Two of the strongest sitcoms in the 90's in a grudge match,mostly because I had nothing else to compare them to.
VS 
Murphy
Brown premiered in 1988 and was unique for several reasons,not the
least of which was having the main character be a strong
opinionatednewswoman. They dealt with all kinds of topics, and was on
for 10 seasons.Frasier premiered in 1993 and was on for 11 seasons. It
was a very strong show,tight writing and sharp humor making it a
critical success. But which show wasbetter? For the sake of this face
off we will kind of forget that Frasier is aspin off and discuss the
show on its own merit.
CATEGORY 1:
MURPHY BROWN vs. FRASIER CRANE
What
can I say about these two characters? They are both so self-absorbedand
full of themselves. They want everything their own way and can be
verybossy and controlling. Why in the world do we watch them? Because
KelseyGrammar and Candace Bergen were both strong actors who knew how to
put justenough charm and humanity in their characters to help us
tolerate those momentswhen they were almost insufferable. They both won
several Emmy’s for acting ontheir shows, and with good reason. But this
is about the characters not theactors. Murphy Brown was a recovering
alcoholic, a former smoker, and one ofthe pushiest journalists you'll
ever meet. She would do anything for a story,and if the spotlight were
not on her and on someone else she was green
withenvy. It was actually that last part which always bothered me, she
could neverbe happy for her friends if they should get some limelight.
One episode she isnot only jealous of her friend Frank’s new fame, but
even sabotages his good fortuneout of envy. True she can be remorseful
when she goes too far, and could be acaring person and a good friend,
but it seemed like her job and personalityalways got in the way. Frasier
was a Psychiatrist who believed he was smarterthan everyone else. It
wasn’t really true, but that’s what he believed. Hecould be arrogant and
even a snob attimes, looking down at things which were not
sophisticated. He had his ownradio show which brought him fame which he
relished. He had very specific ideasof how he wanted his life to be,
ideas which didn’t always work out. Especiallywhen his father moved into
his apartment with him. When he
went off on atangent, whether it be anger or worrying about something to
death, then itcould be real hard to talk him down. Take the episode
where he worried why oneguy in a focus group hated him. He couldn’t let
it go until he got an answer. One thing these characters have in
commonbesides their attitude was their love life. Neither couple could
seem to successfullymaintain a relationship, and Murphy had trouble even
getting dates. At leastFrasier could get a few dates with someone
before blowing it, and when Murphydid get into a relationship it always
ended. The difference between these twocharacters is Frasier was more
aware of his problems, and quicker to apologize forthose moments when he
let things get a little crazy. Murphy was much shallowerand it was a
lot harder to get her to stop and actually consider othersfeelings,
including her friends. In the end I find I get annoyed with Murphymuch
faster than I do Frasier.
WINNER-FRASIER
CATEGORY 2-CAST 1
Jim, Frank, Corky vsMartin Niles & Daphne
So
let’s analyze the supporting cast on these shows. MurphyBrown had a
supporting cast which served very specific roles. Jim was theclassic
newsman, he never smiled. He never broke his character, so to
speak.Episodes he was in the center of where always about him loosening
up in someway. Frank was the investigative reporter who had all kinds of
issues. He wasthe confirmed bachelor who could never settle down, and
had all kinds ofpsychological problems from overbearing parents. Corky
was the perky one, shewas there to smile and be pretty. Well, at least
in the beginning because hercharacter evolved well past that as the
series progressed. On Frasier we hadMartin, who was Niles and Frasier’s
father. He was a widower, a former policeofficer who had been injured in
the line of duty. Where Frasier was schooltaught, Martin had more
street smarts. He was the regular man contrasted withhis sons who could
be pompous. Daphne filled the same role but took it anotherstep by being
a bit flaky. She thought she was a psychic
and tended to be moredown to Earth. Of course she was the love interest
for Niles, who had all kindsof interesting quirks. He was a clean freak
who liked order. Kind of likeFrasier but even more pompous. He kind of
picked up where Frasier left off. Sowho wins? I think that the cast from
Frasier wins because on Murphy BrownFrank, Jim, and Corky were confined
by the roles they had. They were neverallowed to change, although Cory
did a lot. On Frasier the three were allowedto break out of their
confines once in a while, and just felt more like realpeople. Also
Murphy Brown was one of those shows were many episode thesupporting cast
hardly appeared or would have one line, and be gone. Frasierwas much
fairer; everyone was in every episode and had something to do, even ifit
was just a silly B story. Just on that alone, I have to give it to
Frasier.
