Frank surprises Murphy on her 42nd birthday...

Frank surprises Murphy on her 42nd birthday with the sister she always wanted, but now is not too thrilled about having on “Murphy Brown,” Nov. 26 at 9 p.m. on CBS. Christine Ebersole, who starred on “Saturday Night Live” and the CBS series “The Cavanaughs,” guests as the actress Frank hires to play Murphy’s little sister.

“Northern Exposure,” CBS’ summer series has gone back into production in Bellevue, Wash., as a mid-season replacement. The comedy-drama stars Rob Morrow as a New York medical graduate who moves to Alaska to repay the state that financed his education.

Keenen Ivory Wayans will take a break from his Emmy Award-winning Fox series “In Living Color” to host the 18th annual “The American Music Awards” Jan. 28 on ABC.

Ricky Paul Goldin has joined the cast of NBC’s “Another World” as Dean Frame, a troubled “street-smart” teen-ager who drops in on his cousin Frankie (Alice Barrett) and her husband Cass (Stephen Schnetzer). Dean decides to stay in Bay City in hopes of becoming a successful rock star.

William Christian and Gregory Grodon, who play the recurring characters Detective Derek Frye and high school student Brian Bodine on ABC’s “All My Children,” have become contract players with developing storylines.

Showtime has ordered 13 episodes of a new animated international children’s series, “We All Have Tales,” to premiere early next year. The series, for youngsters ages 4 to 8, will feature children’s tales from different nations. Denzel Washington, Ben Kingsley, Kathleen Turner and William Hurt are scheduled narrators, and Dave Stewart of the Eurythmics, Mark Isham, Lyle Mays and Ravi Shankar are set to score the 30-minute episodes.

Warner Bros. and Fox affiliates have announced three new animated series: “Beetlejuice,” “TAZ--MANIA” and “Batman.” “Beetlejuice” will debut as a Monday-Friday show next fall. “TAZ--MANIA,” starring the Tasmanian Devil of Looney Tunes fame, will be a Saturday morning show next fall. “Batman” will consist of 65 new half-hour episodes. No premiere date has been set.

Production has begun on a new season of NBC’s dramatic law series “Shannon’s Deal” for airing next year. Academy Award-winner Ernest Thompson (“On Golden Pond”), Joan Tewkesbury (“Nashville”), Eric Hughes (“Against All Odds”), Kit Carson (“Paris, Texas”), Tom Rickman (“Coal Miner’s Daughter”) and Gene Corr (“Desert Bloom”) are among the guest writers on the series. Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz, author of the best-seller “Reversal of Fortune,” is the series’ legal consultant. Director-writer John Sayles, the series’ creator, will return as creative consultant.