Cazenovia resident returns to hit show he was part of in the 1990s
By Lauren Young
Staff Writer
It’s been 20 years since Cazenovia resident Tom Seeley helped produce the two-part finale of CBS sitcom “Murphy Brown,” an award-winning series about a team of investigative journalists working for a primetime newsmagazine show. Now, Seeley is back in New York City, writing the show’s 11th season with its original cast and writers, set to air on Thursday, Sept. 27.
Early last spring, CBS announced the revival of its Emmy-winning sitcom “Murphy Brown” with a 13-episode reboot, a series that originally aired from 1988 to 1998 for a total of 247 episodes — many of which Seeley, an Emmy award-winning producer and writer for the show, was there for, especially for the beginning and at the end.
The sitcom, which has been nominated for 62 Emmy nominations and has won 18, will premiere at 9:30 p.m. on Sept. 27 on CBS with leading actress Candice Bergen reprising her role as Murphy Brown. The new series finds Brown as a morning show news anchor with her broadcast rival being her own son, Avery, played by Jake McDormand, a liberal correspondent on a Fox News-inspired conservative show. According to executives, the rivalry between the two shows will mimic that of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” and Fox News’ “Fox & Friends”— just one way the show will mirror current affairs and political polarity.
In the age of “fake news” and “alternative facts,” Seeley said the show will refer to such topics of journalistic integrity, but will remain as it has always been — a character comedy.
“I did not expect to see its revitalization”
Seeley is currently working in New York City, a place he used to live during his mid-20s.
“It’s much nicer” now he said and working with the writers again has been “terrific.”
“The majority of the writers and staff we have on now are people I worked with 20, 30 years ago,” said Seeley. “They’ve became some of my best friends.”
And the cast, he said, were “great then and great now.”
“They all really do care about each other,” he said, adding how they all have “such great chemistry.”
Six episodes have been filmed for the new season so far and two episodes are ready for actors to read, said Seeley. Five more episodes are in varying stages of development.
“We don’t want to be too quick,” said Seeley, favoring quality over quantity.
Seeley said he wrote for the first two years of “Murphy Brown” and was there for its last episodes that ended in a place where he, as well as the rest of the writers, were satisfied.
“We felt like we told a lot of good stories, and we didn’t want the quality to go down,” said Seeley. “I did not expect to see its revitalization, though. Back then, networks didn’t restart shows.”
But with recently successful rebooted shows like “Roseanne” and “Fuller House,” reboots have “become the trend” and “seem to be successful for the networks,” said Seeley.
The possibility of rebooting the series, which originally ended on May 18, 1998, was first discussed at a dinner Seeley had with show creator Diane English in May 2017. CBS told English it was interested in rebooting the series and the thought was lingering in the “back of her head,” said Seeley.
Last fall, “rumblings” of “Murphy Brown’s” return arose, and around Thanksgiving 2017, English wrote an episode and showed it to lead actress Candice Bergen, who Seeley said was immediately interested.
CBS “bought it on the spot,” said Seeley, and the rest of the original cast were excited to reunite and “work on a project they believed in.”
Around mid-July 2018, the crew starting filming episodes in New York City at a studio in Queens, set for completion by Thanksgiving of this year.
“It’s definitely just as relevant, if not more so”
“Murphy Brown” has “always been very topical,” following current politics and state of the world, said Seeley.
In season four, the show attracted the criticism of then-vice president Dan Quayle for “mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone” when Brown got pregnant and had a child as a single mother. This moment was significant during the 1990s cultural wars, said Seeley, and the show’s topics will continue to be significant in 2018.
“It’s definitely just as relevant, if not more so,” he said.
In the show’s trailer for the newest season, Murphy Brown said after her career at FYI, “I didn’t know what to do with myself, and then —,” after the camera cuts to President Donald Trump’s face she says, “we had an election.”
While the show will follow the current political climate with its popular television pundits and hashtag movements, Seeley assures that it’s not a political comedy — it’s the same character comedy show it was before.
“It’s a character comedy show, not a political comedy,” he said. “We just want to make sure we tell good stories.”
Since the original series’ finale 20 years ago, the state of journalism has altered along with technological advances — namely, the internet, said Seeley.
“The internet has changed everything,” he said, including “the way we view entertainment.”
“It is a much different time,” he said.
While there were only three major networks over 20 years ago, the possibilities are now infinite, said Seeley, especially with the 24-hour news cycle where news outlets have to fill airtime.
And while the internet is reliable in searching for news sources, not all of its content is.
“There’s so much more opinion than reporting the news,” said Seeley, and in fact, the topic of “fake news” will be “mentioned once or twice” during its new season, he said.
When asked if he thinks anyone from the current presidential administration, if not Vice President Mike Pence or President Trump himself, would watch the show, Seeley said, “you never know.”
“It’ll be interesting if they do,” he said.
About the writer
While Seeley is especially known for his work on “Murphy Brown,” he has also written and produced other major sitcoms like “Cheers” and “Hannah Montana,” and used to be an adjunct professor at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Communications. While Seeley is away in New York City, he makes his home in Cazenovia.
“I love living there, and that’s where I choose to raise my family,” said Seeley who bought his home in Cazenovia with his wife in 2003. His children have since moved away for college, but his parents also grew up and retired in the area, as well as his grandmother.
“I have so many good friends there,” he said.
His favorite spot in the village? It’s right along Albany Street.
“I love the Pewter Spoon [Café], going there is like a rite of passage,” he said.
While away in New York City, Seeley said he looks forward to returning home for a weekend sometime soon and hopes the Syracuse University football team has a “good season.”
Watch the return of “Murphy Brown” in its series premiere on Thursday, Sept. 27 at 9:30 p.m. on CBS.
