Date of airing: December 5, 1988 (CBS)
Nielsen ratings information: 20.4 million viewers, 13.6/20 in Households
written by: Diane English
directed by: Barnet Kellman
In which the writers decided for Murphy to have an ex-husband all of a sudden, because 1980s television is simply like that – you do not know anything about the characters until the episode comes for which that information is vital and is part of the storyline, before it is forgotten again by the next episode. I am almost sure that Jake will never be mentioned again after this half hour, let alone the fact that Murphy was married once, although the show can certainly be surprising, judging by the emotional depth of Miles's story in the previous episode.
But it is not like Murphy got married thrice before she turned 30, therefore creating a running joke, so her story with Jake could essentially just be a joke for 30 minutes and then it will never be mentioned again. Because the five-day marriage is somewhat useless as a sitcom device, and even useless as a character back story for Murphy. If she would have told everyone she was married once before earlier than this episode, it would have meant something to her. But the series is four episodes in and the writers decided it was good enough for the premise of the episode, so it does not mean anything to anyone.
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| Children today will not know what a drive-in speaker is. |
Jake was a boring character. He looked too pretty for this
1980s show, and he very much looked like a typical white male TV guest
star would look like when the writers need a male hunk for
one of their female leads for an episode (maybe two), so that they can
get into some naughtiness in bed or through dialogue exchange. While I
kind of loved that Murphy was constantly horny during her conversations
with Jake (understandable, even if Jake's looks are a cliche for this time), and the episode was pretty much working with innuendos
nonstop, the guy himself was a flake, and I do not understand what
Murphy saw and still sees in him. Yeah, the guy is attractive enough for
1980s standards, but what else did he have to offer? He did not sound
like he was a liberal rebel, and the writers generally neglected to give
the guy some depth to make me understand what makes him tick, and why
Murphy fell and is still falling for him. There has to be more about the dude than just his looks.
But yeah, the sex jokes were hilarious. I laughed during Eldin’s “dress backwards” comment, and, apparently, so did the audience (as well as Candice Bergen who could not hide the fact that Eldin's joke was hilarious), and I chuckled when Murphy realized she did not have a backdoor, and Eldin came out of what I assume is the kitchen. It almost looked to me like even the cast had an awesome moment during that scene – Candice Bergen had to hold back her laughter, making me feel that MURPHY BROWN was indeed shot in front of a live audience, and that the laughter is not just coming out of a laugh box, because maybe the live audience was not entertained enough during the comedy bits (I am looking at you, Disney Channel sitcoms). No wonder the show was an immediate hit with the viewers, considering the comedy feels natural already, and the cast was in their roles from the beginning, looking like they had fun.
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| Where have all the chest-haired men gone? |
But again, the other characters come up short. All I want is something involving Corky that has nothing to do with whichever funny tabloid story for FYI the writers come up with for her this time around (well, at least it’s a running gag), and maybe even something with Jim that is more than just his straight face doing a straight comment about something weird. Those two, plus Frank, are supposed to be Murphy’s (workplace) friends, but they are not really involved in any of her stories, let alone their own stories, making them side shows at best. I guess I am going to have to wait half a season until something changes in that regard?
