33 Years Ago, The Vice President Attacked ‘Murphy Brown’ For Being a Single Mother
What To Know
- In 1992, Vice President Dan Quayle publicly criticized the TV character Murphy Brown for choosing to raise a child as a single mother, sparking national debate about single parenthood and media influence.
- The controversy became a cultural flashpoint, with Murphy Brown‘s creators responding both in the media and by incorporating Quayle’s comments into the show’s storyline.
- The incident is still referenced today, highlighting ongoing political debates about women’s reproductive choices and societal expectations, as seen with recent comments by politicians like JD Vance.
Murphy Brown made its TV debut 37 years ago, on November 14, 1988. But while the Candice Bergen-led series about a famous investigative journalist and her wacky newsroom colleagues ran for 11 seasons and led to a single-season revival in 2018, its most enduring legacy might be the show’s 1992 battle with then-U.S. vice president Dan Quayle, who criticized the title character for raising a child alone.
Quayle’s other famous gaffes (such as telling an elementary school student there’s an “e” in the word “potato”) might be excused: after all, Quayle was reading off a cue card that read “potatoe” as he visited Rivera Elementary School in Trenton, New Jersey, in 1992.
But how could a politician have thought he had the right to weigh in on whether women should or shouldn’t become mothers? Well, that question came up recently in the context of current Vice President JD Vance, as Bergen recently pointed out…
Dan Quayle said Murphy Brown was “mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone.”
Everett Collection
In a campaign speech supporting then-President George H. W. Bush’s unsuccessful bid for re-election, Quayle name-dropped Murphy Brown as he spoke out against single motherhood. On the hit CBS sitcom, Bergen’s news anchor character had gotten pregnant by her ex-husband and decided to raise her kid solo after her ex opted out of fatherhood.
“Bearing babies irresponsibly is simply wrong. Failing to support children one has fathered is wrong, and we must be unequivocal about this,” Quayle said at the time, per CNN. “It doesn’t help matters when primetime TV has Murphy Brown, a character who supposedly epitomizes today’s intelligent, highly paid professional woman, mocking the importance of fathers by bearing a child alone and calling it just another lifestyle choice.”
Two days later, pictures of Bergen and Quayle ran side by side in The New York Times as the media alit on the controversy. A White House spokesperson gave a confusing response, both criticizing and commending Murphy Brown, as the newspaper reported. And a frustrated Bush told reporters that he didn’t “know that much about the show” and didn’t “want any more questions about it.”
Murphy Brown creator Diane English spoke out about Quayle’s distressing comments, saying, “If the Vice President thinks it’s disgraceful for an unmarried woman to bear a child, and if he believes that a woman cannot adequately raise a child without a father, then he’d better make sure abortion remains safe and legal.”
The comments made it onto the show
Then, in the Season 5 premiere of Murphy Brown, the sitcom’s writers incorporated Quayle’s comments into the show
“What planet is he on?” Murphy asked her friend Frank (Joe Regalbuto) as she watched a video of the speech.
But Frank had reassuring words. “Tomorrow he’s probably going to get his head stuck in his golf bag, and you’ll be old news,” he responded. “Murph, it’s Dan Quayle! Just forget about it!”
Then, in Season 5’s second episode, Murphy addressed Quayle’s comments on her news program. “These are difficult times for our country, and in searching for the causes of our social ills we could choose to blame the media, or the Congress, or an administration that’s been in power for 12 years,” she said. “Or we could blame me.”
When JD Vance criticized women without children, Bergen highlighted how far we haven’t come
Another politician thought it prudent to weigh in on a woman’s right to reproduce or not in 2021 when Vance, then a candidate for U.S. Senate, complained about women without children in an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson. He claimed at the time that the U.S. was being run by Democrats, corporate oligarchs, and “a bunch of childless cat ladies who are miserable at their own lives and the choices that they’ve made, and so they want to make the rest of the country miserable, too,” as NPR later reported.
In particular, Vance called out Kamala Harris — who has stepchildren — and Pete Buttigieg — who may have been childless at the time but was not a lady — and he lamented that Americans had “turned our country over to people who don’t really have a direct stake in it.”
Those comments resurfaced and went viral in 2024, after Vance joined Donald Trump’s presidential ticket. And when it came time for her to present a category at the Emmy Awards that year, Bergen highlighted a certain parallel.
“For 11 years, I had the tremendous privilege of playing the lead in a comedy series called Murphy Brown,” she told the crowd. “And in one classic moment, my character was attacked by Vice President Dan Quayle when Murphy became pregnant and decided to raise the baby as a single mother.”
Then she deadpanned, “Oh, how far we’ve come.”
And she said, with words dripping with sarcasm, Bergen said, “Today, a Republican candidate for vice president would never attack a woman for having kids. So, as they say, My work here is done. Meow.”