Murphy Brown

(1988)•

6.4

"Comedy's Back In The News."

Fading Star

Average season ratings show a negative trend over time.

Murphy Brown (Candice Bergen) is a recovering alcoholic who returns to the fictional newsmagazine FYI for the first time following a stay at the Betty Ford Clinic residential treatment center. Over 40 and single, she is sharp tongued and hard as nails. In her profession, she is considered one of the boys, having shattered many glass ceilings encountered during her career. Dominating the FYI news magazine, she is portrayed as one of America's hardest-hitting (though not the warmest or more sympathetic) media personalities.

Seasons

247

Episodes

Ended

Status

November 14, 1988

First Aired

Season Ratings

1.0→7.6

IMDb

Networks: CBS

Genres: Comedy

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Season 1

22 episodes • 1988Avg: 6.8Golden Era

#	Episode	Air Date	Rating
1	Respect	Nov 14, 1988	7.7
2	Devil With a Blue Dress On	Nov 21, 1988	7.5
3	Nowhere to Run	Nov 28, 1988	6.5
4	Signed, Sealed, Delivered	Dec 5, 1988	7.0
5	Murphy's Pony	Dec 11, 1988	7.0
6	Baby Love	Dec 12, 1988	7.0
7	Set Me Free	Dec 19, 1988	7.0
8	And So He Goes	Jan 2, 1989	7.0
9	I Would Have Danced All Night	Jan 9, 1989	7.0
10	Kyle	Jan 16, 1989	7.0
11	Off the Job Experience	Jan 23, 1989	7.0
12	Why Do Fools Fall in Love?	Feb 13, 1989	7.0
13	Soul Man	Feb 20, 1989	7.0
14	It's How You Play the Game	Feb 27, 1989	3.0
15	Mama Said	Mar 6, 1989	7.0
16	Moscow on the Potomac	Mar 13, 1989	7.0
17	My Dinner with Einstein	Mar 20, 1989	7.0
18	Funnies Girl	Apr 10, 1989	7.0
19	The Unshrinkable Murphy Brown	May 1, 1989	7.0
20	The Summer of '77	May 8, 1989	7.0
21	The Bickners	May 15, 1989	7.0
22	The Morning Show	May 22, 1989	7.0

Season 2

27 episodes • 1989Avg: 6.7Golden Era

#	Episode	Air Date	Rating
1	The Brothers Silverberg	Sep 18, 1989	7.0
2	Anchors Away	Sep 25, 1989	7.0
3	The Memo that Got Away	Oct 2, 1989	7.0
4	TV or Not TV	Oct 16, 1989	7.0
5	Miles' Big Adventure	Oct 23, 1989	7.0
6	Buddies Schmuddies	Oct 30, 1989	7.0
7	Whose Garbage is it Anyway?	Nov 6, 1989	7.0
8	And the Whiner Is...	Nov 13, 1989	7.0
9	Roasted	Nov 20, 1989	7.0
10	Brown Like Me (1)	Nov 27, 1989	7.0
11	Brown Like Me (2)	Nov 27, 1989	7.0
12	The Strike	Dec 11, 1989	7.0
13	Here's to You Mrs. Kinsella	Dec 18, 1989	3.0
14	What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?	Jan 1, 1990	7.0
15	Subpoena Envy	Jan 8, 1990	7.0
16	I Want My FYI	Jan 29, 1990	7.0
17	Frankly Speaking	Feb 5, 1990	7.0
18	The Murphy Brown School of Broadcasting	Feb 12, 1990	7.0
19	Bad Girls	Feb 19, 1990	3.0
20	Heart of Gold	Feb 26, 1990	7.0
21	On the Road Again	Mar 5, 1990	7.0
22	But First a Word From Our Sponsor	Mar 19, 1990	0.0
23	Frank's Appendectomy	Apr 9, 1990	7.0
24	Fax or Fiction	Apr 30, 1990	7.0
25	The Bitch's Back	May 7, 1990	7.0
26	Going to the Chapel (1)	May 14, 1990	7.0
27	Going to the Chapel (2)	May 21, 1990	7.0

