Murphy Brown (1988-1998)

It IS Murphy Brown!

The show played a lot of different songs throughout, which meant stations did not want to pay for musical rights, so it died in syndication.

Not a fan.

I once had a friend who tried to be Murphy Brown during the time it aired. Dressed like her, talked like her, made the same jokes. She used to come over to our house with her family on Christmas Eve and it was like she walked right out of a sitcom.

R4 what does she do now?

Corky Sherwood married a guy named Forest, so now she’s Corky Sherwood Forest.

[quote]The show played a lot of different songs throughout, which meant stations did not want to pay for musical rights, so it died in syndication.

Not to mention, the show was very topical and quite dated after a few years.

R7 true, but some of the political jokes were petty funny.

Colleen Dewhurst.

Aged like milk. Never really that funny. Was placeholder TV like M*A*S*H. Just passable enough to keep on in the background while doing laundry until something better aired.

It doesn't have much of a reputation considering it was on for a solid ten years.

Loved MB. So clever and on the pulse politically. Candice B. came off a little lesbianish. Yay. The show was so solid and fun.

Also I think she won Emmy like five years in a row, then took herself out of the race.

Unlike 9 time winner Julia Dreyfuss, VEEP. JLD is excellent, one of the best comedic actors. But yeah after year six or so the Emmy audience was like in slow clap mode.

True R10 I agree it doesn’t hold up well

Sharp at the time

It's unwatchable...jokey and obnoxious about it.

EVERY character was fake.

"It doesn't have much of a reputation considering it was on for a solid ten years."

While I enjoyed a lot of it, it was always referencing DC of the day - issues, politicians, personalities, places. It was bound to not hold up well.

I liked Charles Kimbrough as stuffy, stiff, and straight laced Jim Dial. Based on Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, Dan Rather, Jim Lehr, er. at.

I believe he was the only Republican on the show, but he was a moderate. He put the facts and information first, politics second.

R7 - Bea Arthur

I saw a couple of episodes in reruns when it was in syndication. Who was the audience for this? Was it mostly women?

R18 uppity DC elites

R18 - it was for “The Smart Set” - that’s a compliment. Monday nights for years in the 80s Murphy Brown, Newhart, Designing Women , Evening Shade and Cagney & Lacey ……. Murphy Brown was so topical that the reruns are like reading old People Magazines.

I really enjoyed the first season or so, but the female showrunner seemed to end up really disliking her own main character. Murphy got harsher and less likeable the longer it went on, and it didn't make it funnier.

R10- The show was for Baby Boomers/Yuppies.

MAD magazine dubbed it [italic]Murky Brown[/italic]. 😁

I miss the Gaines publishers. Mad's gone downhill since then.

R22 yeah, it featured a lot of Motown hits.

Great show.

Whenever I attempted to watch, I would inevitably turn the channel to Nick at Nite and watch The Mary Tyler Moore Show instead.

It was a great show for its time, but I agree that it hasn't aged well. Even at the time, I never understood why Candace Bergen was considered a great comic actress. I always thought she was beautiful, but had the emotive ability of a brick. Credit should go to her costars and great scripts that made her look good.

My favorite line from the series was right after Murphy had her baby and she was talking to Frank about how weird lactation was: "It's like finding out you can pull bacon from your elbow!"

I seem to recall the actor who played Miles, Grant Shaud, had some rumors going around about diddling teenage boys. There was some talk of him bringing teen tricks to the set and the cast and crew being creeped out. Does anyone else remember this?

The funnest part of the show was the endless secretaries. Even that got old though.

Many of the characters went to the Estelle Ghetty school of acting. Move in place and shout your lines.

My boomer dad, who never watched Murphy Brown nonetheless hated it. “Women acting like men!”

R29 People have to realize that these multi-camera sitcoms of the late 20th century were shot in front of a live studio audience (like a play) so that's who the actors are playing to.

Why did most sitcoms of the time not employ that style of acting, then?

Candace Bergen is more wooden than her brother.

Ran far too long and exhausted its premise and storylines.

That was true after the pilot, R34.

R20, pretty much

As others have said, it was a very topical show and Washington DC-centric. It's very dated now.

I still watch it before bed on RewindTV so someone is shellin' out the money for the music. I loved the episodes with Gary Marshall as the TV executive.

