Candice Bergen may be the only female television star to be known and loved as a curmudgeon. Most noted curmudgeons are male, like Lou Grant of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Archie Bunker of All in the Family, Homer Simpson from The Simpsons, and Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street. Bergen's alter-ego, Murphy Brown, on the other hand, is the queen of curmudgeons. Despite her manly traits, Murphy has gone down in history as the only television curmudgeon to be criticized by the vice president of the United States and to be used as an argument in a national debate on family values. Her willingness to challenge traditional female roles and issues revolving around what is perceived as "decency," have, willingly or not, made her one of the twentieth century's most political actresses.

Murphy Brown, created by Diane English, was a female reporter who...