The Unwed Mother of All TV Battles : Television: The furor involving Vice President Dan Quayle and “Murphy Brown” illustrates the impact that TV can have as a social force.

It is absolutely true that Hollywood is well-populated with liberal-minded TV producers, some of them almost as high-profile as their stars: Steven Bochco, Norman Lear, Barney Rosenzweig, Linda Bloodworth-Thomason and the woman of the moment, Diane English.

English is the creator of “Murphy Brown,” which on Tuesday drew the fire of Vice President Dan Quayle, one of its occasional targets, because the heroine, a TV journalist played by Candice Bergen, had a baby out of wedlock in the season finale.

On Wednesday, President Bush said he declined “to get into the details of a very popular television show,” although he believed that children “should have the benefit of being born into families with a mother and father.” White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater at first agreed with Quayle but then said he didn’t mean to criticize the series, adding:

“The ‘Murphy Brown’ show is an excellent show. . . . Candice Bergen is my personal favorite.”

In the series, Brown decided in last fall’s season-opening episode that she would have the baby rather than abort it, which Fitzwater said was a “responsible decision.”

All this over a TV show.

And once again, it illustrates the enormous impact TV can have as a social force with its huge viewing constituencies that any politician could only envy.

But while liberal producers now have tremendous input in the new Hollywood--much as conservatives once dominated the town--the fact is that the rules here are much the same as anywhere, including Washington: Clout is the name of the game. You can have the greatest ideas in the world, but without muscle, they’ll never see the light of day.

Bochco, whose series include “Civil Wars,” earned his clout through “Hill Street Blues” and “L.A. Law.” Lear, represented now by the political series “The Powers That Be,” became a legend with “All in the Family.” Rosenzweig, producer of “The Trials of Rosie O’Neill,” formerly had “Cagney & Lacey.” Bloodworth’s success with “Designing Women” opened the door for episodes such as the one in which she opened fire on Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas following his Senate showdown with Anita Hill.

And English had the kind of clout that producers dream about: In the bottom-line world of TV, she had in “Murphy Brown” the cornerstone series that would help bring a last-place network back to No. 1 status in the ratings. It would be the centerpiece of the most powerful lineup in TV--CBS’ Monday schedule of “Evening Shade,” “Major Dad,” “Murphy Brown,” “Designing Women” and “Northern Exposure.”

Furthermore, it would help propel CBS’ stock significantly upward since the network’s success this season.

And, as in Washington, the final measure of “Murphy Brown’s” clout with the public would be counted in votes--which are tallied in TV through the ratings. The season finale Monday drew38 million viewers, representing 35% of all the TV viewers in America. Only the season opener, in which the TV newswoman learned that she was definitely pregnant by her ex-husband, drew a higher rating--tops in the show’s four-year history.

The speech in which the vice president referred to the series dealt with values in America. A headline in the New York Daily News on Wednesday read: “Quayle to Murphy Brown: You Tramp!” The Philadelphia Daily News observed: “Murphy Has a Baby . . . Quayle Has a Cow.” From the Boston Herald: “Dan Raps Murphy’s Flaw.”

While a great number of TV viewers have cast their vote with English, there are certainly others who have not approved of the unwed pregnancy story line, including some Times’ readers, who are among those who have registered their pro and con opinions of the plot development since last year.

One of the objections in their letters, as well as from some critical phone-callers, is that the pregnancy by an obviously intelligent, well-off professional would set a bad example for less sophisticated young women who might be influenced.

As viewers of the May 11 episode of “Murphy Brown” know, this view did not deter some of the most famous real-life women journalists in TV from appearing on that show. For in that episode, Murphy Brown was given a baby shower attended by all the women co-hosts of the morning network news series: Katie Couric of NBC’s “Today,” Joan Lunden of ABC’s “Good Morning America” and Paula Zahn of “CBS This Morning.” Also attending were other real-life TV newswomen: Faith Daniels and Mary Alice Williams.

A top CBS executive said last fall that the network was nervous about the unwed pregnancy story line, and he expressed relief that English had not chosen to have Murphy Brown get an abortion. English herself said recently that she knew she was gambling with the series’ future. But she said most of the letters she saw were concerned about the plot’s impact on Brown’s character “and not about what a terrible thing a single, unwed mother was.”

Among recent letters we have received about the controversy, Dr. Robert S. Ellison, an obstetrician in Arcadia, wrote that the series “implicitly condones unprotected sex between uncommitted individuals. To my view, this is hardly a scenario that should be depicted to any audience while we all are in the midst of a death-dealing disease, AIDS. . . .

“As an obstetrician who knows first-hand the bleak future of the overwhelming number of single women with a child, I deplore the message sent by the show.”

Another reader, Sherry Barber of Whittier, responding to English’s description of the series’ future direction and the relationship between Brown and her child, wrote:

“I personally agree that ‘Murphy Brown’ should not become a baby-centered sitcom, but to talk about Murphy’s infant as if he is a prop is disturbing. . . . It would be appropriate and believable for Murphy to continue mouthing off in the workplace, with even stronger motivation now that she has a baby to defend, to protect, to deal with . . . . Maternal instinct just might render Murphy more competitive and irreverent than ever.”

Despite TV’s increasing frankness about sex and language, the networks have in fact presented numerous series in recent years espousing traditional family values with contemporary twists, including “The Cosby Show,” “Rose-anne,” “Growing Pains,” “Major Dad,” “Brooklyn Bridge” and “thirtysomething.”

Nonetheless, Madison Avenue makes it clear that certain subjects, such as abortion, remain among the touchiest to sell to sponsors. “Murphy Brown” has the commercial cushion of being a proven hit with a devoted audience. And even by sidestepping the abortion issue, it has made TV history by presenting a slice of modern life that is increasingly common: the situation of unmarried women who decide to give birth.

It’s a long way from TV’s most famous birth of the past--when Little Ricky was born on “I Love Lucy” in January of 1953.