Television’s irascible journalist Murphy Brown is tackling the assignment of a lifetime: battling breast cancer.
The idea came from the show’s creator and former executive producer, Diane English, who is back as executive consultant for the 10th and final season of the show starring Candice Bergen.
English talked to WOMANEWS about the story line and the responsibility the show (now airing at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays on CBS-Ch.2) has to breast cancer survivors:
Q. Not since Edith Bunker has a main sit-com character tackled the subject of breast cancer–and even Edith’s lump was found to be benign. How did the idea come about for Murphy to get breast cancer?
A. I think when you get to be my age, which is approaching 50, you get to be thinking about it. Women’s health issues are very important to Candice and myself.
We wanted to take what is a very big risk and make breast cancer the focal point of our final season. The challenge was, how do you blend the comedic elements of the show with breast cancer without trivializing the topic?
After spending a tremendous amount of time talking about it, we came (up) with the conviction and thinking that we could do it.
Now, we’re about to shoot the fifth episode, and I promise people that the laughs are plentiful and there is a tremendous amount of poignancy and emotion.
Q. What research did you do to prepare for the story line?
A. We did up to three months of pretty intensive research with experts in the field, such as at the UCLA Breast Center, one of the premier facilities in the country. We have a whole team of doctors who have been consultants, and we consulted with women who have the disease and are survivors. We had to decide what type of cancer to give Murphy–were lymph nodes affected? Would she be given chemotherapy? We did not want it to be so treatable in its early stages that “bing bam boom” it’s over–and we didn’t want to give her cancer so advanced that there would be little hope.
We gave her a lump that was 2 centimeters. It’s not little, and it’s not big. If she had (had) a mammogram, like she was supposed to, it would have been detected in earlier stages. We are trying to send a message to women that breast cancer is extremely curable when found early. You need to get the mammograms, do the self-exam and watch your diet, exercise, don’t smoke, don’t drink heavily–all the things Murphy did in her “wonder years.”
There are a small number of nodes involved, but we don’t want to bombard our audience at once with all the details. It’s not a documentary.
Q. How will the topic be woven into the season? How will Murphy find humor in the nitty-gritty aspects of breast cancer: surgery, chemotherapy, the possibility of recurrence?
A. Murphy is definitely one of the people who feels she could handle the chemo. She feels she’s endured the worst hangovers, so she could handle that.
The first episode (was) 99 percent about something else, but they (found) something suspicious on the first mammogram. In the second episode, she is working on some other assignment when she finds out the results of the biopsy are not good. The third episode is about her going through the medical maze, going though the decision of mastectomy vs. lumpectomy. We see her visit a reconstructive surgeon for research with Frank, and there’s a particularly funny discussion of men’s and women’s views of breasts.
There’s nothing funny about cancer. What’s funny is the circumstances a person finds themselves in. I don’t know that we’re going to convince anyone in interviews, but I think once people give it the chance they’ll see for themselves.
Q. What is your view of your responsibility to women who have breast cancer?
A. CBS is doing public service announcements, and there’s a whole system of resources in place. We hope this will raise the awareness of women as to the importance of early detection.
Q. Many cancer patients say their lives have been irrevocably changed by the diagnosis. What sort of transformation might Murphy go through as she navigates this experience?
A. Murphy’s a tough broad. You put the ultimate challenge in front of her, something she has no control over, and how does she handle it? I don’t think it’s going to be any different than when she handled other struggles, like single parenthood. But I also don’t think you go through something like this without it impacting you.
The past few years of the show, it has shown its age. I think it needed a strong story to bring the characters back to life–ironically, it’s a life-threatening illness.
