Murphy Brown - The Complete First Season

Rating:
Summary: The last of the sitcoms that were truely funny
Review: Candice Bergen and an A-List cast highlighted the eight year run of Murphy Brown on CBS. With great writing and production values, It was truely the last regular great sitcom on before the vulger tasteless teen ones took over.When this show ended, the sitcom as I knew it, also was over.

Rating:
Summary: Murphy's making news again!
Review: Candice Bergen is Murphy Brown, a hard-nosed Washington D.C. journalist who is just returning from a stint at the Betty Ford clinic for her alcohol abuse. In this work-situation comedy our main character has lots of friends who will encourage her to stay on the proverbial road to sobriety.

Eldin Bernecky (Robert Pastorelli) is the handyman who never can quite seem to finish work on her (obviously pricey) D.C. townhouse---but can however find time to deliver good-natured quips.

Her boss, the neurotic Miles Silverberg (Grant Shaud) is a reccent Harvard graduate who is more nervous than tyranical. Something Murphy or one of the other journalists does always has him reaching for the stomach medicine. He's so cute when he's having one of many stressful moments!

Murphy's best friend is Francis 'Frank' Fontana, another journalist at this same series. Before she tangled with the likes of Dan Quayle, Murphy confronted having to work with somebody as chipper as young Corky Sherwood (Faith Ford), who would later add an element of soap by inexplicably marrying Miles. Of all the 'FYI staff', she also was the one person I could not stand.Sherwood seemed overly hyper compared to the other cast, and out of place in any Washington D.C. news organization.

Finally there is anchor Jim Dial (Charles Kimbrough) who really is a likeable guy, but comes across as unbelievably pompus and self-absorbed. He and Murphy are not close friends because they share some character traits (like always having to be right and get the last word in).

Much more jaded than Mary Richards (The Mary Tyler Moore Show) Murphy is the character whom you look to for inspiration when your own chips are down...but you never hope to tick off. The late 1980's/early 1990's fashions are a hoot, but I still like this series. It would be a cute addition for anybody wanting to put on a 'strong women' and/or 80's night.

Rating:
Summary: Murphy Brown - The Complete First Season
Review: Dan Quayle may not be thrilled, but we are! I've read that there are 22 episodes on 2 double-sided discs, with an English stereo soundtrack, and English, French and Spanish subtitles. Special features include an exclusive never-before-seen look back at season one and how it all began. Creator & Cast episode commentary are included.

Murphy is a loud-mouth reporter on a news magazine show called FYI, based in Washington DC. Murphy lives in a townhouse that she has been having repainted by Eldin, who never gets done. Murphy owes her Betty Ford trip to Phil, who owns the local restaurant bar where the staff and the local political scene have lunch. Jim is the uptight senior anchor. Frank, a single guy constantly looking for a girlfriend, is Murphy's best friend. Corky is a former Miss America. Miles is the young executive producer in his first job after graduation from Harvard.

1. Respect: After a stint at the Betty Ford Clinic, Murphy returns to FYI.
2. Devil With a Blue Dress On: Corky uncovers the fact that a corporate big shot is a drug smuggler.
3. Nowhere to Run: Miles receives his first death threat.
4. Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Murphy is scheduled to interview her ex-husband.
5. Murphy's Pony: At Christmas, a mother abandons her children into Murphy's care.
6. Baby Love: Murphy thinks about having a baby.
7. Set Me Free: A gunman demands that FYI crew read his statement on the air.
8. And So He Goes: An old enemy asks Murphy to deliver his eulogy.
9. I Would Have Danced All Night: Murphy is not invited to George Bush's presidential inaugural ball.
(Note: After this aired, George Bush sent Candice Bergan an invitation to the Inaugural Ball.)
10. Kyle: Murphy's story gets an innocent man freed.
11. Off the Job Experience: Miles suspends Murphy for her handling of an interview.
12. Why Do Fools Fall in Love? Murphy makes a deal with Frank that she will fix him up with someone if he finds someone for her.
13. Soul Man: Murphy tries to get into an exclusive men's only club.
14. It's How You Play the Game: The FYI tries the tactics of a competing show.
15. Mama Said: Murphy's meddling mother comes to visit.
16. Moscow on the Potomac: Murphy prepares for a broadcast with a Soviet broadcaster.
17. My Dinner with Einstein: Murphy goes out with a physicist who turns out to be a partier.
18. Funnies Girl: An on-camera faux pas makes Murphy the brunt of a cartoonist.
19. The Unshrinkable Murphy Brown: A judge dies of a heart attack while Murphy is interviewing him live.
20. The Summer of '77: Eldin is infatuated with Corky.
21. The Bickners: A sweet elderly couple sue Murphy after a minor accident.
22. The Morning Show: Murphy co-anchors the morning show with Corky for a week.

Rating:
Summary: Murphy Brown is one of the best sitcoms ever
Review: I love Murphy Brown, and I say this as a socially conservative Republican. After Seinfeld and Family Guy, it is one of my favorite sitcoms. Frankly, I think Quayle should have applauded her for taking the hard choice of raising the kid the best she could. The character does not abort him, but takes the choice filled with difficulty. In my world, that is a positive lesson, not something negative about the breakdown of the family.

Murphy Brown is a great comedy that, much like the short-lived Sports Night, makes you think. It brings up issues and gets you to use your brain at the same time you take a break from the day's work for a laugh. This is not a show that will contribute to the rotting of brain cells.

You get to see the fast pace of the newsroom and the great human drama and wonderful interaction between the characters.

The stories are so interesting, it is definitely worth getting this DVD.

I am a tightwad, but I had to spend my money on this set. If you are even a slight fan of this show, get the DVD set. If you don't, they may not offer future seasons. If there are not the sales worth producing future seasons, they won't produce them.

Buy this DVD. For twenty bucks, the cost of two meals at Applebee's, it is certainly worth it.

Rating:
Summary: Great show,lousy DVD!
Review: I was and still am a huge fan of Murphy Brown.But I was sadly disappointed when I watched the first episode of this DVD. Terrible picture quality!Like watching TV with the focus poorly adjusted. I probably would have purchased this set anyway but just wanted other potential customers to know what they'll be getting. My rating would have been 5 stars were it not for the lousy transfer.

Rating:
Summary: substandard picture quality
Review: I'm surprised that so far the other review that comments on the poor picture quality in this collection has received mostly "not helpful" ratings. Do people really not care about picture quality?

I concur with that negative review: I love the show and am enjoying the material, but I am surprised at how bad some of the scenes look. The last scene of the first episode has several vertical, colored lines running across the screen. Another episode has a similar problem at the beginning. One episode has a scene where some of the close ups look good but others look like they are out of focus.

I'm not sure what was done to transfer this material to dvd, but it is by far the worst handling of the transfer of classic tv to dvd that I've yet seen -- and I have a LOT of dvd's of old tv shows.

I don't expect perfection for the price (this set is certainly less expensive than many other 4-disc sets), but it seems like they could have done a bit better than they did in preparing these discs for release.