Season 3

26 episodes • 1990Avg: 7.6Golden Era

#	Episode	Air Date	Rating
1	The 390th Broadcast	Sep 17, 1990	7.0
2	Brown and Blue	Sep 24, 1990	7.0
3	Loco Hero	Oct 1, 1990	7.0
4	Strike Two	Oct 15, 1990	7.0
5	The Gold Rush	Oct 22, 1990	8.0
6	Bob & Murphy & Ted & Avery	Nov 5, 1990	8.0
7	The Last Laugh	Nov 12, 1990	8.0
8	Rootless People	Nov 19, 1990	8.0
9	The Bummer of 42	Nov 26, 1990	8.0
10	Trouble in Sherwood-Forrest	Dec 10, 1990	8.0
11	Jingle Hell, Jingle Hell, Jingle All the Way	Dec 17, 1990	8.0
12	Retreat	Jan 7, 1991	7.0
13	Eldin Imitates Life	Jan 14, 1991	8.0
14	Contractions	Jan 21, 1991	8.0
15	Hoarse Play	Feb 4, 1991	7.0
16	The Novel	Feb 11, 1991	0.0
17	Terror on the 17th Floor	Feb 18, 1991	0.0
18	On Another Plane (1)	Feb 25, 1991	0.0
19	On Another Plane (2)	Feb 25, 1991	0.0
20	Driving Miss Crazy	Mar 4, 1991	0.0
21	Everytime it Rains... You Get Wet	Mar 18, 1991	0.0
22	Corky's Place	Apr 8, 1991	0.0
23	Small	Apr 29, 1991	0.0
24	The Usual Suspects	May 6, 1991	0.0
25	Q & A on FYI	May 13, 1991	0.0
26	Uh-Oh (1)	May 20, 1991	0.0

Season 4

26 episodes • 1991Avg: 1.0Valley of Despair

#	Episode	Air Date	Rating
1	Uh-Oh (2)	Sep 16, 1991	0.0
2	Uh-Oh (3)	Sep 16, 1991	0.0
3	I'm As Much of a Man as I Ever Was	Sep 23, 1991	0.0
4	Male Call	Sep 30, 1991	0.0
5	The Square Triangle	Oct 7, 1991	0.0
6	Full Circle	Oct 14, 1991	0.0
7	The Smiths Go to Washington	Oct 28, 1991	0.0
8	It Came From College	Nov 4, 1991	0.0
9	The Queen of Soul	Nov 11, 1991	0.0
10	Inside Murphy Brown	Nov 18, 1991	0.0
11	Mission Control	Nov 25, 1991	0.0
12	Be it Ever So Humboldt	Dec 9, 1991	0.0
13	Love is Blonde	Dec 16, 1991	1.0
14	Anchor Rancor	Jan 6, 1992	0.0
15	Guess Who's Coming to Luncheon	Jan 13, 1992	0.0
16	Lovesick	Jan 20, 1992	0.0
17	Heartfelt	Feb 3, 1992	0.0
18	Send in the Clowns	Feb 24, 1992	0.0
19	Murphy Buys the Farm	Mar 2, 1992	0.0
20	Come Out, Come Out, Wherever You Are	Mar 4, 1992	1.0
21	Rage Before Beauty	Mar 16, 1992	0.0
22	Phil's Not So Silent Partner	Mar 23, 1992	0.0
23	He-Ho, He-Ho, It's Off to Lamaze We Go	Apr 27, 1992	0.0
24	On the Rocks	May 4, 1992	0.0
25	A Chance of Showers	May 11, 1992	0.0
26	Birth 101	May 18, 1992	0.0

Season 5

25 episodes • 1992

#	Episode	Air Date
1	You Say Potatoe, I Say Potato (1)	Sep 21, 1992
2	You Say Potatoe, I Say Potato (2)	Sep 21, 1992
3	Life After Birth	Sep 28, 1992
4	Black, White & Brown	Oct 5, 1992
5	I Never Sang for My Husband	Oct 12, 1992
6	Night of Living News	Oct 26, 1992
7	A Year to Remember	Nov 2, 1992
8	Midnight Plane to Paris	Nov 9, 1992
9	Me Thinks My Parents Doth Protest Too Much	Nov 16, 1992
10	Winners Take All	Nov 23, 1992
11	Till Death or Next Thursday Do We Part	Dec 7, 1992
12	I'm Dreaming of a Brown Christmas	Dec 14, 1992
13	Games Mother Play	Jan 4, 1993
14	The British Invasion	Jan 11, 1993
15	Back to the Ball	Jan 18, 1993
16	The Intern	Feb 1, 1993
17	Trickster, We Hardly Knew Ye	Feb 8, 1993
18	The World According to Avery	Feb 15, 1993
19	Bump in the Night	Feb 21, 1993
20	To Market, to Market	Mar 1, 1993
21	Two For the Road	Mar 15, 1993
22	Murphy and the Amazing Leaping Man	Mar 22, 1993
23	The Egg & I	May 3, 1993
24	Ship of Phil's	May 10, 1993
25	One	May 17, 1993

