Product Details

• Actors: Candice Bergen, Grant Shaud, Robert Pastorelli, Faith Ford, Joe Regalbuto
• Directors: Barnet Kellman
• Writers: Denise Moss, Diane English, Eric Peterkofsky, Gary Dontzig, Kathryn Baker
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, Subtitled, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 4
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• DVD Release Date: February 8, 2005
• Run Time: 535 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (74 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0006N2EZA
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #12,619 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

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  Movies & TV > Comedy > Television > Murphy Brown

• For more information about "Murphy Brown: The Complete First Season" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The DVD release of Murphy Brown is particularly newsworthy. There had never been anyone on primetime quite like Murphy, the star investigative reporter for the Washington, D.C.-based television news magazine F.Y.I. As created by Diane English and embodied by Candice Bergen, Murphy was, in English's words, "Mike Wallace in a dress." On camera, she was tough, smart, and relentless. Off camera she was intriguingly flawed. In the pilot episode, her character returns to work following a stay at the Betty Ford Clinic. Over the course of the season, her sobriety is supremely tested by the chaotic goings-on inside the funniest newsroom since WJM on The Mary Tyler Moore Show. Murphy must contend with an unending parade of ill-suited, stressed-out secretaries (a running joke throughout the series' 10 years), new 25-year-old producer Miles Silverberg (Grant Shaud) whom she rudely dismisses ("While I was being maced at the Democratic Convention in '68, you were wondering if you'd ever meet Adam West"), and new co-anchor Corky Sherwood (Faith Ford), a former Miss America ("by default") with no journalistic background. Murphy is over 40 and prickly, with a penchant for vindictive practical jokes against her colleagues. In short, in the words of a lampooning cartoonist in the episode "Funnies Girl," dynamic, "pain-in-the-butt," Motown-loving Murphy is "a veritable fountain of material."

With its smart and sophisticated writing and seamless ensemble, Murphy Brown instantly established itself as one of television's gold standard series, earning four Emmy Awards for this inaugural season, including Outstanding Lead Actress for Bergen and Outstanding Writing for English. Colleen Dewhurst was also honored for her guest appearance as Murphy's equally intimidating mother in the episode, "Mama Said." A cast and crew retrospective and commentaries by Bergen and English for, respectively, the pilot and classic flashback episode "The Summer of '77" earn this set R*E*S*P*E*C*T. --Donald Liebenson

Product Description

Candice Bergen stars as Murphy Brown, an outspoken TV journalist, who along with her hilariously quirky cohorts of the top-rated newsmagazine show, FYI, struggles to handle personal and professional problems with humor and insight.

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
Documentary

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

33 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WHERE'S MURPHY?, August 29, 2006

By	James Helberg "Actor for Hire" (Detroit, MI United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Murphy Brown: The Complete First Season (DVD)

I purchased this DVD set on the day of it's release in Feb. 2005 and I'm still waiting for Season 2! We had to wait 3 years between releases of seasons 1 and 2 of "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" now MTM is being released a season every 6 months! Like FOX who released a deluxe 1st season set of MTM, I'm sure WB expected much more sales of the "Murphy Brown" 1st season and it failed to life up to studio expectations! FOX found a cost effective way to release all the seasons of MTM and satisify all of us loyal fans! I think WB needs to follow the example of FOX and other studios who release complete series sets on DVD of marginal shows! Complete episodes on DVD with no extras is better than nothing and those of us who care to complete our collection can do so! I was very pleased with the DVD set of MB and I noticed a few technical glitches that other viewers have commented on in other reviews but, overall this is a nice presentation of a brilliant, clever, funny, well written, well acted, sitcoms in TV history! Warner Bros. please commit and release the remaining seasons of Murphy Brown on DVD and preserve this classic for all us fans!

88 of 102 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Murphy Brown - The Complete First Season, November 24, 2004

By	cyclista (the Midwest) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Murphy Brown: The Complete First Season (DVD)

Dan Quayle may not be thrilled, but we are! I've read that there are 22 episodes on 2 double-sided discs, with an English stereo soundtrack, and English, French and Spanish subtitles. Special features include an exclusive never-before-seen look back at season one and how it all began. Creator & Cast episode commentary are included.

