Edward R. Murrow - Murrow in Popular Culture

Murrow in Popular Culture

  • Murrow played himself in the 1960 film Sink the Bismarck!
  • The 1960 cartoon short Person To Bunny, featuring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Elmer Fudd, is a parody of Murrow's Person to Person TV show. However, "Murrow" (identified as "Cedric R. Burrows") is only seen with his back facing to the audience.
  • In 1986, HBO broadcast the made-for-cable biographical movie, Murrow, with Daniel J. Travanti in the title role, and Robert Vaughn in a supporting role.
  • Murrow was parodied as newscaster Edward R. Hero in the animated ABC sitcom Dinosaurs 1992 episode "And the Winner Is...".
  • In the BBC sitcom Goodnight Sweetheart 1995 episode "Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea", Murrow appears as the man who time traveler Gary Sparrow uses to tip off the Americans of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.
  • In 1998, the final episode of Murphy Brown had Murphy meeting Edward R. Murrow while visiting Heaven. Computer editing was used to insert footage of the real Murrow into the show. On a number of occasions during the show's 1988–98 run, newscaster Jim Dial refers to Murrow and other news legends, suggesting that they would join him in lamenting the state of current television. Eventually, responding to his question of "What would Edward R. Murrow say? What would Eric Sevareid say?" Corky Sherwood, tired of Jim's criticisms, responds, "They wouldn't say anything, Jim. You know why? Because they're dead!"
  • In the 1999 film The Insider, Lowell Bergman, a television producer for the CBS news magazine 60 Minutes, played by Al Pacino, is confronted by Mike Wallace, played by Christopher Plummer, after an exposé of the tobacco industry is edited down to suit CBS management and then, itself, gets exposed in the press for the self-censorship. Wallace passes Bergman an editorial printed in The New York Times, which accuses CBS of betraying the legacy of Edward R. Murrow.
  • On their 2003 album Say You Will, Fleetwood Mac recorded a song called "Murrow Turning Over in His Grave", referring to him as an icon of responsible journalism.
  • Good Night, and Good Luck is a 2005 Oscar-nominated film directed, co-starring and co-written by George Clooney about the conflict between Murrow and Joseph McCarthy on See It Now. Murrow is portrayed by actor David Strathairn, who received an Oscar nomination. In the film, Murrow's conflict with CBS boss Bill Paley occurs immediately after his skirmish with McCarthy.
  • In Seinfeld season 8, episode 9, "The Abstinence", it is revealed that Jerry and George both attended Edward R. Murrow Junior High.
  • On The Daily Show during the 2012 election night, Murrow was in the intro in the form of a hologram.

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