It’s Murphy Brown’s Turn to Lecture Vice President : Television: Show mixes fiction and reality as the Candice Bergen character responds to Quayle on family values issue.

Monday night it was Murphy Brown’s turn to lecture Dan Quayle--and she did so with gusto, telling him that “what really defines a family is commitment, caring and love.”

Television’s most celebrated single mom--who became a cause celebre last May after Quayle accused her of glorifying single motherhood and mocking the importance of fathers--mocked the importance of the vice president.

Quayle, meanwhile, stuck by his guns, calling the show “basically another Hollywood campaign contribution to Bill Clinton.”

In a special hourlong season premiere that was an eerie blend of fantasy and reality, the star of the CBS sitcom, a fictional anchorwoman, urged Quayle to redefine his “family values” campaign.

In fact, Quayle has already tried to do that. GOP research shows his use of the issue seemed to alienate more voters than it attracted.

Quayle has avoided the phrase entirely lately, heeding critics’ contentions that it excludes all but “Ozzie and Harriet” families. He now refers to “traditional values” or “basic values” and will no longer speak of “family values,” aides said Monday.

On the show Brown, played by Candice Bergen, watches actual news footage of Quayle’s speech and reacts angrily.

“It’s Dan Quayle! Forget about it,” a friend tells her. “ . . . This is a man who gave a speech at the United Negro College Fund and said, ‘What a waste it is to lose one’s mind.’ . . . “

Near the end of the show, Brown speaks to the audience in character, as an anchorwoman:

“The vice president said he thought it was important to open a dialogue on family values and on that point we agree. . . .

“Perhaps it’s time for the vice president to . . . recognize that, whether by choice or by circumstance, families come in all shapes and sizes. And ultimately what really defines a family is commitment, caring and love.”

The scene ends with Brown strolling over to a group of real single parents and their children. “I’d like to introduce you to some people who might not fit into the vice president’s vision of a family,” she says. “But they consider themselves families nonetheless. They work. They struggle. They hope for the same life for their children that we all want for our children.”

Quayle, who watched the show with about a dozen people, including five single parents, told a sidewalk press conference in Washington: “Hollywood still doesn’t get it.”

He contended, as he has before, that his comments last May were misinterpreted. “I have never criticized single mothers,” he said, noting that at times both his grandmother and his sister were single mothers because of divorce.

Quayle’s remarks were almost drowned out by about 50 pro-Clinton protesters who booed and shouted, “Four more months!”

Last May, in a speech to the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, Quayle said Brown’s decision to have a child alone mocked the importance of fathers and glamorized single motherhood.

Quayle had tried to lighten his running feud with the show, even sending a note and a baby gift--a stuffed elephant--to the fictional newborn. But producers said the gift would be forwarded, unopened, to a homeless shelter.

During the show, a haggard Brown watches footage of Quayle’s speech in her pajamas. She hasn’t showered in days because she’s been too busy caring for her baby. When Quayle says her decision to have a child out of wedlock glamorizes single motherhood Brown gasps: “Glamorized single motherhood? What planet is he on?”

Turning to her guest--who unexpectedly dropped in--she says, “Look at me, Frank. Am I glamorous?”

“Of course not,” he says. “You’re disgusting.”

Quayle came in for repeated ridicule, including from ditzy reporter Corky Sherwood Forest. “I was raised to believe if you had a child out of wedlock you were bad,” she says. “Of course, I was also raised to believe that a woman’s place is in the home, segregation is good and presidents never lie. Oh, this is so confusing.”

Earlier in the day, Quayle’s press secretary, David Beckwith, acknowledged that the vice president has been drawn into a running battle with a fictional character that could easily verge on the ludicrous.

“It’s true that fiction and reality have become blurred,” Beckwith said. “But that’s the way it is in a campaign.”

Braxton reported from Los Angeles, Broder from Washington.