Just What Television Needs: Yet Another Show That Targets Trump

If there’s one thing television does not need right now, it’s another show that goes after the Trump administration.

Even for nonsupporters of President Donald Trump, the bases are already covered. There’s politically obsessed late-night programs from Stephen Colbert, Jimmy Kimmel, Trevor Noah, Samantha Bee and more. There’s “Saturday Night Live” — and there have been a slew of other comedy programs drawing “inspiration” solely from this president’s term of office so far, including “Weekend Update,” “The President Show,” “Our Cartoon President,” and “Will & Grace.”

If, for some reason, all of that is still not enough, CBS recently released a first look at its “Murphy Brown” reboot — and it’s definitely got Trump on the brain.

The original “Murphy Brown” ran from 1988 to 1998 and followed the title character (played by Candice Bergen), an investigative journalist for the fictional newsmagazine FYI.

The reboot catches up with Brown all these years later; she no longer works for FYI.

“I left FYI a few years ago,” announces Bergen’s Brown in the trailer.

“The problem was, I didn’t know what to do with myself,” she continues. “And then we had an election.”

The trailer later shows a character who’s protesting Trump — and Brown announces she’s undertaking a new journalistic endeavor.

“We had to do something and get the old gang together to take on this crazy new world of alternative facts and fake news. It’s our civic duty,” Brown says.

Though “Murphy Brown” ran for 247 episodes, it was still a surprising series to hear about in the reboot department — but it goes to show how truly desperate Hollywood is to revive old successes at this point. Sometimes it works, as in the cases of the recently successful “Roseanne” and “Cobra Kai.”

It also sometimes ends up being a total disaster, as with duds like 2011’s “Charlie’s Angels.”

Related: In Season Finale, ‘SNL’ Goes After Trump with a Vengeance

It remains to be seen just how political the 13-episode reboot of “Murphy Brown” will be when it hits CBS in the fall, but the trailer indicates it will be yet another tired and dry protest of Trump — something that’s already being done to death.

If a show wants to take on current cultural and political issues, it should take a page from the “Roseanne” reboot and be evenhanded — and make its main focus layered characters rather than political agendas.

“Murphy Brown” doesn’t look like it’s taking that route, but here’s hoping.

PopZette editor Zachary Leeman can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter.