Wednesday, November 25, 2009

Favorite Fictional Character --- Murphy Brown


If you can't tell by now I'm pretty big on the sitcoms that centered around strong women. The next up for me is Murphy Brown as played by the wonderful Candice Bergen. I couldn't find a good picture of her by herself so I used one with the whole cast, which by the way was fantastic.

Now growing up in the 80s and 90s there seemed to be a lot of strong female characters that were the center of the show. Murphy Brown was a investigative journalist who called the shots and took no names. She was independent and had her own voice and didn't feel bad running over the inept producer, Miles.

I think what I loved about her the most and what is still my strongest memory of the show was when she decided to have a baby on her own when the father decided he didn't want to change his lifestyle. Looking back on it now I don't think it would have raised an eyebrow but our then VP, Dan Quayle, decided to attack a fictional character for disrespecting the role of a father. True to form the producers of the show used it and had Murphy do a story on the diversity of the modern family. Not sure Dan Quayle ever lived that down.

I wish more of the new show were like this, but I'm afraid that the era of this type of character is over.

3 comments:

Beth (BBRB) said...

That was such a great show! I totally have to Netflix it. Thanks for reminding me!

Michelle Stockard Miller said...

I never watched this show much, but I could always appreciate what a strong feminist Murphy was. I think she really pioneered the way for future strong women characters in television.

Great post!

Melissa (My World...in words and pages) said...

Hey Ryan! I think I have to agree with you on this show. I use to stay up with my mom to watch this show. We loved it. Murphy Brown was a very strong woman character, for a role model as well. She was brilliant and funny too. She was not a mindless flake at all. She was a very successful career woman that many would want to be. I think you may be right with the era of these strong characters are over. I hate to see them go as well, there were a lot of great shows that could really be used as a base for a new series that is not so out there.

Great pick this week, again!