Murphy Brown: Season 02 (1989)

Season two of Murphy Brown begins as the titular TV-reporter heroine (Candice Bergen) gets on the bad side of her neurotic producer, Miles Silverberg (Grant Shaud), by dating his brother Josh (Jon Tenney) in an episode which also introduces Christopher Rich in the role of vacuous pretty-boy anchorman Miller Redfield, potential replacement for Murph's "FYI" co-star Jim Dial (Charles Kimbrough). In later misadventures, Morgan Fairchild appears as the star of a new sitcom based on Murphy Brown and her co-workers (it'll never sell!); Jay Thomas returns as competing reporter Jerry Gold, with whom Murphy, much to her amazement, has an affair; "FYI"'s resident cute blonde, Corky Sherwood (Faith Ford), wins a local TV award, beating out her more experienced (and frankly more talented) co-workers; and broadcast-journalism legends Walter Cronkite and Irving R. Levine show up at a surprise testimonial for Jim. Other season highlights include the two-part episode "Brown Like Me," which not only introduced Colleen Dewhurst in the role of Murphy's mother, Avery Brown, but also won Candice Bergen an Emmy award; future Blossom star Mayim Bialik appears as a junior-edition Murphy in a children's-TV version of "FYI"; and Murphy herself lands in jail when she refuses to appear before a grand jury. At season's end, Corky is about to marry a writer named Will Forest (Scott Bryce) -- that's right, she'll be Mrs. Corky Sherwood Forest -- and the "body count" of secretaries hired and fired by Murphy has reached number 37. This season, Murphy Brown won the first of two Emmy awards for Outstanding Comedy Series. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi