During the mid-1990s, Reubens played a recurring role on the TV series "Murphy Brown". The role earned him positive reviews and his first and only non-Pee-wee Emmy nomination, for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series. He appeared six times on the show between 1995 and 1997. Afterward, Reubens began working on an NBC pilot entitled "Meet the Muckles", a show that would be based on "You Can't Take It with You". The project got stuck in development hell, and was later dropped when Reubens' ideas grew too elaborate and expensive, although Philip Rosenthal blamed NBC's negative response on Reubens being on a "blacklist".