Bergen crossed over as Murphy Brown on the short-lived ‘90s sitcom “Ink,” which the celebrity couple headlined.

Ted Danson recalls ‘full on kiss’ with costar Candice Bergen — and Mary Steenburgen says he still has ‘fantasies’ about it

Bergen crossed over as Murphy Brown on the short-lived ‘90s sitcom “Ink,” which the celebrity couple headlined.

By Rance Collins

July 11, 2026 5:32 p.m. ET

Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen; Candice Bergen. Credit:

Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic; Scott Kirkland/Disney via Getty

- Real-life couple Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen starred on the short-lived sitcom *Ink* in the mid-1990s.

- Candice Bergen crossed over for one episode, playing Murphy Brown, whose series aired on the same Monday night CBS comedy block.

- Steenburgen said that “Ted’s had a lot of fantasies about” the kiss Danson and Bergen shared on the episode.

You may not remember *Ink*, but Ted Danson most certainly does.

The sitcom, which aired for one season between 1996 and 1997 and starred Danson alongside his real-life wife, Mary Steenburgen, was set in the same universe as the CBS megahit sitcom *Murphy Brown*, in which Candice Bergen famously played the title character (and won five Emmys doing so).

*Ink* was a modern-day approximation of the classic screwball comedies of Hollywood’s Golden Age (think *His Girl Friday*), taking place in a newspaper office (hence *Ink* being the title) and having Danson as a columnist at the *New York Sun* who happens to have his ex-wife, Steenburgen, as his boss.

The show might have been canceled, but proficient internet users *might* be able to YouTube well enough to find the complete series online. But anyway.

Candice Bergen, Ted Danson, and Mary Steenburgen on ‘Ink’.

The behind-the-scenes saga was fraught from the series’ inception. According to reporting from The Desert Sun, the troubled show was picked up and had filmed several episodes before completely rebooting with a new head writer, *Murphy Brown*’s Diane English, who was also then credited as the creator instead of original showrunner Jeffrey Lane. Apparently, the first pilot was maligned by critics, with specific criticism aimed at the show’s office still using typewriters. But that version is now sitting in a vault somewhere, having never aired.

The series was placed on CBS’ Monday night lineup, the same night as *Murphy Brown*, as well as other hit sitcoms like *Cosby*, *Cybill*, and — in its first season — *Everybody Loves Raymond**. *Bergen crossed over onto *Ink *in the penultimate episode, appropriately titled “Murphy’s Law.”

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Danson recalled on the podcast *Where Everybody Knows Your Name*, alongside cohost Steenburgen and guest Bergen, that he and Bergen shared a liplock on that episode, one he said he had problems finding evidence of online.

“I looked that up this morning on Google, and they have no record of it. But I do believe we even kissed. I’m just saying,” Danson said.

“I think we did — very chastely,” Bergen added.

“I think in Ted’s mind it was much, much more,” Steenburgen imputed.

“It was full-on. It was a full-on kiss, Candice,” Ted continued.

Steenburgen seemed to indicate the legend of the kiss lived on. “I think Ted’s had a lot of fantasies about it,” she laughed.

Danson sarcastically waxed on, “And then she tilted her chin up just...”

“Oh, I love that. It didn’t even make Google, but in your mind it was like the hottest scene in all of television,” Steenburgen chuckled.

Careful research indicated that the kiss did indeed happen, and it was indeed steamy enough to elicit yelps from the live studio audience.

“Oh yeah,” says Danson’s character Mike Logan after they kiss. “All right,” Murphy replies, excitedly pumping her fists.

Mary Steenburgen says ‘Book Club’ cast are her closest friends, they miss Diane Keaton

Candice Bergen looks back on the time she burned down ‘the nicest restaurant’ in Switzerland

Steenburgen would reunite with Bergen on the big screen in the *Book Club* movies, also with Jane Fonda and Diane Keaton, forming a lasting friendship.

“By the time we finished that [first] scene, I felt like something was happening,” Steenburgen recently told PEOPLE. “You could just feel, ‘These women are going to be friends of mine.’ And they became three of my life’s closest friends.”

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