Diane English
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Diane English (born May 18, 1948) is an American screenwriter, producer and director. She is best known for creating the television show ''
Murphy Brown ''Murphy Brown'' is an American television sitcom created by Diane English that premiered on November 14, 1988, on CBS. The series stars Candice Bergen as the eponymous Murphy Brown, a famous investigative journalist and news presenter, news anch ...
'' which won multiple awards, including 18 Primetime Emmy Awards from 62 nominations. She also wrote and directed the 2008 feature film '' The Women''. She has won numerous awards, including 3 Emmy Awards, and received numerous nominations.


Early life

English was born in
Buffalo, New York Buffalo is a Administrative divisions of New York (state), city in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York and county seat of Erie County, New York, Erie County. It lies in Western New York at the eastern end of Lake Erie, at the head of ...
, the daughter of Anne English and Richard English who was an electrical engineer. She graduated from
Nardin Academy Nardin Academy was founded by the Daughters of the Heart of Mary in 1857. The academy includes a college-preparatory, college preparatory high school for young women, a co-educational elementary school, and a Montessori, Montessori school for tod ...
in Buffalo, and then from
Buffalo State College The State University of New York Buffalo State University (colloquially referred to as Buffalo State University, SUNY Buffalo State, Buffalo State, or simply Buff State) is a public college, public university in Buffalo, New York. It is part of ...
in 1970.