Season 6

25 episodes • 1993

#	Episode	Air Date
1	The More Things Change	Sep 20, 1993
2	Angst For the Memories	Sep 27, 1993
3	Black and White and Read All Over	Oct 4, 1993
4	Political Correctness	Oct 11, 1993
5	The Young & the Rest of Us	Oct 18, 1993
6	Ticket to Writhe	Oct 25, 1993
7	I Don't Know You From Madam	Nov 1, 1993
8	All the Life That's Fit to Print	Nov 8, 1993
9	Bah Humboldt	Nov 15, 1993
10	Reaper Madness	Nov 22, 1993
11	It's Not Easy Being Brown	Nov 29, 1993
12	To Have and Have Not	Dec 6, 1993
13	Socks and the Single Woman	Dec 13, 1993
14	A Piece of the Auction	Jan 3, 1994
15	The Thrill of the Hunt	Jan 10, 1994
16	The Deal of the Art	Jan 17, 1994
17	The Anchorman	Jan 24, 1994
18	Fjord Eyes Only	Jan 31, 1994
19	Crime Story	Feb 28, 1994
20	The Fifth Anchor	Mar 7, 1994
21	Anything But Cured	Mar 14, 1994
22	The Tip of the Silverburg	Mar 28, 1994
23	It's Just Like Riding a Bike	May 2, 1994
24	My Movie With Louis	May 9, 1994
25	The More Things Stay the Same	May 16, 1994

Season 7

26 episodes • 1994Avg: 1.0

#	Episode	Air Date	Rating
1	Brown vs. the Board of Education	Sep 19, 1994	0.0
2	Where Have You Gone, Joe DiMaggio?	Sep 26, 1994	0.0
3	Loose Affiliations	Oct 3, 1994	0.0
4	Be Careful What You Wish For	Oct 10, 1994	0.0
5	Burger, She Wrote	Oct 17, 1994	0.0
6	Humboldt IV: Judgment Day	Oct 24, 1994	0.0
7	Frank Cuts Loose	Oct 31, 1994	0.0
8	Reporters Make Strange Bedfellows	Nov 7, 1994	0.0
9	Prelude to a Kiss	Nov 14, 1994	0.0
10	Bye Bye Bernecky	Nov 21, 1994	0.0
11	The Secret Life of Jim Dial	Nov 28, 1994	0.0
12	Brown in Toyland	Dec 12, 1994	0.0
13	The Best and Not-So-Brightest	Jan 2, 1995	0.0
14	Rumble in the Alley	Jan 9, 1995	0.0
15	Requiem For a Crew Guy	Jan 16, 1995	0.0
16	I Want My MTV-Jay	Jan 23, 1995	0.0
17	Specific Overtures	Feb 6, 1995	0.0
18	A Rat's Tale	Feb 13, 1995	0.0
19	It's Miller Time	Feb 20, 1995	0.0
20	McGovern: Unclothed	Feb 27, 1995	0.0
21	The Good Nephew	Mar 13, 1995	0.0
22	FYI of the Hurricane	Mar 20, 1995	0.0
23	Model Relationships	May 8, 1995	0.0
24	Make Room For Daddy	May 15, 1995	1.0
25	Retrospective (1)	May 22, 1995	0.0
26	Retrospective (2)	May 22, 1995	0.0

