MURPHY'S PONY

Murphy Brown
Season 1 (1988)

I would trade a sliver of my soul for a full DVD release of certain shows: the final seasons of The Bob Newhart Show, Muppet Babies, Pepper Ann, and Murphy Brown among them.  Just the first season of Murphy Brown is available to own; it was released some time ago and apparently there are no plans to bring out more due to low sales and the expensive music rights involved (call it The Wonder Years Problem).  

Murphy Brown had one of my all-time favorite Christmas episodes, “Jingle Hell, Jingle Hell, Jingle All the Way,” from its third season.  It was briefly up on YouTube but now isn’t available anywhere, which is a crime against Christmas.  For now we’ll have to content ourselves with this Season 1 offering, “Murphy’s Pony.”  It starts out slow but gradually amps up the Christmas quotient, ultimately making for a moving and satisfying holiday viewing experience.

It’s two days before Christmas and Murphy Brown is her typical irascible self, absorbed in her work and indifferent to the forthcoming office Christmas party that perky Corky is attempting to organize.  Three children show up at the FYI newsroom with a letter for Murphy: their mother has abandoned them to her care.  Murphy plans a quick escape via social services but she ends up stuck on the phone all day and has to take the kids for the night.

Santa and the pony he rode in on

The kids are actually quite bratty throughout all of this, making it hard to sympathize with their plight.  They grab everything in their vicinity, dump ice cream on Jim’s head and start a food fight at a salad bar.  But when it comes time to hand them over to a social worker on Christmas Eve Murphy has a change of heart.  It’s a brilliant bit of acting displayed by the ever-capable Candice Bergen, as she attempts to speak but is blindsided by emotion.  Murphy ends up taking the kids back to her house, which she has decorated and outfitted with presents, a visit from Santa and even a pony for herself (since one of the kids earlier asked that Santa bring Murphy a pony).

Of course you know where this is headed.  Suddenly the kids’ real mother returns and sweeps them away.  Murphy gets her to accept a check before she goes (lesson: abandon your gifts for monetary reward) but nobody questions why she dumped off her kids in the first place, or even gets her to promise not to do it again.  Biology wins out over common sense, I guess.  Anyhoo, a depressed Murphy then takes her housepainter/houseboy Elton to the FYI Christmas party.  In a nice final gag, all of the decorations are Hanukkah-themed since Miles (who is Jewish) was in charge of decorating.

Merry Hanukkah!

As I wrote, this episode is something of a slow burn, with nary a Christmas tree in sight for the first half.  But as Murphy warms up to the kids Christmas creeps in, and the last few scenes, set at Murphy’s house and the office party, are genuinely heartwarming.  And this works as a Hanukkah episode as well, which is always nice.  Plus Elton sports a shirt version of Audrey Penney’s gift wrap dress, which is pretty awe inspiring!

This shirt is 100% Christmas certified 

Recurring Themes: Murphy finds herself in a classic Abandoned Child scenario.

Christmas Quotient: 3

See It, Skip It, Own It?
Go buy Season 1 of Murphy Brown on DVD in order to send a message that we need the rest of the series released!  But this Christmas episode is pretty solid on its own merits as well.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, MRS. MOSKOWITZ

Frasier
Season 6 (1998)

Hanukkah episodes can be hard to find, and the few that are out there I don’t own yet on DVD, but I didn’t want the holiday to slip by without acknowledging it.  My compromise is reviewing this Christmas episode of Frasier, which hinges on a menorah and  a case of mistaken identity.

Frasier was one big comedy of manners but this episode displays some of the classic elements of the genre better than most: wordplay, mistaken identities, and hasty entrances and exits abound.  The episode begins in a department store when Roz stumbles upon Frasier as he’s in the midst of buying her a sweater fro Christmas.  He’s saved by a fellow shopper, the eponymous Helen Moskowitz, who pretends the sweater is for her daughter.  The delightfully pushy Mrs. Moskowitz then gets an indebted Frasier to agree to a blind date with her daughter.

Despite his apprehension Frasier ends up hitting it off with Faye (played by Amy Brennan, if there are Judging Amy fans still out there).  All is going well with their budding relationship until Faye and her mother, en route to the airport, stop by Frasier’s apartment on Christmas Eve.  Spotting a wreath on his mantle, Faye is surprised to learn that Frasier isn’t Jewish, as she and her mother presumed (while shopping he was also buying a menorah as a present for his half-Jewish son, hence the assumption).  To save her from her mother’s disapproval Frasier agrees to pretend to be Jewish—on Christmas Eve.

Everything that then happens naturally threatens to expose the truth.  Frasier’s brother and father have to be convinced to play along on the spot. Mrs. Moskowitz must be convinced that a cooking ham is really brisket.  A Christmas tree gets delivered and then stuffed into a bathroom.  It all leads to a disastrous conclusion, which involves Niles, dressed as Jesus for a Christmas pageant, being discovered in the bathroom with the aforementioned Christmas tree.

Jesus!

It’s laugh out funny, bolstered by guest performers Amy Brennan but especially Carole Shelley as Helen.  She’s a character and voice actress of the highest order (she played one half of the Cuckoo Pigeon sisters in the original Odd Couple movie).  The whole episode (and indeed the entire run of the show) harkens back to the great screwball comedies of the 40s.  Obviously because of the nature of the plot the scenery can’t be fully decked out with holiday décor; the one tree we get to see is extremely cheap and shoddy looking, which is weird since it’s supposed to be a designer tree Frasier specially ordered.  But as a Christmas episode this satisfies and offers up an original, hilarious story and admirable performances.

Christmas Quotient: Despite all of my praise I’m prevented from giving this a 5 just because it’s a bit shy on Christmas visuals, but it still ranks a solid 4.

See It, Skip It, Own It?
Worth owning for repeat Christmas viewings, and it even kinda sorta works as a Hanukkah episode!