Career

English began her career at
WNET WNET (channel 13), branded on-air as Thirteen (stylized as THIRTEEN), is a primary PBS member television station licensed to Newark, New Jersey, United States, serving the New York City area. Owned by The WNET Group (formerly known as the Educ ...
, the PBS affiliate in New York City, working first as a story editor for ''The Theatre in America'' series, and then as associate director of '' TV Lab''. From 1977 to 1980, she wrote a monthly column on television for ''Vogue'' magazine. In 1980, she co-wrote PBS' ''
The Lathe of Heaven ''The Lathe of Heaven'' is a 1971 science fiction novel by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin, first serialized in the American science fiction magazine ''Amazing Stories''. It received nominations for the 1972 Hugo and the 1971 Nebula Award, an ...
'', an adaptation of
Ursula K. Le Guin Ursula Kroeber Le Guin ( ; Kroeber; October 21, 1929 – January 22, 2018) was an American author. She is best known for her works of speculative fiction, including science fiction works set in her Hainish universe, and the ''Earthsea'' fantas ...
's science fiction novel of the same name, and received her first Writers Guild Award Nomination. She followed that with the television movies ''Her Life as a Man'' (1984) and ''Classified Love'' (1986). In 1985, English created '' Foley Square'', her first half-hour comedy series, which aired on CBS during the 1985-1986 television season. It starred Margaret Colin, Hector Elizondo,
Michael Lembeck Michael Lembeck (born June 25, 1948) is an American actor and television and film director. He is best known as Max Horvath in ''One Day at a Time (1975 TV series), One Day at a Time'' (1979–1984). Life and career Lembeck was born in Brookl ...
and
Jon Lovitz Jonathan Michael Lovitz ( ; born July 21, 1957) is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his tenure as a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1985 to 1990 for which he was nominated for two Pr ...
. The show premiered on December 11, 1985, and languished near the bottom of the Nielsen ratings in the weeks that followed. After being put on hiatus after only 11 episodes, CBS rescheduled it to another night and aired the three remaining episodes of the season. With ratings low, CBS cancelled the show after only 14 episodes with the last episode airing on April 8, 1986. During 1986 and 1987, English executive produced and wrote the CBS comedy series ''
My Sister Sam ''My Sister Sam'' is an American television sitcom starring Pam Dawber and Rebecca Schaeffer that aired on CBS from October 6, 1986, to April 12, 1988. Synopsis The sitcom follows the lives of a 29-year-old San Francisco freelance photographe ...
'', starring
Pam Dawber Pamela Dawber (born October 18, 1951) is an American actress known for her lead television sitcom roles as Mindy McConnell on ''Mork & Mindy'' (1978–1982) and Samantha Russell on '' My Sister Sam'' (1986–1988). Early life Dawber was born i ...
which lasted for two seasons with 12 episodes that never aired before being cancelled. In 1988, she created the CBS television series ''
Murphy Brown ''Murphy Brown'' is an American television sitcom created by Diane English that premiered on November 14, 1988, on CBS. The series stars Candice Bergen as the eponymous Murphy Brown, a famous investigative journalist and news presenter, news anch ...
'', for which she won three
Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...
s (one for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series and two for Outstanding Comedy Series). The series ran from 1988 to 1998 for a total of 247 episodes. It garnered 18 Emmy wins from 62 nominations. In 1992, English stirred up controversy when the title character decided to have a child out of wedlock. Vice president
Dan Quayle James Danforth Quayle (; born February 4, 1947) is an American retired politician who served as the 44th vice president of the United States from 1989 to 1993 under President George H. W. Bush. A member of the Republican Party (United States), ...
gave a speech entitled "Reflections on Urban America to the Commonwealth Club of California" on the subject of the Los Angeles riots. In this speech, Quayle blamed the violence on a decay of moral values and family structure in American society. In an aside, he cited the title character in the television program Murphy Brown as an example of how popular culture contributes to this "poverty of values", saying, "It doesn't help matters when prime time TV has Murphy Brown – a character who supposedly epitomizes today's intelligent, highly paid, professional woman – mocking the importance of fathers, by bearing a child alone, and calling it just another 'lifestyle choice'. English responded with a statement that read: "If the vice president thinks it's disgraceful for an unmarried woman to bear children (out of wedlock), and if he believes that a woman cannot adequately raise a child without a father, then he'd better make sure abortion remains safe and legal." In 2002, Candice Bergen, the actress who played Brown, said "I never have really said much about the whole episode, which was endless, but his speech was a perfectly intelligent speech about fathers not being dispensable and nobody agreed with that more than I did." This controversy along with the shifting times of that decade touched off a debate over the meaning of "
family values Family values, sometimes referred to as familial values, are traditional or cultural values that pertain to the family's structure, function, roles, beliefs, attitudes, and ideals. Additionally, the concept of family values may be understood ...
" of Americans during that election year in which
Bill Clinton William Jefferson Clinton (né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician and lawyer who was the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, ...
and
Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American former politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He previously served as ...
ran against
George H. W. Bush George Herbert Walker BushBefore the outcome of the 2000 United States presidential election, he was usually referred to simply as "George Bush" but became more commonly known as "George H. W. Bush", "Bush Senior," "Bush 41," and even "Bush th ...
and Dan Quayle. During the success of ''
Murphy Brown ''Murphy Brown'' is an American television sitcom created by Diane English that premiered on November 14, 1988, on CBS. The series stars Candice Bergen as the eponymous Murphy Brown, a famous investigative journalist and news presenter, news anch ...
'', her company, with Joel Shukovsky, Shukovsky English Entertainment, had set up a deal with
CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...
for a non-exclusive deal, giving them exclusive syndicated rights to future Shukovsky/English series, in 1991. English also created the comedy series '' Love & War'' (1992–1995), starring Susan Dey and Jay Thomas -
Annie Potts Anne Hampton Potts (born October 28, 1952) is an American actress. She was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for '' Corvette Summer'' (1978) and won a Genie Award for '' Heartaches'' (1981), before appearing in ''Ghostbusters'' (1984), ''Pretty ...
replaced Dey after the first season. Other series she co-created and/or executive produced include '' Double Rush'' (1995), '' Ink'' (1996), and '' The Louie Show'', starring
Louie Anderson Louis Perry Anderson (March 24, 1953 – January 21, 2022) was an American stand-up comedian, actor, author and game show host. He created the cartoon series ''Life with Louie'' and the television sitcom ''The Louie Show'', and wrote four books ...
(1996), and ''
Living in Captivity ''Living in Captivity'' is an American sitcom that aired on Fox on Friday nights from September 11, 1998 to October 16, 1998. Premise The series centered on the residents of the fictional gated community of Woodland Heights, California ...
'' (1998). Unfortunately, none of the series were picked up for more than a single season with ''The Louie Show'' lasting six episodes. As for '' Ink'', she took over the role from Jeffrey Lane, who initially came up with the concept of the series. In 2008, English wrote, produced and directed '' The Women'', her feature film debut. The comedy, a remake of the 1939
George Cukor George Dewey Cukor ( ; July 7, 1899 – January 24, 1983) was an American film director and film producer, producer. He mainly concentrated on comedies and literary adaptations. His career flourished at RKO Pictures, RKO when David O. Selzn ...
film of the same name, stars Meg Ryan,
Annette Bening Annette Carol Bening (born May 29, 1958) is an American actress. With a career spanning over four decades, she is known for List of Annette Bening performances, her versatile work across screen and stage. Bening has received List of awards an ...
,
Eva Mendes Eva de la Caridad Méndez (, ; born March 5, 1974), known professionally as Eva Mendes, is a retired American actress. Her acting career began in the late 1990s with a series of roles in films such as '' Children of the Corn V: Fields of Terror ...
,
Debra Messing Debra Lynn Messing (born August 15, 1968) is an American actress. After graduating from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Messing starred in the television series ''Ned and Stacey'' on Fox Broadcasting Company, Fox (1995–1997) an ...
, and
Jada Pinkett Smith Jada Koren Pinkett Smith (née Pinkett; born September 18, 1971) is an American actress, businesswoman, and talk show host. She is co-host of the Facebook Watch talk show ''Red Table Talk'', for which she has won a Daytime Emmy Awards, Daytim ...
. It was released to mostly negative reviews but its box office tripled its budget when worldwide markets were factored in. That same year English and the ensemble cast of '' The Women'' were honored with the
Women in Film Women are involved in the film industry in all roles, including as film directors, actor, actresses, cinematographers, film producers, film criticism, film critics, and other film industry professions, though women have been underrepresented in ...
Crystal A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macros ...
award which honors women in communications and media.


Filmography


Awards and nominations


References


External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:English, Diane 1948 births Living people Screenwriters from New York (state) American women television producers American television writers American women film directors Buffalo State College alumni Film directors from New York (state) Writers from Buffalo, New York Primetime Emmy Award winners American showrunners Television producers from New York (state) American women screenwriters American women television writers Writers Guild of America Award winners 20th-century American screenwriters 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American screenwriters 21st-century American women writers