even placing the show in the Monday night at 9 p.m. slot, where such shows as I Love Lucy, Andy Griffith and M*A*S*H once thrived. But in its first season, "Murphy" didn't catch on with audiences (even though critics loved both the series and Bergen's performance). By its second season, however, Murphy Brown was on its way to becoming a top-10 hit. No doubt the incident that caused the biggest uproar came at the start of the show's fourth season, when Murphy became pregnant by her first husband Jake (the two were married for just six days, but briefly reunited at the end of the third season). After considering an abortion, Murphy decided to keep the baby and carried the infant in her own headstrong way.

But in May 1992, then-Vice President Dan Quayle gave a speech about the so-called lack of "family values" in American society, and took aim at the sitcom's major plot development: "It doesn't help matters when prime time TV has Murphy Brown, a character who supposedly epitomizes today's intelligent, highly-paid professional woman, mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone and calling it just another lifestyle choice". What began as a discussion about the importance of families turned into a battle, with conservatives supporting Quayle, and most others at the time blasting the vice-president for making an example of a fictional sitcom character. (It didn't help the political prospects of Quayle and his boss, President George Bush the Elder, who lost the 1992 election to Bill Clinton and Al Gore.) Years later, Bergen would admit in a "Los Angeles Times" interview that while Quayle was "arrogant" in criticizing a show he had never seen, his defence of two-parent families was "completely sound".

But then, Murphy Brown was not the same after the baby flap. Creator Diane English left the show to produce other projects; her light touch was missed, as the show became more heavy-handed. Even Bergen later admitted in these declining years, "the show became very broad; I hardly recognized some of the characters." Worse yet, Pastorelli, Corey and Shaud all left the series; for some unexplained reason, the writers had the now-divorced Corky fall in love and marry Miles. Neither the marriage nor the plot line worked. To replace Shaud, the producers brought in the gifted Lilly Tomlin to play new "FYI" producer Kay Carter Shepley. Tomlin's scenes with Bergen helped lift more than one episode.

By the fall of 1997, it was clear Murphy Brown was heading for the last roundup. But unlike many declining sitcoms, this one went out with a bang--and reminded still-loyal viewers why they loved the show in the first place. Diane English returned to oversee the new storyline, which had Murphy deal with breast cancer--including losing her hair to chemotherapy and using marijuana to overcome the chemo-induced nausea she was experiencing (ironically, it was straight-laced Jim who bought Murphy a stash of pot). Bergen's performances during the cancer episodes was likely helped in part because she was able to draw from the 1995 real-life loss of her husband, French director Louis Malle, to lymphoma. The series won a total of 18 Emmy awards; Bergen herself went home with five of them.

The final Murphy Brown episode, a one-hour special that aired May 18th, 1998, featured such guest stars as Julia Roberts, Bette Midler, and George Clooney. It also had Murphy having to undergo a second operation to remove all the cancer, a turning point that led her to change her mind about retirement and stay as a reporter on "FYI".

Murphy Brown was one of the few comedies that depicted a strong, independent yet flawed woman at its center. That point of view may have led to unwanted controversy, but it helped make the show one of the most popular sitcoms of the early 1990's.