English began her career at
WNET, 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, an adaptation of
Ursula K. Le Guin'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 and
Jon Lovitz. 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, starring
Pam Dawber which lasted for two seasons with 12 episodes that never aired before being cancelled. In 1988, she created the CBS television series
Murphy Brown, for which she won three
Emmy Awards (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. 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" of Americans during that election year in which
Bill Clinton and
Al Gore ran against
George H. W. Bush and Dan Quayle. During the success of
Murphy Brown, her company, with
Joel Shukovsky, Shukovsky English Entertainment, had set up a deal with
CBS 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 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 (1996), and
Living in Captivity (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 film of the same name, stars
Meg Ryan,
Annette Bening,
Eva Mendes,
Debra Messing, and
Jada Pinkett Smith. 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 Crystal award which honors women in communications and media. == Filmography ==