Murphy Brown: Anatomy of a Sitcom

The authors of Love Is All Around: The Making of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" ( LJ 11/15/89) give us another backstage tour of an award-winning comedy series. Every phase of the program's creation is examined, from original idea to script, casting, and pilot. Individual chapters are devoted to the writers (and the writing) of the series as well as to the casting of Candice Bergen as Murphy Brown and the other members of the cast. There is an account of a typical week on the set and of the business of producing a series. Plot summaries of the episodes in the first two seasons round out a work emphasizing at every chance the collaboration of talents needed to produce a television program. As the authors say, "Above all this is a book about a television series in process." Recommended for popular culture collections.- Carolyn M. Mulac, Chicago P.L.Copyright 1990 Reed Business Information, Inc.