Why Hit CBS Sitcom Murphy Brown Introduced A Baby And Why It Had To Be A Son

By the time “Murphy Brown” entered its fourth season in 1991, the CBS comedy — which revolved around Candice Bergen’s single and unapologetically career-driven investigative journalist — had earned its place as an Emmy-winning hit and one of the best sitcoms of the ’90s. So, creator Diane English and her team decided it was time to throw their tough-as-nails hero the ultimate curveball.

Together, English and Bergen cooked up a late-in-life pregnancy storyline, something that actually mirrored Bergen’s own personal experience; she had given birth to her first child at 39 years old. Speaking to Yahoo! Entertainment, English said their goal was “to give Murphy the biggest challenge that she had ever really faced.” Up until that point, Murphy was strictly committed to her career, and, as English puts it: “She couldn’t even keep a plant alive, nor a pet!”

The episode’s director, Barnet Kellman, pointed out that this decision also tapped into the real lives of the show’s creators and star, explaining that English was following “a very clear playbook, which was her personal experience as a woman of her generation,” alongside Bergen, who was a devoted mother navigating her career in Los Angeles while her husband worked abroad. The pregnancy also allowed writer and consulting producer Korby Siamis to inject some of her own personal experiences into the story. “It provided a nice overlay for the season,” Siamis shared, noting that, while not every single episode revolved around the baby, “it impacted every episode.”

When it came time to decide the gender of Murphy’s child, the writers found themselves at a crossroads. Siamis said that she initially pushed for a girl, calling it the “obvious choice.” However, the team realized that giving their feminist journalist a son would flip her world upside down.

“A boy would throw her,” Siamis noted. “We gave her what we felt was the more challenging gender for the character.” English echoed that sentiment, explaining, “She always assumed she was having a girl because she was such a feminist, and it was kind of a shock that it was a boy.” Bergen, meanwhile, recalled being totally onboard for this new direction. “I remember that Diane and I went horseback riding in Griffith Park to discuss certain plot lines,” she said, “and she told me that she thought it should be a boy and that he should be named Avery after her mother. I thought it was brilliant.”

Making Murphy Brown a TV mother did, however, seem to send a mixed message to some fans of the show. Siamis admitted that they had no idea how audiences would react to what she called “the morality of her being pregnant as a single woman.” She also said she felt some guilt over potentially “betraying” female viewers who had chosen to never have children. Still, the legacy of Murphy’s son was clearly a strong one: In 2018, Bergen reprised her role for the “Murphy Brown” revival series, which also featured a grown-up Avery played by Jake McDorman.