Season 8

24 episodes • 1995Avg: 6.0

#	Episode	Air Date	Rating
1	Altered States	Sep 18, 1995	0.0
2	The Awful Truth	Sep 25, 1995	0.0
3	Fearless Frank	Oct 2, 1995	0.0
4	Murphy's Law	Oct 9, 1995	0.0
5	Sex or Death	Oct 16, 1995	0.0
6	Miller's Crossing	Oct 23, 1995	0.0
7	The Feminine Critique	Oct 30, 1995	0.0
8	Bad Company	Nov 6, 1995	0.0
9	The Ten Percent Solution	Nov 13, 1995	0.0
10	The Humboldt Doldt	Nov 20, 1995	0.0
11	Dick and Dottie	Nov 27, 1995	0.0
12	All in the Family	Jan 8, 1996	0.0
13	If You're Going to Talk the Talk	Jan 15, 1996	0.0
14	My Fair Miller	Jan 22, 1996	0.0
15	Old Flames	Feb 5, 1996	0.0
16	Up in Smoke	Feb 12, 1996	0.0
17	Aftermath	Feb 19, 1996	0.0
18	Trick or Retreat	Feb 26, 1996	6.0
19	All Singing! All Dancing! All Miserable!	Mar 4, 1996	0.0
20	The Bus Stops Here	Mar 11, 1996	0.0
21	When A. Lansing Loves a Woman	Apr 29, 1996	0.0
22	Casa Nova	May 6, 1996	0.0
23	Stepping Out (1)	May 13, 1996	0.0
24	Miles Away (2)	May 20, 1996	0.0

Season 9

24 episodes • 1996

#	Episode	Air Date
1	Executive Decision	Sep 16, 1996
2	Power Play	Sep 23, 1996
3	A Comedy of Eros	Sep 30, 1996
4	Son of Dottie	Oct 7, 1996
5	Office Politics	Oct 14, 1996
6	Phil's Dead - Long Live Phil's	Oct 21, 1996
7	That's the Way the Corky Crumbles	Oct 28, 1996
8	Defending Your Life	Nov 4, 1996
9	Underdogs	Nov 11, 1996
10	Nobody's Perfect	Nov 18, 1996
11	A One Night Stan	Nov 25, 1996
12	Seperation Anxiety	Dec 2, 1996
13	Montezuma's Retreat	Dec 16, 1996
14	The Big Thaw	Jan 6, 1997
15	Who Do You Truss?	Jan 13, 1997
16	You Don't Know Jackal	Jan 20, 1997
17	Blind Date	Feb 3, 1997
18	Oh, Danny Boy	Feb 10, 1997
19	Desperate Times	Feb 17, 1997
20	And That's the Way it Was?	Feb 25, 1997
21	How to Marry a Billionaire	Apr 28, 1997
22	Hero Today, Gone Tomorrow	May 5, 1997
23	Mama Miller	May 12, 1997
24	When One Door Closes ...	May 18, 1997

Season 10

22 episodes • 1997Avg: 6.0

#	Episode	Air Date	Rating
1	Murphy Redux	Oct 1, 1997	0.0
2	A Butcher, A Faker a Bummed-Out Promo Maker	Oct 8, 1997	0.0
3	Ectomy, Schmectomy	Oct 15, 1997	0.0
4	Operation: Murphy Brown	Oct 22, 1997	0.0
5	Florence Night-en Corky	Oct 29, 1997	0.0
6	Waiting to Inhale	Nov 5, 1997	0.0
7	Petty Woman	Nov 12, 1997	0.0
8	From Here to Jerusalem	Nov 19, 1997	0.0
9	Tempus Fugit	Nov 24, 1997	0.0
10	I Hear a Symphony	Dec 10, 1997	0.0
11	From the Terrace	Dec 17, 1997	0.0
12	The Last Temptation of Murphy	Jan 7, 1998	0.0
13	Turpis Capillus Annus (Bad Hair Day)	Jan 14, 1998	0.0
14	Wee Small Hours	Jan 21, 1998	0.0
15	Then and Now	Jan 28, 1998	0.0
16	Opus One	Apr 6, 1998	0.0
17	Seems Like Gold Times	Apr 13, 1998	0.0
18	Second Time Around	Apr 20, 1998	0.0
19	A Man and a Woman	Apr 27, 1998	0.0
20	Dial and Substance	May 4, 1998	0.0
21	Never Can Say Goodbye (1)	May 18, 1998	6.0
22	Never Can Say Goodbye (2)	May 18, 1998	6.0

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