CBS' Murphy Brown revival has already reassembled most of the main cast of the original, and now it's finally found the actor who'll play Murphy's now-grown son, Avery, along with one new character. Jake McDorman will be filling the role of adult Avery, while Nik Dodani will play newcomer Pat.
The news was revealed today that Jake McDorman has signed on to play Avery in the Murphy Brown revival when it hits CBS. According to The Hollywood Reporter, Avery is a regular chip off the ol' block, and has followed in his mother's journalistic footsteps. The character also shares many of her main personality traits, and is described as being very competitive and having a sharp, quick wit, much like Murphy.
Fans of the original run of Murphy Brown will remember that Avery was named after her opinionated mother, who had died in the season prior to the character giving birth. The birth of the character's son set off some real-world controversy, seeing as how Murphy was unmarried when she became pregnant and decided to raise the child alone after telling Avery's father and finding out that he wasn't interested in being a parent. Vice President Dan Quayle publicly criticized the character for making the decision to parent without having a father in her son's life. That, in turn, fed a storyline for the comedy where the fictional news program Murphy worked for created a special episode that celebrated the diversity of modern families, which used actual footage of Quayle's speech.
Jake McDorman is best known for his starring role on the CBS reboot of the film Limitless, which aired a few seasons ago. The actor has racked up 30 film and television credits since making his TV debut on Run of the House in 2003, and has also appeared in House, CSI: Miami, Live Free or Die Hard, Greek, Shameless, American Sniper and Manhattan Love Story. McDorman was most recently seen in the Oscar nominated film Lady Bird.
Joining Jake McDorman as a newcomer to Murphy Brown will be Nik Dodani, who'll play Pat on the revival. Pat will be in charge of bringing the reporters and anchors at FYI into the modern day as their director of social media. Considering how Murphy has displayed a history of disliking it when youngsters tell her what to do, I expect that some pointed barbs will probably directed Pat's way as he tries to make her understand why social media is important when she's been excelling as a journalist for decades without it.
Nik Dodani is most recognizable from his part as Zahid in Netflix's family dramedy Atypical, and has also been in Angie Tribeca, Idiotsitter, The Player, Kevin from Work, Selfie and The Comeback.
Right now, there's no word on how many episodes Jake McDorman and Nik Dodani will appear in, but we do know that the 13-episode revival of Murphy Brown will debut sometime during the 2018-2019 TV season. For more on what you can watch right now, check out our midseason premiere guide, Netflix premiere guide, superhero show premiere guide and Amazon premiere guide.