Murphy is a loud-mouth reporter on a news magazine show called FYI, based in Washington DC. Murphy lives in a townhouse that she has been having repainted by Eldin, who never gets done. Murphy owes her Betty Ford trip to Phil, who owns the local restaurant bar where the staff and the local political scene have lunch. Jim is the uptight senior anchor. Frank, a single guy constantly looking for a girlfriend, is Murphy's best friend. Corky is a former Miss America. Miles is the young executive producer in his first job after graduation from Harvard.

1. Respect: After a stint at the Betty Ford Clinic, Murphy returns to FYI.
2. Devil With a Blue Dress On: Corky uncovers the fact that a corporate big shot is a drug smuggler.
3. Nowhere to Run: Miles receives his first death threat.
4. Signed, Sealed, Delivered: Murphy is scheduled to interview her ex-husband.
5. Murphy's Pony: At Christmas, a mother abandons her children into Murphy's care.
6. Baby Love: Murphy thinks about having a baby.
7. Set Me Free: A gunman demands that FYI crew read his statement on the air.
8. And So He Goes: An old enemy asks Murphy to deliver his eulogy.
9. I Would Have Danced All Night: Murphy is not invited to George Bush's presidential inaugural ball.
(Note: After this aired, George Bush sent Candice Bergan an invitation to the Inaugural Ball.)
10. Kyle: Murphy's story gets an innocent man freed.
11. Off the Job Experience: Miles suspends Murphy for her handling of an interview.
12. Why Do Fools Fall in Love? Murphy makes a deal with Frank that she will fix him up with someone if he finds someone for her.
13. Soul Man: Murphy tries to get into an exclusive men's only club.
14. It's How You Play the Game: The FYI tries the tactics of a competing show.
15. Mama Said: Murphy's meddling mother comes to visit.
16. Moscow on the Potomac: Murphy prepares for a broadcast with a Soviet broadcaster.
17. My Dinner with Einstein: Murphy goes out with a physicist who turns out to be a partier.
18. Funnies Girl: An on-camera faux pas makes Murphy the brunt of a cartoonist.
19. The Unshrinkable Murphy Brown: A judge dies of a heart attack while Murphy is interviewing him live.
20. The Summer of '77: Eldin is infatuated with Corky.
21. The Bickners: A sweet elderly couple sue Murphy after a minor accident.
22. The Morning Show: Murphy co-anchors the morning show with Corky for a week.

33 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Warner Brothers displays a total disregard for the consumer market.....again!, April 2, 2007

By	David R. Hardin "Zoned in space" (Tulsa, OK) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Murphy Brown: The Complete First Season (DVD)

Warner Brothers is up to their usual old tricks that they like to play on the American consumer. On the website [...] an article appeared on June 17th, 2006 stating that because of low sales of Murphy Brown-Season One they have no intention at all of releasing any more seasons of the Emmy winning show, ever!

In other reviews I have spoke of Warner's negligence and lack of integrity in other facets of DVD production and releases, so this does not surprise me in the least.

It's quite apparent that Warner Brothers has become a company whose only interest is the bottom line! From their cheap DVD cases made of cardboard to their disinterest in producing a quality product, it's evident that Warners only interest is to squeeze as much money out of the consumer as it can, and as cheaply as possible, thus treating the consumer as complete utter fools!

Some serious changes need to be made in upper management of the company if this is ever going to end!

Therefore I urge as many people as possible to do what I have done the past couple of years. A complete boycott of all Warners material in the theatre as well as on DVD! Let them eat it as they have made US all eat it in recent years with their childish, infantile marketing strategies geared to idiots! Don't give them the satisfaction of making money being lazy and incompetent! Make them get off their slacking butts and start WORKING for the money! Make 'em sweat!!

Until they wake up and start recognizing that we're not as stupid as they think we are, they'll continue to pull dumb tricks like this!

Until they continue the release of subsequent seasons of Murphy Brown and other shows they've left hanging.....they're DIRT!