WINNER-FRASIER
CATEGORY 3-CAST 2
Miles vs Roz
I
broke these two down because they have similar jobs. Milesis the
executive producer on FYI while Roz produces Frasier’s radio show.
Thatis where the similarities end however. Miles was very young to be an
executive producer,which is probably why Murphy constantly harassed
him. He was a classicstereotype for a whiny, neurotic Jewish guy. He did
know what he was doing interms of the work, but didn’t have the
backbone to stand up for himself. Whenhe had to do something like stand
up to Murphy it took a lot for him to be ableto do that. But Murphy grew
to truly respect Miles because she could see thatwhile he had a lot to
learn, he did know what he was doing. It seems everysitcom needs a
character to sleeps around with everyone in sight, and Roz fillsthat
role on this show. Professionally she was a pro, Frasier quickly
respectedher abilities as a producer and even harbored a slight crush on
her. However,the fact that she slept around was annoying. Yeah, they
tried to evolve hercharacter by giving her a baby in later years, but I
think that her characterwas always held down by this. True Miles was a
stereotype in many ways to, butI always found Miles neurotic behavior
funny while Roz’s slutty behavior justwas not.
WINNER=MURPHY BROWN
CATEGORY 4-SUPPORTING CAST
This
one is pretty easy. Murphy Brown needed Eldin and Phil,it’s as simple
as that. Phil was the wise one who listened and gave advice. Hewas the
one who would often have to reel Murphy in when she was off on atangent.
Eldin went one step further, and reminded Murphy how to be humble
andeven a little human. When Murphy became pregnant everyone was worried
how it wouldaffect her career, Eldin was the only one who treated her
like a woman and wasthrilled for her. There were also Collen Dewhurst as
Murphy’s mother, a fewboyfriends like Jerry Gold, and Kay in later
years. I love Lily Tomlin but didnot care for her in this show.
Frasierdidn’t have a supporting cast more than they had guest stars.
Every episode hada different woman dating one of them, and they usually
didn’t stay around forlong. The exception was the regulars from the
radio station. Kenny, Bulldog,Gil, and Noel who by the end were pretty
fleshed out characters. I picked on Roz for being a sitcom cliché,well
we also had the never seen but often spoken of Maris. Finally, one of
thebest dog’s in any show was on this one. Eddie was an adorable Terrier
whoseemed to be a good actor, for a dog. As cute as he was, the
supporting castfor Murphy Brown was still stronger since they were there
for more than just afew laughs.
WINNER-MURPHY BROWN
CATEGORY 5-THEME SONG
No
contest here, while Frasier had kind of weak theme song,Murphy Brown
had none at all, using Motown tunes in their openings. Winner easyin
this category.
WINNER=FRASIER
CATEGORY 6-PREMISE
These
shows told very different kinds of stories. I will be honest;comparing
them is not an easy thing to do. Murphy Brown not only dealt with
theplight of Murphy, a recovering alcoholic, but was a very topical
series. Itdealt with real life events and news. This show tried to feel
so real that manyreal life news people appeared in cameos. This was not
clearer than afterMurphy had her baby, and then vice president Dan
Quayle made some commentsregarding the inappropriateness of a single
mother having a baby. The commentscreated an outrage, and it was dealt
with in the show. It was really bizarre,like real life and TV coming
together. The problem, however, is that this isvery dated now. If anyone
watches these episodes today they probably won’tunderstand the context.