It's nostalgic for me because I used to wear alot of clothes in that style. Yes, I'm a straight female.

I always enjoyed Murphy while it was on and later in reruns on Lifetime . I do remember that Grant Shaud got in trouble with some sex scandal. Do you remember when he was on that syndicated sitcom THROB about a a radio station? The magazines used to say that Grant Shaud and Jane Leeves were an item. …… I remember the guy playing Eldin committed suicide. Wow this was all so long ago!! …. Joe R will forever be Harry Fisher as in Harry and Sheila Fisher from Knots Landing - the couple who adopted Valene’s stolen twins. “Harry - they have come to take the BABIES!!!!”

I loved this show but even back then I thought it was so odd they shoehorned a baby in there. The last feeling I got from Murphy was a maternal instinct plus Candice Bergen was fully mid 40s when Murphy has the baby. Even today that's really pushing it, and I can say this bc I had my kid at 3 months shy of 40.

Had a huge crush on Miles.

JSome random thoughts: Joe Regalbuto can only ever be Blanche's daughter Becky's fat-shaming husband to me! I think his character on Murphy was supposed to have some romantic tension with Murphy but that never went anywhere. I haven't seen Candice Bergen in enough stuff outside of Murphy Brown to know whether or not her stiffness in both physicality and line delivery was a choice or just her natural way of moving/speaking. I found Faith Ford and Grant Shaud's characters funny on their own, but didn't like them being put together romantically, they were a little to akin to Julia Duffy and Peter Scolari's characters together on Newhart.

I was a kid when Murphy Brown was on and my Boomer parents loved it. All I can really remember is Murphy acting pissed off all the time and the topical references that were dated in five minutes.

Candice Bergen is just a formal and regal woman, so I can see how she seem cold or aloof, but I've watched her in enough movies and interviews to know that is just her.

Her favorite performance of mine was as Margaret Bourke-White in Gandhi (1982).

I was molested on a Murphy bed 🛏️

I was young when this came out and enjoyed the first few seasons - but as noted above, I never thought Candice Bergen was a good actress or even that funny. It was bizarre to see her win the Emmy five years. Very undeserved, beating out Golden Girls and Designing Women leads. I have to think maybe it was all the older people voting who knew her dad and recognized the name?

She has this halted delivery and breathes in very noticeably before giving a line.

I like her - but she has relatively little range. She definitely punched up well above her abilities.

[quote]I have to think maybe it was all the older people voting who knew her dad and recognized the name?

I think that was it, and she was a nepo baby. I was never a big fan of Designing Women, but all of the actresses on that show were much better than Candice, esp. Jean Smart. And of course Bea, Rue and Betty were phenomenal.

[quote] Her favorite performance of mine was as Margaret Bourke-White in Gandhi (1982).

Congratulations. How did you find out Bergen admired your performance in Ghandi?

r48 I'm not the poster you were replying to but you spelling and grammar school marms can eat shit.

And to think they made a movie about that deadbeat Gandhi when there's a story like this that hasn't been told.

I have always enjoyed Candice Bergen the most in “Sex and the City.” She has a small recurring role as Carrie’s (SJP) boss at Vogue - “Enid.” Her character doesn’t like Carrie very much. She thinks she’s kind of tacky for Vogue. Carrie also makes her feel old. She is very good in it ……. I remember that I used to like her on Boston Legal but I don’t remember the show at all.

I remember in the '90s I used to confuse Candice Bergen with Martha Stewart.

I couldn't tell them apart for the longest time.

R49 Geez. Unclench. It’s tedious to read the obsessive corrections of typos, but there’s no reason not to note when somebody’s struggle with English produces something absurd.

[quote]How did you find out Bergen admired your performance in Ghandi?

G-A-N-D-H-I

As I said above, I don’t find corrections of typos and misspellings interesting. So, the only glass house is yours.

I mostly remember it for the JFK,Jr cameo to plug “George” magazine and the ongoing house remodeling gag.

The actor who played her home contractor committed suicide.

"May," R49. "MAY eat shit."

R52 Add Cybill Shepherd to Candace Bergen and Martha Stewart and you will have quite a trio!

I always wondered why Grant Shaud left the show. It made no sense. I love Lily Tomlin but it just wasn’t the same without Miles.

I thought Candace has a nice presence in everything she did.

