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Was there a conversation in the writers room about whether she should assume a false identity?
Its funny, but shes definitely violating some journalistic ethics.Yeah, the character debates it.
She tries to get in through regular channels and cant do it.
In the end, comedy wins, so we went with a disguise.
Murphy had been banned from every White House, and it was the original George Bush [presidency].
We dedicated one of our writers assistants to pulling every press conference with Sarah Huckabee Sanders.
That took several weeks.
Then you purchase the footage that you want and edit it into the show.
It took a village.
We picked somebody who looked like her size and her height, and had shoulder-length hair.
Youre mentioning Sarah Huckabee Sanders by name, and obviously you talk about Trump by name too.
In the first few episodes, you make no bones about being a partisan show.
We definitely have a point of view and they knew what they were getting.
We werent going to provide any kind of false equivalency if the other side was fanatical.
Whoevers in the White House has the bully pulpit, so were the antidote to that.
The Democrats arent really pristine.
Down the line, they take some heat from us, too.
How does this compare with your experience in the original run?
Can you give me a general sense of the storyline for that episode?Its called, Murphy Too.
Its so in the zeitgeist now.
Murphy was young, well just put it that way.
Lots of parallels there.
Thats why were moving it up, we dont want to miss our opportunity.
Obviously theres been a #MeToo crisis at CBS recently with Les Moonves.
Did that affect what you could do with the episode?No, not at all.
Not even the suggestion of it.
We take all those points of view and incorporate them into the script.
But theres a big difference in perspective.Yeah, totally.
We put it all in the script.
We all learned a lot from each other.
So, we started the morning with the seminar, just as happens in the show.
That really came as a total surprise.
No, I never had anything even come close to that.
What do you think accounts for the difference?I dont know, youd have to ask her.
I dont really know because its not my experience and I also wasnt aware of her experience.
Its not like it was out there anywhere.
I had left the connection, essentially, and went on to do other things.
But I never had any experience of anybody there trying to thwart my career in any way.
He came in and he took a look at it and went, Mmm, I dont think so.
That was our interpretation of it.
It went on for a few years with lawyers letters back and forth, and we werent getting anywhere.
So, ultimately we had to file a suit and it got settled.
To your satisfaction?Yes.
Were just trying to keep our heads above water here.
Then well find a way to fit it in.
