When the highly anticipated Murphy Brown reboot premiered on Thursday, the series brought back one of the best recurring themes from its original run: the revolving door of secretaries at FYI News. Candice Bergen’s titular character never seemed able to fill the temp position for long, which gave several guest stars the opportunity to make cameos when the show first aired in the 1990s. On the new season premiere, an especially familiar face decided to take a crack at working for Brown: Hillary Clinton.
More: Here’s What’s New in the Murphy Brown Reboot
According to Entertainment Tonight‘s recap of the premiere, Clinton played herself, but she was looking for a job. This allowed her to make plenty of self-effacing jokes about her run for president in 2016. When asked about her qualifications for the secretary position, she told Murphy, “Emails, yeah, I do have some experience with emails,” referencing the months-long email scandal that dominated headlines throughout the 2016 election cycle.
In the end, Bergen’s character decided that Clinton was “overqualified” for the position, but she did ask for her contact information, per ET. Clinton provided the email address “[email protected].”
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When the official Murphy Brown Instagram account shared the clip on Thursday, one commenter wrote, “That secretary looks like a keeper to me.” Another commented on the show’s tradition of bringing in new secretaries every episode: “Pure Murphy Brown fashion. The secretary ‘thing’ is iconic. You never knew who’d show up & neither did she. And let’s not forget, the always changing dartboard target in her office.”
Some were less impressed with Clinton’s appearance, however. “So wanted to watch this show and you got political on the first episode – just lost half your potential audience. Big mistake!!!” wrote one frustrated viewer. Another person found complaints like this one odd: “Kind of surprising that some are commenting here about the show getting political. I guess they’ve never seen the original series.”
That's all for tonight's premiere of #MurphyBrown! Thanks for joining us, @HillaryClinton! pic.twitter.com/DlCsHOF2fc
— Murphy Brown (@MurphyBrownCBS) September 28, 2018
Clinton joins a long list of super-famous people who have interviewed for the secretarial position on the show, including Sally Field, Bette Midler, Rosie O’Donnell, John Kennedy Jr., Don Rickles and Paul Rubens. According to ET, the Murphy Brown reboot is more actively centered on politics, following Murphy and the rest of the journalists at FYI News as they cover current events. Plott lines are often based on real life.
More: Hillary Clinton Landed a New TV Role Playing Herself
As this new season of Murphy Brown continues, it will be interesting to see who else makes an appearance since Clinton didn’t get the secretary job. Maybe she’ll have better luck when she guest stars on Madam Secretary later this year.
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