DVD Release Date: February 8, 2005 (Warner Bros. Home Video)
Color
MSRP: $29.98
Number of Discs: 4 (Single-Sided)
Number of Episodes: 22
Running Time: 535 Minutes
Total Run Time of Special Features: 82 Minutes (with
commentary tracks, not counting the Commemorative DVD)
Audio: Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0 - English
Languages, Subtitles, Closed Captioning: English;
English, Spanish, French subtitles; Closed Captioned.
Special Features:
• Commentary on the Pilot by Candice Bergen
• Commentary on Episode #20, Summer of ’77, by
creator/executive producer Diane English
• "Murphy Brown: An FYI Exclusive": a retrospective
cast/crew documentary
• Warner Bros 50th Anniversary Commemorative DVD
Volume 2
Introduction:
In late 1988, the Reagan era was ending, the first
Bush administration was about to take office. And a
little show called Murphy Brown debuted over on CBS.
The show even earned eleven Emmy nominations in its
first season! Emmy award winner Candice Bergen stars
as Murphy Brown, a brash, outspoken star reporter of
the TV Newsmagazine FYI. Co-stars of FYI include Jim
Dial (Charles Kimbrough), Corky Sherwood (Faith Ford),
and Frank Fontana (Joe Regalbuto). Murphy’s favorite
punching bag throughout the first eight seasons of the
series is FYI executive producer Miles Silverburg, who
is so young that, according to Murphy, “While I was
getting maced at the Democratic Convention in ’68, you
were wondering if you’d ever get to meet Adam West”.
Murphy’s house is constantly in the process of being
repainted by Eldin Bernecky (Robert Pastorelli). At
the end of a long day, the gang can head down to a
local bar and grill across the street from the FYI
Headquarters, Phil’s. Phil, played by Pat Corley,
seems to be in the know about—well everything!
Memorable Episodes / Notable Guest Stars:
Honestly, it’s hard to pick a few episodes as being
especially good, as the entire first season was
exceptional something rare in television. The series
starts off with a very loud bang in the pilot episode,
entitled “Respect.” Murphy has just gotten out of a
month’s stay in the Betty Ford clinic, and returns to
find a new 25-year-old executive producer has taken
over, and a former Miss America “by default” has been
added as an anchor of FYI. In episode six, Baby Love,
Murphy explores the possibility of having a child --
with Frank. In the next episode, Set Me Free, a gunman
takes control of the FYI studio. Episode 9 has been
identified by series creator Diane English as the
episode where Candice really BECAME Murphy Brown.
Murphy, for some reason or another, doesn’t receive an
invitation to the inaugural ball, despite every member
of the FYI crew -- plus vendor Murray Brown receiving
an invite. After this episode, President George H.W.
Bush, actually sent Candice Bergen a special invite to
the ’89 Inaugural Ball. Episode 15 marks the debut of
Murphy’s mother, played by Colleen Dewhurst. Episode
20 reflects on when Murphy first came to Washington in
’77 to audition for the spot on FYI.
The first person that guests in an episode that most
sitcom fans will recognize comes in episode 6, Baby
Love. Jenny O’Hara (The Facts of Life, My Sister Sam)
plays Murphy’s pregnant friend, Lisa. Longtime actress
Colleen Dewhurst starts her long-running guest role as
Murphy’s mother in episode 15, Mama Said. Longtime
soap star Robin Strasser guests in episode 16. Creator
of Get Smart and Ten-time Saturday Night Live host
Buck Henry guests in episode 17, My Dinner with
Einstein. Rounding out the bunch is Steven Culp, who
would later go on to play Rex Van de Camp on
“Desperate Housewives,” guests in episode 19, The
Unshrinkable Murphy Brown. Episode 20 marks the first
of the many cameos by news personalities that would
become far more frequent as the seasons pass. Linda
Ellerbee, the third person up for the FYI spot after
Frank and Murphy, guest stars.
Packaging:
The outer box of the set features a picture of the
main cast in front of the video wall part of the FYI
set on the front, while the back of the box has a
small line of 4 images near the top. From left to
right are Murphy in front of a laptop, the FYI gang
sitting around a table, Murphy in Miles’ face, and
Corky walking away from Jim. The inside case features
the same cast picture on the front, with a still image
of Murphy on the reverse. The inside cover features a
picture of Murphy talking to Miles on the left, with
the list of episodes on the right. Behind the Disc
holders and information holder are just various still
images of the cast from the show.
Very close to release date (or at least that was when
we found out), Warner Brothers suddenly changed both
Murphy Brown and Fresh Prince of Bel-Air from two
dual-sided discs to four single-sided discs. While
opponents of dual-sided discs applauded this change,
it created an interesting situation in the packaging
of the sets. In both releases, two discs now share a
holder on each panel of the case. The holder is set up
for one disc to overlay the bottom half of the second
disc. This setup isn’t a problem if you want the disc
currently sitting on top, but if you want the disc
being overlapped, you’re probably going to have to
remove the other disc first. Hopefully future releases
won’t be this way, and this unusual situation was
caused solely by the late packaging and setup changes.