But acting is not her strong suit. I also never understood the multiple Emmy wins.

Best thing about the 2018 revival was Jake McDorman as a grown Avery Brown.

R61 I won’t disagree with you there on a thirst level. But the revival… my god. I had great memories of the show. And due to the aforementioned music rights issues, it kept those good memories deep in the past.

The “revival” put the entire thing in the garbage can. It was some of the worst TV I’ve ever seen.

I still can't believe they had Murphy suffering from breast cancer during the last season. It was such a downer.

R51 Yes, Candy is also in the episode with the infamous DL fav Lexi Featherstone, SPLAT!

Grant Shaud was cute!

I liked Phil, but I was into chubby older guys so there’s that.

The reboot was weird and unnecessary. I guess CBS was desperate at the time and thought the public wanted it, even though the show was a flop in syndication.

The show was never really all that funny. It was more smart. The Emmys kept voting for Bergen because she was sophisticated.

R67 agreed!

I watched it at the time. I never understood the love for Candice though. She can't act her way out of a paper bag. Everyone on the show was more entertaining and funnier than her. Plus she suffered from the Hazel Burke walk. Head down, arms a swinging, and in oh such a rush. When she was younger she was one of the most beautiful women ever. Then she hardened way to soon. Her hair dried out and her pig nose became too prominent. When she was young though she was something else.

The multiple Emmy wins for such forgettable fare are the biggest load of bullshit. What overrated crap.

Besides the Golden Girls and Designing Women actresses that she shut out with her wins, she also kept Blair Brown from winning with the groundbreaking "Molly Dodd," and beloved Marion Ross for the short-lived "Brooklyn Bridge."

On the plus side she blocked Roseanne 3 different years (she beat Candice once), Ellen DeGeneres once, and DL Cuntess Hall of Fame winner Patricia Richardson.

Marion Ross on Brooklyn Bridge, in fact the whole shoe, was one of the most egregious Emmy snubs ever.

It's a shame because an Emmy wins could have kept a quality show like Brooklyn Bridge on the air another season, maybe given it time to find an audience and squeak out enough episodes to get a second life in syndication.

Instead a typical Nepo baby like CB clears off yet another spot on her mantle for yet another gaudy paperweight to add to her collection. 30 years later no one remembers BB and what has CB done in the meantime? Coasted through a few recurring roles and guest spots will collecting her royalties.

Marion Ross deserved that Emmy.

I thought Bergen's stiffness worked for the character.

[quote]and DL Cuntess Hall of Fame winner Patricia Richardson.

Patricia Richardson has never been accused of being a cuntess. Are you sure you don't mean Patricia HEATON?

Hate Patricia Heaton all you want but she's a very talented actress. Especially in comedy. I know. Come for me Datalounge.

My bad, it was Patricia Heaton who was the cuntess, I always confuse them. Patricia Richardson did nothing wrong except inadvertently propel Tim Allen to stardom. She was robbed too!

R75 no one cares about her "talent," she's still a right-wing cunt.

Candice Bergen is a classy, sophisticated, and intelligent woman. Given her childhood, that is quite the achievement.

Not to completely derail the thread, probably too late I know, but in case you haven't seen Brooklyn Bridge someone put it up on YouTube

R79 thanks, I never heard of it until this thread, so I'm yearning to check it out.

It looks interesting, a period sitcom set in the 1950s.

I wish they'd gone that route with the GOLDEN GIRLS -- instead of GOLDEN PALACE, set the spinoff in postwar Brooklyn (c. late '40s) when Dorothy and Stan were high schoolers.

Estelle would reprise her role of Sophia sans aging makeup like she did in the GG flashbacks.

Never heard the rumors R27 mentioned. He was back for the reboot so I can't imagine he'd be asked back if he had a MeToo-ish accusation against him.

R27 is thinking of Robert Pastorelli who played Eldin.

Charles Kimbrough was in the original Company with Dean Jones, Madeline Kahn, George Coe, Beth Howland, John Cunningham, Barbara Barrie, and, of course, Elaine Stritch.

That's news to Madeline Kahn, r83.

I liked her.she wouldn't be afraid to admit her pussy stinks.

I liked the episode where Leslie Jordan is fresh out of prison. The staff feels bad for him, so they hire him as Murphy's secretary.

