In 1992, Dan Quayle criticized 'Murphy Brown': Here's how the sitcom fired back

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For 2024 Emmy Awards presenter Candice Bergen, Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance's remark about the nation being run by Democrats who're a “bunch of childless cat ladies” delivered to thoughts the time former Vice President Dan Quayle went up towards a fictional character.

Bergen playfully reminisced a couple of 1992 political speech the place Indianapolis native Quayle attacked her “Murphy Brown” character for changing into pregnant and deciding to lift a toddler as a single mother.

“Oh, how far we've come,” Bergen deadpanned throughout the Sunday broadcast. “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.”

What did Dan Quayle say about Candice Bergen’s character Murphy Brown?

In a May 1992 speech on family values to the Commonwealth Club of California, then Vice President Dan Quayle ragged on the determination of the single information anchor to have a toddler. The season 4 finale noticed her give beginning to a son.

During the presentation, Quayle stated, ”marriage is an ethical situation that requires cultural consensus, and the use of social sanctions. Bearing infants irresponsibly is, merely, unsuitable. Failing to help kids one has fathered is unsuitable. We should be unequivocal about this.”

“It doesn't help matters when prime time 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’.”

How did “Murphy Brown” writers reply to Dan Quayle’s assault on the lead character?

Show creator and producer Diane English responded, “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.”

Writers included Quayle's feedback in the September 1992 Season 5 premiere episode, with Bergen as Murphy Brown saying to her co-worker Frank, “What planet is he on?”

“Tomorrow he’s probably going to get his head stuck in his golf bag and you’ll be old news,” Frank informed her. “Murph, it’s Dan Quayle! Just forget about it!”

USA TODAY reporter Brian Truitt contributed to this report.

Contact IndyStar reporter Cheryl V. Jackson at [email protected] or 317-444-6264. Follow her on X.com:@cherylvjackson.