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Murphy Brown: Difference between revisions

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Murphy Brown (view source)

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** From Mama Miller, after everyone complains about her semi-raw scrambled eggs:
{{quote| Murphy: Oh, gee, I-I'm really, sorry, I guess you were under the impression that I was RUNNING A RESTAURANT!}}
* [[Back for Thethe Finale]]: Phil returns for the series finale despite the fact that ''he had died of a heart attack:'' his death was retconned into having been faked by the CIA due to Phil "knowing too much about Whitewater".
** Murphy also returns home at the end of the episode to find that Eldin is back, repainting her home, just as he had first appeared in the series.
* [[Blah Blah Blah]]: In Montezuma's Retreat, Miller says to Frank that he will often imagine 's voice as a foghorn.
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** Conversely, a ''[[Seinfeld]]'' episode ended with Kramer getting an acting gig as yet another secretary for Murphy, and being very good.
* [[Dartboard of Hate]]: Murphy's dartboard on the back of her office door was adorned with [[Different in Every Episode|something new every week, and oftentimes that something was someone's face.]]
* [[Directed Byby Cast Member]]: Joe Regalbuto, who played Frank, directed 20 episodes over the course of the series.
* [[Disproportionate Retribution]]: Brown's pranks, usually.
** And in the last two season's, Kay's, which are much like Murphy's but [[Up to Eleven]].
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* [[The Gump]]: Phil, who knows ''everything'' in Washington, including who Deep Throat was.
* [[Her Codename Was Mary Sue]]
* [[Hey, It's That Guy!]]: There was one episode where [[Batman: theThe Animated Series|Bruce Wayne]] bought FYI.
** Daphne from [[Frasier]] plays Miles's recurring girlfriend
** Murphy's Old man is also ''The Old Man'' from [[A Christmas Story]]
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* [[Intercontinuity Crossover]]: Murphy's long, long list of secretaries-of-the-week included supporting characters from other CBS shows.
* [[Is This Thing Still On?]]
* [[Jerk Withwith a Heart of Gold]]: Murphy herself is a prime example.
** When Eldin {{spoiler|was offered the opportunity to paint with a famous Spanish painter eight years after he wrote to him. Although he blatantly refused to leave, enjoying too much the position of being a Avery's nanny and Murphy's house painter, Murphy fired him without a second thought, even though she knew that it would be virtually impossible for her to find someone else who would please her.}}
* [[Keep Circulating the Tapes]]: Oh, seasons 2 through 10, will you ever see the light of day on DVD?
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* [[Lie Detector]]: The episode Specific Overtures deals with Murphy on a polygraph after she allegedly sexually harasses a coworker.
* [[Local Hangout]]: Phil's bar.
* [[Locked in Aa Room]]
* [[Massive Multiplayer Crossover]]: A rather infamous "Night of Elizabeth Taylor," created as an elaborate ad for her fragrance Black Pearls, threaded ''Murphy Brown'' together with ''[[The Nanny]],'' ''Can't Hurry Love,'' and ''High Society.''
* [[Mistaken for Exhibit]]: Eldin gets a show at an art gallery. At the opening people come in to find a completely empty room. They discuss whether they themselves are the art or what, but then Eldin points out that he painted a mural on the ceiling.
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* [[Nervous Wreck]]: Miles.
** Also Frank, who has been in therapy for 12 or so years.
* [[No Celebrities Were Harmed]]: Much maligned Jerry Gold bears striking resemblance to Morton Downey, Jr. or Howard Stern. He even has a four-person late night panel show like [[Real Time Withwith Bill Maher|BillMaher]].
** [[Hidden Depths]]: Murphy falls for Gold when it turns out the abrasive personality was just a public persona for a genuinely concerned man.
* [[No Periods, Period]]
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* [[Pity the Kidnapper]]: A group of nerdy environmentalists kidnap Murphy until a major news show will cover the development of a swamp in Oregon. It doesn't go well.
* [[Platonic Life Partners]]: Creator Diane English [[Word of God|repeatedly and explicitly stated]] that Murphy and Frank ''really are'' just friends.
* [[Put Onon a Bus]]: In the two part Season 8 Finale, {{spoiler|after successfully ensuring Corky and Frank would keep their jobs in the network cutbacks and that FYI would not be the subject of any more [[Executive Meddling]] (ensuring that Jim would return to the show), Miles was offered and took a promotion to head the News Division for the network... in New York. Made worse by the fact that he had recently married Corky and she would remain on FYI in Washington.}}
* [[Rapid-Fire Typing]]
* [[Real Life Writes the Plot]]: When Murphy Brown became a single mother, Dan Quayle used her as a [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,975627,00.html condemnation of single parents]. An entire episode addressed Quayles attack (including the [[Ripped from the Headlines|actual New York Daily News]] "[http://www1.dailynewspix.com/sales/sales_image.php?name=50U0VKMT.jpg&id=155474&lb=10_390092&size=small QUAYLE TO MURPHY BROWN: YOU TRAMP!]" headline. Followed by a [[Take That]] of Murphy Brown dumping potatos on the White House lawn.
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** Murphy has been virtually uninsurable since the late 70's owing to her extreme driving habits.
* [[Screaming Birth]]
* [[Screwed Byby the Network]]: [[The BBC]], not CBS. The series wasn't bought for showing on British terrestrial television until after the Dan Quayle affair, several years after it had started. [[BBC 2]] then dumped it in the same early evening slot that played host to ''[[The Fresh Prince of Bel -Air]]'' and ''[[Degrassi Junior High]]'', and pulled it after the first eight episodes had been shown. (Reviewers making unflattering comparisons to ''[[Drop the Dead Donkey]]'' didn't help... interestingly, that series flopped when it was shown in America. Some things just don't travel, I guess.) To this day this troper feels it would have done better had the show started in the UK in 1989.
* [[Service Sector Stereotypes]]
* [[Show Within a Show]]: ''FYI''
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** During a [[No Celebrities Were Harmed|thinly disguised]] version of the O.J. Simpson [[Everybody Owns a Ford|Bronco]] chase, Miles remarks, "ABC...wouldn't pre-empt ''[[Home Improvement]]'' for the Second Coming!"
* [[Take That, Critics!]]
* [[Title -Only Opening]]
* [[Too Much Information]]
* [[The Bob Newhart Show]]: Folded the show into the Tommy Westphall universe.
* [[The Character Died Withwith Him|The Character Died With Her]]: {{spoiler|When Colleen Dewhurst died, Avery Brown (Murphy's Mother, whom she played) died in series.}}
* [[The Fun in Funeral]]
* [[The Snark Knight]]: Pretty much the entire point of Murphy's character.
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