He was atrocious and the entire office hates him.

R84 no? She sang Getting Married Today.

This is the Leslie Jordan episode! Season 1 Episode 10, "Kyle."

Joe Regalbuto (Frank) is most known on DL as Jeremy, the jackass boyfriend of Rebecca in The Golden Girls

S3 E14

Only to the fat guys r89

I wonder why her acting was so awful in this. She’s capable of better.

She was good in the first season!

I wish that the reboot lasted long enough for them to do the gag that Avery Brown's a lousy singer, too. I can't decide if his "Natural Woman" would have been "Firework," "Fight Song," or "The Climb."

When Robert Pastorelli died, the LAPD were about to arrest him for the murder of his girlfriend.

The strained repartee was exhausting. Every cast member uttered their lines as if they were trying hard to outdo each other.

Take a shot whenever someone says "Hi, Murph".

The weird part is the gal who played Corky had a follow up sitcom with Kelly Ripa. That show, I remember was fucking funny as hell. To bad it didn't go anywhere.

Hi ya Murp

I really liked Faith Ford both as Corky and then on that show with Kelly Ripa. With that said, there used to be a poster here who knew her first husband and he said she was awful. Although, he could have been just making it all up.

Gool 'ole HRT. I miss him on these threads.

[quote][R84] no? She sang Getting Married Today.

Not on Broadway she didn't. Charles Kimbrough's future wife, Beth Howland (Vera on "Alice") sang it in the show.

R101 are you sure?

I want to know what happened to Corky's accent as the seasons went on. I've been watching the first season on RewindTV and she sounds like a country hick. By the 3rd season, it was all but gone.

R103 During Season 2's hiatus, Corky went to the Valine Ewing School of Diction.

Maybe it was Victoria Wyndham r102

It borrowed heavily from mine, yes. Thank you for asking.

at least Mary knew she wasn't the funny one.

I never watched it regularly but as someone pointed out it was part of CBS's Monday night lineup so I'd catch it sometimes when it aired with Designing Women, Kate & Allie, and Newhart. It was always my least favorite. Candace Bergin's stiff line readings were so awful but that kind of became her signature. The only episode I really remember is when Grant Shaud's character freaks out after having a gay sex dream about a new co-worker. Of course it ends with the gay guy reassuring Miles he is safely heterosexual. Ironic

I didn't think Candice was stiff

R108, that was a very funny episode.

My mother is an uptight Catholic and so she wasn’t thrilled about the baby story. But it wasn’t so much she was having a baby as the fact that she didn’t know who the father was at first. I even thought that was a bit much. It was unnecessary.

And talk about a story that went nowhere. Once the baby was born, the writers had no ideas so he just got shuffled into the background the rest of the series.

What were the stories about Grant Shaud? Did he really quit or was he fired?

[quote] What Frasier is to the finer things, Murphy Brown is to politics. Regardless if you understood the joke or not, you were laughing along with the characters.

What bullshit.

[quote] I loved this show but even back then I thought it was so odd they shoehorned a baby in there. The last feeling I got from Murphy was a maternal instinct plus Candice Bergen was fully mid 40s when Murphy has the baby. Even today that's really pushing it, and I can say this bc I had my kid at 3 months shy of 40.

I have a friend who had her first baby at 45. It's rare, but it does happen.

I liked the show back in the day, But I agree the praise for it was completely over it. Once Dan Quayle attacked the show though,, the character became canonized as a heroine against sexist men everywhere. Hillary Clinton even wound up copying Bergen’s style for some political event. The funny thing is years later Candace would admit that Quayle had made some valid points.

However, Candace should not have won five Emmys for it. I know people hate Roseanne but she should have more than one Emmy for her show. It took years for her to get a nomination and once she did she lost to Bergen simply because of the backlash over Quayle.

Dan Quayles remarks were akin to Vance’s childless cat lady comments. It was a huge story back in the day.

[quote] I know people hate Roseanne but she should have more than one Emmy for her show. It took years for her to get a nomination and once she did she lost to Bergen simply because of the backlash over Quayle.

