Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, February 12, 1994 TAG: 9402120215
SECTION: SPECTATOR PAGE: 16 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAMES ENDRST THE HARTFORD COURANT
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
All you had to do was watch CBS Broadcast Group President Howard Stringer fussing and bussing with both stars at a recent Television press party in Pasadena, Calif., to see that.
Critics, however, while recognizing Seymour, 43, and Bergen, 47, as two of the network's three most important female stars (with Angela Lansbury), haven't always been as enthusiastic, at least when it comes to Seymour.
Rarely have so many critics been so quick to dismiss a series so completely embraced by the public as her "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman."
So forgive Seymour if she sounded just a little bit more than proud, just a shade dramatic when she showed up for the star-laden CBS Pasadena party recently.
When Dr. Michaela "Mike" Quinn (Seymour) first ventured out into the barren programming patch known as Saturday night in January 1993, it looked as though she would be laughed off the prime-time landscape.
Critics ridiculed the politically correct posturing of Seymour's pioneer practitioner ("I'm not a lady; I'm a doctor!"), and dismissed the drama as a '90s rehash of "Little House on the Prairie"
But the public saw things differently. Much differently.
Now in its second season, "Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman" turned out to be a monster hit. Not only did the show crush its competition, improving CBS's ratings in the 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. time slot by 132 percent, it has been making the network (which produces the program) a small fortune overseas. ("Dr. Quinn" has been sold in 63 countries so far).
Seymour, long since vindicated, said her belief in the show never wavered.
"When I read it, it clicked with me," said the actress, previously best known for her romantic roles in glossy, made-for-TV movies.
"I identify with people living in the middle of America," the British-born Seymour went on. And on . . .
"I have a family and I care about what my kids see on TV," she said. "I care about what I see on TV, and I love watching things that are about the human condition. To me there is nothing more compelling in book form, film form, drama form - any kind of form - than dealing with the emotional responses that human beings have to the traumas of life - the ups and the downs. That's fascinated me forever. And I think this show does that in an entertaining way, and at the same time it's very educational. It teaches you so much - not just historically but sociologically, and in a human kind of way. And I think if you're a parent, it shows great parenting skills; it subtly shows you how things can go horribly wrong, and what you can do to make them right. I just think she's such a great role model. The character is the kind of woman that I think a lot of women would really like to be. She's bright, and she's vulnerable, and she's feminine, but she's strong, and she's spunky, yet she's fallible, and you know she's sexy and romantic. . . . "
In other words, Seymour - who never took a noticeable breath during her seemingly sincere soliloquy - is extremely happy with the show.
In fact, "Dr. Mike" has been something of an inspiration to the actress who plays her.
"As a parent," said Seymour, who plays mother to three orphans on the show, "there are times when I come home, and the kids (Katie and Sean Michael) do something that really irritates me, and I'm tired and exhausted, and I find myself about to get nuts, and I go, `Michaela Quinn wouldn't do this! She'd sort of sit down and have a conversation.' "
The joy of parenting hasn't been quite as smooth for the tenacious TV newswoman on "Murphy Brown," at least according to its star, who chatted with reporters just a few feet from Seymour at the same CBS party.
As everyone who followed the last presidential election knows, former Vice President Dan Quayle made Murphy Brown's baby the center of his so-called family values debate.
And while Quayle's comments about single-parent families generated lots of copy and gave the sitcom a ratings boost, Bergen said the baby may have ultimately thrown the show out of whack.
In retrospect, said Bergen, "I look upon it very much as a Rod Serling episode in `Murphy Brown.'
"I think the strength of `Murphy Brown' has always been the topicality and the bullpen and `F.Y.I.,' " she said. "It was great to have the year of pregnancy, but then you have the baby. And just like in real life, it's like, `Oh. Now you have to adjust to the baby.' I think basically people didn't want to see as much of the baby as they did and wanted us to get back to where our strength was, and I'm thrilled because it's what I've always loved best about the show."
So say all but goodbye to on-screen motherhood for Murphy.
With two years left on her contract, though, Bergen would like to get some more Motown - Murphy style - back into the mix.
"I enjoy singing horribly so much," she said of her notoriously out-of-pitch performances, "that I've sort of been asking them to put it in another episode. But I think maybe they thought we'd bludgeoned that one to death."
by CNB