That is the one bad thing with the show, it wasengrained in the 90’s
that it seems flat out dated now. That doesn’t mean itisn’t fun to
watch, some of the jokes still work, but it still feels dated.
Frasierdid not do that, their stories were rarely topical. This show is
much lessdated. Most of the shows dealt with Frasier trying to find
happiness in hislife. He kept going through relationships and obsessing
over things whichreally didn’t matter. The writing could be great, one
of my favorite episodes is one where Niles is confronted on why even
though he has Daphne, he still clings to the fantasy. Brilliant episode
so well done. What made Murphy Brown work was the subjects they
weretackling, what made Frasier work were the characters and their
plights week after week. We wanted to see if Niles and Daphne would get
together, forexample. So who wins, the show which never shied away from
current events orthe one which was more about the characters than the
universe around them?Honestly, I think the show that took more risks
should win. Frasier was a wellwritten and funny, but how many episodes
of Frasier about him dating andbreaking up with a woman did they have?
And how long did they drag out thewhole Niles and Daphne thing? And how
many times was the plot of an episodeover a “misunderstanding”? Murphy
Brown was many things, but repetitive? No Ican’t say that it was that.
This is a tough call, but I just think Murphy Browntold better and more
original stories and give them credit for tackling reallife subjects.
That makes it a winner in this category.
WINNER-MURPHY BROWN
CATEGORY 7-JUMPING THE SHARK
This
is pretty easy, but let’s discuss it anyway. Frasierwas on for 11 years
and I would be lying if I said it was strong for its entirerun. It did
have a bit of trouble maintaining quality, but even in the yearswhen it
wasn’t that strong, it was still a pretty decent show. The show did
evolve,as we finally saw Niles and Daphne get together, Roz got a baby
and learned toslow down a bit, and Martin even was engaged by the final
season. The only onekind of stuck was Frasier, and that’s what the final
episode was all about.Finally he decides to take a chance and shake
things up a bit by chasing histrue love to Chicago, and the episode was
really good. It felt like a decentending. Murphy Brown….ah, this isn’t
going to be easy to talk about. The firstfew years of Murphy Brown were
amazing, strong writing which was funny andtopical. But by the time
Murphy Brown got to year ten age was definitelycatching up the show.
Eldin, Phil, and Miles all left and we got Kay who was alousy character.
So in an attempt to keep people watching, the final season hada story
arc regarding Murphy getting breast cancer. Problem is, it was clearthis
was a stunt. Murphy already dealt with being an alcoholic, a
non-smoker,and a single mother-why did we need to see her have this
fight? Now I give theshow credit for tackling the subject, there is
nothing wrong with that and theyeven did a decent job. It’s just that it
felt contrived, like they knew theyneeded a stunt to keep people
watching a show which should have been cancelledtwo years earlier. The
worst part was, and I don’t know why, all the heart andfire left the
character. Murphy went from being a strong character to anincredibly
weak one. It is really amazing if you watched those shows, to see
acharacter just transform in such a way that she barely resembled the
amazingcharacter she had been. It just sucked the life out of the show.
The finalepisode we saw Murphy beat cancer and Eldin came back in the
end, it wasactually a decent enough final episode but by then the damage
had been done. Incontrast, Frasier got stronger and its last year was
as strong as its earlieryears. No contest here, the winner goes to the
show which managed to keep thequality of the writing and not damn the
characters by turning them into caricaturesof who they used to be.
Frasier hit almost every mark; it was a smart, wellwritten, funny show
with interesting characters we learned to love. It won 37 Emmyawards
(more than any other show) with good reason. Do I need to say more?
WINNER=
Final Thoughts-Tough call, both strong shows but Frasier maintained that quality a lot better
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