Date of airing: November 14, 1988 (CBS)
Nielsen ratings information: 19.2 million viewers, 14.7/22 in Households
written by: Diane English
directed by: Barnet Kellman
Once upon a time, I watched most of the first season of MURPHY BROWN, and I was intrigued enough to have been researching the digital availability of the entire show, only to find out that only the first season was ever released on DVD, while the remaining nine seasons never saw the light of day on physical or streaming media. Years later, after the revival season aired for a couple of handful of episodes in 2018, after a pandemic fried the brains of so many people, and amid a planet dying from heat exhaustion, I finally grabbed the show by its balls and decided to watch it from beginning to end. I might still be a virgin when it comes to going through a long-living network television sitcom, or at least those that are longer than six, seven seasons – yes, I watched FRIENDS back in the day, but I was never in the mood for an all-white middle America sitcom with a bunch of idiots in it, listening to the same jokes over and over, so most of the sitcoms were far away from my interests back then and today.
So MURPHY BROWN is it, simply because it is not about an all-white middle America with a bunch of idiots in it. A female main character, a potentially political story here and there (the Trump era has fired up my interest in politics in general), and the simple notion that the show is set in a newsroom (of sorts) makes it already a series I would have watched anytime, anywhere. It is the kind of show Aaron Sorkin already wrote (and I liked both iterations of it – STUDIO 60 ON THE SUNSET STRIP and THE NEWSROOM), and it was the reason I decided to get into MURPHY BROWN the first time around, but only the first season exists on DVD, which means I had to spend some time looking for the entire series. Well, you are reading this wall of text now, which means I was successful in my search.
 |
| "Mike Wallace in a dress" is back, and she is ready to put fire to anyone who does not answer her questions. |
The premiere was solid. I surprisingly laughed a few times, and the episode even worked in the way a proper pilot episode should, with Murphy coming back to work after a stint in rehab, needing to work her way back up in the newsroom food chain again, and having to deal with multiple characters who are new to her. While the writing might have missed out on making Murphy a character with some serious issues (she just came back from rehab, so I guess alcohol and tobacco might have been a problematic health issue for her?), the drama of Murphy’s backstory had to vanish immediately for the sake of humor and a theater stage-like performance. This simply could not have been a show with at least a little bit of drama in it, because MURPHY BROWN is not about wanting its audience to witness the eponymous character's downfall in life.
However, the episode made clear that the series likes to attempt some serious storytelling for a couple of minutes. After all, you will not find Murphy's backstory on a lot of other sitcoms, and the story of Bobby Powell having to live through the shame and celebrity status of having had an affair with another woman who happened to be pursuing a political career (oh hey, MURPHY BROWN is a 1980s sitcom that established there was a woman vice presidential candidate). Murphy’s interview with Bobby could have been an example of how a story in this sitcom is used for a serious attempt at a narrative and depicting 1980s politics (albeit fictional politics), but what does a show look like to a general audience when you focus too much on politics in the long run? Maybe one of the unwritten rules of television was to be apolitical, which meant that MURPHY BROWN was treading new ground already.
Then again, the series made it clear that it was threading fictional politics, even if name-dropping a couple of real-life personalities (like Jane Pauley, who was then a co-anchor on NBC's TODAY, possibly getting the interview with Bobby). And with that, the series established a setting and genre to fill its episodes with, and the writers were able to choose which way they wanted to go: They had a workplace comedy, they had a political premise, and they had a character battling her demons of the past – filling a series with three different pathways during the first episode is a hard thing to do, and MURPHY BROWN excelled at that.
However, the characters besides Murphy could have been introduced a little
better. While I appreciate that the show starts with Murphy
being the central character (it is her show after all), I do not know anything about her colleagues yet. Okay, maybe Miles got a little bit of depth as the mid-Twentysomething executive producer with something to prove, but that
happened automatically, after he had the second-most amount of
screentime of the entire cast. But I guess the show will have its time
to make the other characters worthy to be part of Murphy Brown’s life,
beginning with Miles and him being Murphy's boss (the age difference
is a factor that could lead to some comedy), and ending with the beauty queen co-anchor who likes to report about the dark side of liposuction. I can only hope the writers
were not waiting for ages to introduce the rest of the character pool and give them meaningful storylines.
 |
| Everybody is listening in to the pre-interview. |
Anyway, the episode was funny. I loved the idea of Murphy disappointing and proving her colleagues right at the same time (all the bets that have been placed on her behavior, and all the money that was flowing from one hand to another after she made a particular statement) gave me joy, and it almost looks like a running gag available for future episodes. I also loved the eavesdropping moment of the entire bar, when Murphy asked Bobby the big question. While that moment certainly proved the show was not interested in grounded realism, it is at least visual comedy.
After the first 27 minutes, MURPHY BROWN looks like it is not going to be a sitcom waiting for the punchline at the end of the line, but instead focus on the physicality of the scene (the money, secretary Robert’s meltdown, the bright light that shines through the open door into the bar, Murphy uncovering all of the hidden boxes of cigarettes in her office), and that is already very likable and charming about the show.
