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20 reviews in total

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8 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Wonderful comedy, 13 February 2007

Author: judybenton from United States

Murphy Brown is one of my all time favorite situation comedies. Candice Bergen is a comedic genius, and I wish I could see more of her. The rest of the cast did a great job, too.

The series tackled real problems with insight and humor such as an unmarried mature woman becoming pregnant, alcoholism, and cancer, to name a few.

The summer of 2000, I was battling breast cancer, chemo, nausea, and hair loss when reruns of Murphy's breast cancer experience were shown. It was so true to life but yet so funny. It helped me tremendously! Laughter is indeed the best medicine. These episodes should be shown during chemo treatments.

I implore whoever is in charge of such things to please market DVDs of the entire Murphy Brown series. It should not be allowed to slide into oblivion.

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11 out of 14 people found the following review useful:
The Best!!!, 28 May 1999
Author: Henryk von Babenberg from Hamburg, Germany

In my opinion the best sitcom ever! Candice Bergen, surrounded by a brilliant cast, shows wit and intelligence - and not to mention she is (still in my opinion) probably the world´s most beautiful woman.

As, alas, it is dubbed in German in Germany I would give a lot to be able to watch it in original language.

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8 out of 9 people found the following review useful:
A funny show, in itself an achievemnet, 8 October 1999
Author: Tommy-92 from Baltimore, Maryland

I only started watching this show in its last season. I laughed a lot, which is pretty hard to do with so many of the other shows these days. Candace Bergen is a great actress working with great scripts and a great cast. The breast cancer story line was handled very well, both in poignant and humorous ways. The finale was a fitting way to end it.

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8 out of 11 people found the following review useful:
It was one of the best shows then and now!, 11 April 2005

Author: (sylviastel@aol.com) from United States

Murphy Brown's intelligence and comedic wit is pure genius and fun to watch. Lifetime began airing the repeats for a while until 2000 which is a shame because it is such a high quality, well-written, and extremely well-acted show overall. While Candice Bergen plays the title character, she never uses her status to ruin the show. She allows her excellent supporting cast including Faith Ford, Grant Shaud, Jim Regalbuto, and the guy who plays Jim Dial. When Grant Shaud left the show, the show brought Lily Tomlin who did an excellent job. I loved Garry Marshall and Pat Corbett as Phil, the local bar owner and the guy that knew everything in Washington D.C. There are several hilarious episodes with guest stars like Barry Manilow serenading Baby Avery, the wonderful Colleen Dewhurst as the memorable Avery Brown, Murphy's mom, Darren McGavin as her father, Broadway Legend Marian Seldes as her aunt during a fabulous Christmas episode. I am sad that Robert Pastorelli passed away recently but he was memorable as the house painter/artist and nanny for Avery. Somebody told me that guest stars shaked the cast for making their experience to be the most pleasurable during their stay. Murphy Brown lasted 11 years for several reasons--it's great cast and staff of writers like Diane English.

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4 out of 4 people found the following review useful:
Great Casting, Solid Writing, Situation Comedy At Its Best, 25 October 2006

Author: John Esche from Jersey City, New Jersey

At the top of its class when first introduced in the late nineteen eighties, MURPHY BROWN still holds up as satisfying, warmly humorous "class" television twenty years later in syndication and on DVD.

Of course MURPHY BROWN was most notable in its original run for addressing the prime issues of the day, but it is the quality of the writing and acting which glows today.

Sadly, few of the "issues" addressed have gone away - "pols" of the ilk of Dan Quayle have even moved up to stealing elections through short counts in Florida and rigged voting machines in Ohio to take the TOP job - where is a Murphy Brown when we need her?), but even conservatives (I'm an occasionally elected - if moderate - Republican myself) could laugh at the balanced writing for MURPHY BROWN the TV show, which took many opportunities to spoof the irony of a newsroom full of dedicated caring professionals (this was just at the time - another topic sharply satirized - when networks were turning the once sacrosanct news departments over to the ministrations of their "entertainment divisions") trying to do a solid job while balancing corporate politics and real personal lives and passions.

Some commentators here have had reservations about the comic impact of MURPHY BROWN, perhaps longing for the knock-about, content free physical comedy of the 1950's. I'd suggest that they do not understand the nature of what SITUATION comedy has (thank God) evolved to since the days of I LOVE LUCY and I MARRIED JOAN. The best comedy comes, not from jokes and mugging (though MURPHY BROWN had its fair share of those too), but from carefully developed SITUATIONS and CHARACTER - which is why those "breast cancer episodes" in the latter seasons, with the show admittedly struggling with maintaining its comic focus in the face of departing - and frequently beloved - cast regulars, could glow so strong in so many memories.

These things go in cycles, and for those who don't like subtlety in their comedy writing, there will always be another wave of joke filled silliness that doesn't actually engage the mind in a season or two - and some times when you have a brilliant comedienne like Lucile Ball at the core and an innovative creator like Desi Arnaz shaping new ways of presenting the old formulas, it will be memorable - but the shows that really last, and *grow* with each passing season are those like MURPHY BROWN that actually engage the mind and attempt to portray and interact with the world they exist in.

MURPHY BROWN may well be the best situation comedy ever not written by Aaron Sorkin (SPORTS NIGHT and WEST WING).

