Murphy Brown: The Complete First Season

Stripped to its basics, Murphy Brown was an updated version of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, complete with newsroom setting, nervous producer, bumbling anchorman, and ditzy onscreen talent. But the Diane English-created series went a lot further, bringing a frank approach to topics such as sex and substance abuse (the pilot episode opened with the title character returning to work after drying out in the Betty Ford Clinic), while also emerging as overtly political and unambiguously liberal, aiming sarcastic and belittling remarks at real-life Republican office-holders up to and including President George Bush (Sr.). But Murphy Brown got away with its potentially divisive humor by being funny--uproariously funny, in some cases--and while the show would eventually inspire heated controversy, that's really not the case with the 1988-89 opening season. Right from the beginning, Candice Bergen was sensational as the brilliant, acerbic, titular newsmagazine reporter who gets out of rehab to find her show, FYI, in the hands of neurotic, insincere producer Miles Silverberg (Grant Shaud), whose idea of a ratings booster is hiring former Miss America Corky Sherwood (Faith Ford) as a reporter. Murphy's pals--stuffy lead anchor Jim Dial (Charles Kimbrough) and segment producer Frank Fontana (Joe Regalbuto)--are still part of the mix, but FYI will never be the same. Among the best episodes of a uniformly solid first season are “Signed, Sealed, Delivered,” in which an unwitting Miles schedules Murphy to do an on-air interview with her radical ex-husband (Robin Thomas); “Baby Love,” which finds Murphy suffering maternal pangs and asking Frank to be a sperm donor (she would eventually get pregnant, but not this time around); and “Mama Said,” guest-starring Colleen Dewhurst as Murphy's abrasive mother, in town for a visit of undetermined length. Probably the best episode of the 22 collected here is “I Would Have Danced All Night,” a January episode that has Murphy wondering why she's the only FYI staffer who hasn't received an invitation to Bush Sr.'s inaugural. Featuring a fine digital transfer, DVD extras on this four-disc set include audio commentaries on two episodes and a half-hour retrospective behind-the-scenes documentary. Recommended. (E. Hulse)