Ford to Sponsor Murphy Brown Episode

Ford Motor Co. will be the exclusive sponsor of “Murphy Brown” on Wednesday for an episode that deals with breast cancer. Corporate sponsorships of network specials and blockbuster movies are fairly common, but it’s still rare for individual episodes of prime-time comedy series to attract a single sponsor. During commercial breaks on the CBS broadcast, Ford will present educational information provided by the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation. In the episode, series star Candice Bergen will return to work following breast cancer surgery. Just a few nights later, a character on Fox-TV’s “Party of Five” will be diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease, the same type of cancer that took the life of former NBC executive Brandon Tartikoff.