Casting - regulars and guest appearances - was uniformly top drawer to match the writing, with a series of outstanding guest stars fleshing out the fictional news magazine (FYI)'s stories and the personal lives of the characters (Murphy's "ex-husband" and Miles' "brother" were brilliant in too infrequent appearances).

One of the best and most surprising ongoing story lines was Brown's relationship with her over achieving mother, Avery Brown, played by the great stage actress (and long time President of Actor's Equity!) Coleen Dewhurst. This story line brought a new generation of fans to one of the stage's brightest lights and wisely continued even after the actress's untimely passing. While the first season of MURPHY BROWN has been out on DVD for some time (Dewhurst first appeared in the first season), the issuing company does not appear to be in a hurry to put out subsequent seasons. One can only pray that they will consider a single disc DVD issue of all the Dewhurst episodes (and the one where Murphy's child is named). It would be treasured by fans of the series - and of Dewhurst.

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6 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Great cast, Great characters, Great show, 26 June 2005
Author: stir_it_up from Canada

My favorite sitcom ever.

The writing was incredibly smart and equally as humorous. To this day, I believe Murphy Brown was a show ahead of its time. It wasn't afraid to tackle any issue(or President) that came to pass during the show's 10-year run.

I adored every character on the show. Each actor clearly embraced their character and made him/her their own. Candice Bergen deserved every Emmy she won for playing "Murphy Brown", who was without a doubt the best character on television.

I loved watching Season 1 uncut on DVD. Bring on Season 2!

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8 out of 13 people found the following review useful:
One of the most controversial comedies ever., 22 November 2002
Author: bluethunder35 (bluethunder35@hotmail.com) from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Candice Bergen's "Murphy Brown" is one of the best sit-coms ever made, but it also had it's share of controversy during its 10 years at CBS. Bergen played the title character, who I felt was a step-up from Maude Findlay's character, complete with the deep voice. She's an anchorwoman for FYI News (a CBS affiliate) in New York. With the outstanding performances of Grant Shaud as hyperactive studio boss Miles Silverberg, Faith Ford as perky Paige Davis-like Corky Sherwood, and the hilariously wooden Jim Dial (Charles Kimbrough), this show had some endearing characters.

Of course, the show is remembered for being the site of some controversy. Everyone remembers the war of criticism between Bergen and then U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle when the VP criticized Bergen's character becoming a single mother through insemination. Also, one of the greatest episodes of all sitcoms was when Murphy Brown used an episode to take a nasty swipe at CBS for the poor efforts it had made since 1985 to wrest the Nielsen crown away from NBC. Since that time, CBS had been getting its head kicked in repeatedly by Brandon Tartikoff's Peacock network. Murphy's FYI was to announce the fall line-up and she wasn't pleased with the effort "CBS" was making. One of the shows to come was going to have a chimpanzee as its star. Who couldn't forget the ending credits with Bergen announcing to all the affiliates about when the show with the chimp was going to be (including non-CBS city Montreal, Quebec). Ironically, a year or two later, CBS turned it around and won the Nielsen ratings. The episode with Candice's husband. the late Louis Malle is another great one as well.

I was more of an off-and-on fan of this show, but when this show was on, Murphy Brown was as good as any sitcom around.

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10 out of 17 people found the following review useful:
THE BEST!!!!, 6 May 2000
Author: anivald from Brazil

Murphy Brown is the best sitcom ever! It's very smart, funny, and Candice, what can I say, she was so brilliant and deserved all the Emmys she won and even more, I'm her biggest fan. But let's not forget the rest of the cast, they did a great job too. Too bad the series ended. I miss you guys!

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5 out of 8 people found the following review useful:
Watch it at Nick@Nite, 10 May 2004
Author: willem2005 from Kansas, USA

This show is GOOD! I watched it in Pearl Channel, TVB in Hong Kong when I was in high school. I LOVE it!!! Candice Bergeon did a great job in the show! She is also in the movie "Miss Congeniality" and "Sweet Home Alabama."

I tried to search for the show in the broadcast network when I came to US. However, I could not find it. But good news is, Nich@Nite channel bought Murphy Brown, and they are going to show it in January 2005. I am excited about this. Also, I think CBS should have it on DVDs, so people can buy and enjoy it whenever they want! We should send request to CBS, asking them to release Murphy Brown's DVDs.

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4 out of 7 people found the following review useful:
The best sitcom ever, 25 December 2001
Author: Tenant_Uen (tenant@mail2000.com.tw) from Taiwan

I can't believe there are only so few comments on this unbelievably funny show! It must be that it ended too early before audiences remember to put their comments on IMDB. I heard many people commend ¡§Friends¡¨ or ¡§Mad About You,¡¨ but I find little fun when I actually watch these shows. ¡§Murphy Brown¡¨ is by far the most intelligent and hilarious series I¡¦ve ever watched, maybe the only sitcom ever interests me, because I generally prefer more serious shows such as ¡§Homicide: Life on the Street¡¨ or ¡§thirtysomething.¡¨ Murphy Brown has all the incredible cast. I especially prefer the interaction between the cranky Murphy and the panicky Miles. I¡¦m not sadistic, but I always roll to the floor every time Murphy torments Miles with her disastrous ideas. Like one IMDB user says, I really miss all of the characters. When can they make a show like this?

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