As for the cover art of the discs, each of the four
discs has the same photo as the main cover of both the
box and case. Each disc is differentiated by a unique
color for the bottom half of each disc. Disc one is
brown, disc two is purple, disc three blue, and disc
four is green. For some reason, Warner decided to make
the purple of disc two and the blue of disc three
fairly close to one another, meaning that if you have
trouble with telling shades of color apart, you may
have to rely on the moderately transparent disc
numbers located on the right-middle of each disc.
Disc One contains episodes 1-6, Disc Two contains
episodes 7-12, Disc Three contains episodes 13-18 and
Disc Four contains episodes 19-22 plus the featurette.
Menu Design and Navigation:
Since Murphy Brown never had any actual opening music
of its own (the opening theme of the week was always a
various Motown song), WB went with the closing theme
of the show for the background music of the menu. The
main menu features several show stills in front of an
FYI style background, with each of the submenus taking
on a similar theme. Each menu option is in an
easy-to-read large font directly beneath the Murphy
Brown main logo text. There are no chapters or scene
selections, oddly. So if you are looking for a
particular scene, you will just have to fast forward.
Video and Audio Quality:
The video quality on these releases absolutely stuns
me. As many often do, the pilot looks a little grainy,
but the remainder of the episodes could not possibly
look any better. Warner did an outstanding job with
all the episodes, although those of you with the
largest sets will virtually always see a minor amount
of compression, there’s practically nothing to be
found here. With the exception of the somewhat grainy
pilot, the video could NOT be better.
Audio is presented in Dolby Digital Stereo 2.0, which
is more than fine for a show from 1988. Audio sounds
absolutely great -- there’s no weird glitches, no
hiss, no noise. Audio is as perfect as it’s going to
get without a 5.1 re-master. And, for those of you
curious, Warner made sure to get the rights to ALL of
the Motown music used so heavily in the show. The show
would have been ruined if they hadn’t.
The episodes themselves have been restored to their
full lengths, which in the case of the Murphy Brown
pilot, means a TWENTY EIGHT MINUTE RUN TIME. The
remainder of the episodes runs around twenty four
minutes each. Most of the episodes in the first season
are titled based on the Motown song used in the
opening. Each of the actual opening scenes to the show
has something to do with the Motown song being played.
Special Features:
The set isn’t overflowing with special features, but
what’s here is quite good. On the pilot episode is a
commentary track by show star Candice Bergen. It runs
the full 28-minute length of the pilot. The 20th
episode in the 22-episode season, Summer of ’77,
features commentary by series creator Diane English.
That episode runs 24 minutes. There’s also a special
30 minute piece called Murphy Brown: An FYI Exclusive,
featuring interviews with all the cast and crew,
clips, etc. Total running time for special features
with commentary is 82 minutes -- 30 minutes without
the commentary tracks.
Also included with Murphy Brown is Volume 2 of the
Warner Bros. 50th Anniversary Commemorative DVDs. The
disc included with Murphy Brown contains one episode
each of My Sister Sam and Room for Two. Both episodes
are unedited, look, and sound excellent with any
luck maybe Warner will release either or both shows
onto DVD soon. Both episodes run about 23:30 each.
“My Sister Sam” stars Pam Dawber, Jenny O’Hara (who is
on this Murphy set) and Joel Brooks. It aired from
1986-88 on CBS and has recently aired on the Good Life
TV Network. “Room for Two” is a very rare show that
features a then unknown Patricia Heaton and stars
Alice’s Linda Lavin. The show aired on ABC in the
92-93 season and a few episodes have popped-up on TV
Land in recent years.
It’s been about seven years since I’ve seen this show,
but this set reminded me just how funny the series
really was. There’s not a single dud in the 22 episode
season, and the performance of all involved is just
spectacular.
Final Comments:
The set itself is near-flawless. The only real
problems in the entire set that I’d work on before a
season two release are the packaging and special
features. The overlapping CD holders are just too
problematic. I’m hoping that since the redone
packaging was rushed, this is only a one-time
occurrence, and that we won’t see a repeat of it for
the next season. Second is the amount of special
features. Two episodes of commentary are nice, but why
not expand on the number of episodes for which there
IS commentary on for the next set. Maybe get the
entire cast together for commentary on one episode,
with other commentary throughout. There’s only one
other thing that bugs me: That I can’t go out and pick
up the shows in the bonus discs on DVD. It’s been
stressed over and over that the shows on the bonus
discs aren’t being released onto DVD at this time, and
I think it’s a shame. All are decent enough shows.
Some of the shows (Family Matters, Perfect Strangers)
are true gems, while others (Redd Foxx, Room for Two)
are short-lived shows that are decent enough, that it
shouldn’t be a hassle to release a quick
complete-series set. Overall though, I’d recommend the
set to anyone, but for the next release they REALLY
need to break the episodes up into chapters.
Final Numbers (out of 5 stars):
Video Quality: 5/5
Audio Quality: 5/5
Special Features: 3/5
Menu Design/Navigation: 4.5/5
Overall: 4.5/5
-- Reviewed by Seth Thrasher on 02/12/05
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