Roseanne was held back for multiple reasons reasons: she behaved like a crazy person before the press, and she was notorious for being a terror on the set of her show. But her biggest problem was that she was so terrible her first season on her show, and that formed people's opinions of her. She would smile while she was delivering lines not because Roseanne Conner would smile, but because she the actress thought the line was funny. She was also extremely wooden at first. Also, it did not help her she excoriating Bergen in the press for beating her so many times

She did greatly improve over the years, and she became a genuinely talented comic actress in time. But it was not happen overnight, and people's first impressions are hard to break.

R115, when did she say Quayle was right? She didn't

She did, R118. A few years ago.

but he was.

I've mentioned it before, but Roseanne was PISSED that she kept getting ignored by the Emmys. She and Tom Arnold hosted SNL in 1992 and they did a spoof of A Star is Born. "Oh, yeah, right, like that board up her ass bitch Candice Bergen is funnier than I am?! If I were that wooden, I'd float! ... And Kirstie Alley, get a chin. ... And The Golden Girls? Three old broads propped up on a sofa. I'm funnier than all three of them when I'm in a coma."

R112, was it something to do with a teenage boy in his dressing room?

Say what. R122?!

[quote]I have a friend who had her first baby at 45. It's rare, but it does happen.

I had a cousin once who didn't get her period for twenty years.

Then at 72 she got pregnant.

It's in the Garibaldi Book of Records.

R123 IIRC (bear with me, I am officially an Eldergay) but I remember reading about it in Billy Masters old column shortly after he left the show. OR maybe it was the log Google newsgroups…YMMV

I always thought Robert Pastorelli was the perv, not Grant Shaud

Jesus, people!

It's been stated upthread that Grant Shaud had no sex scandals.

Otherwise, he would not have been asked back for the reboot at the height of #metoo.

I definitely remember those stories about Shaud bringing dangerously young guys to the Murphy Brown set. I swear it was even in the National Enquirer or Star Magazine at the time. Maybe it was all rumor but it did seem like he left the show kind of abruptly

R128 Sounds like an urban legend.

When it happens to a 'friend of a friend" or 'I read it somewhere" is often the giveaway.

Candice Bergen DRAGGING Carrie Bradshaw on SATC is perfect.

"I'm not convinced she knows anything about purses.

Or, for that matter, men."

The blind item that is #28 at this link was supposedly about Shaud

Billy Masters! Wow that's really going back in time, I haven't thought of him in ages.

Is Grant a gay?

R133, I think he dated Jane Leeves for a long time, of course that doesn't mean all that much, but I didn't ever get the impressing he was gay...

I hated how ugly Frank was. He was way too ugly to be the lady killer. Just like on Just Shoot Me. The guy they made the sex machine was such and accountant from Buffalo.

[quote] I think he dated Jane Leeves for a long time

Shaud also lived with Christa Miller for awhile so gay or straight he has a type

Jane Leeves and Christa Miller are the same type?

[quote]I loved this show but even back then I thought it was so odd they shoehorned a baby in there. The last feeling I got from Murphy was a maternal instinct plus Candice Bergen was fully mid 40s when Murphy has the baby.

I believe the character of Murphy Brown was 42 when the baby was born on the show. That was one of the reasons former VP Dan Quayle attacked the character.

[quote]I have a friend who had her first baby at 45. It's rare, but it does happen.

It's no longer as rare as back when the show aired. Birthrate for women from 35-39 is up (almost 4xs as much than the 80s/90s) and birthrate for women 40-44 is also up 127% from 5.5 births per 1000 to 12.5 births per 1000. This is *especially* normal in states like New York and in DC where the show took place.

Successful (college educated) people with busy lifestyles concentrated in certain areas just wait longer to have kids but they do have them.

Only white trash have kids when they're in their 20s now. Other white people have kids much older these days.

That's why we're ending up with a bunch of retards who'll die if they eat a peanut.

I adore Candice Bergen, but I always got the sense that Murphy! Was! Delivering! The! Lines!!!

"Eldin! Leave! The! Paint! Alone!"

"Frank! Corky! Hasn't! Had! A! Raise! IN! Five! Years!"

loved her in Starting Over

R140, I'd say you're more likely to find "retards" among the population that gives birth at 19

My mother was 46 when I was born, long before Murphy Brown. Her age already was not that novel.

I remember when they tried to make "SHUT THE DOOR!" a thing.

OK maybe she wasn't too old to have the baby but as someone pointed out above they definitely didn't do anything with the storyline, the kid was an afterthought like Rachel's baby on Friends.