fatherlessness, Quayle criticized the producers of the "Murphy
Brown" show for glamorizing, as a "lifestyle choice," her choice to
have her baby out of wedlock. Responding to Quayle on the air, Murphy
Brown (played by Candice Bergen) addressed her audience directly by
presenting a studio full of real inner-city single mothers, all of
whom took issue with Quayle's outmoded concept of a two-parent family.
Quayle later received considerable intellectual support for his
position when the Atlantic Monthly published a lengthy cover
story that declared "Dan Quayle Was Right."
The article, by Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, detailed the tendency of
children born from single-parent families to suffer higher levels of
social pathologies such as crime, suicide, and poverty—regardless of
income level.
It turns out that Quayle was right about more than one thing. Despite howls of indignation at the suggestion that hers was an option available only to successful career women, it turns out the Murphy Brown episode had more to do with fashionable attitudes of the affluent than with real parenthood. For, unlike other sitcoms that detail both the difficulties and rewards of child-rearing (most notably "Mad About You"), soon after his birth Avery seemingly dropped off the face of the earth. Not only was Avery not seen on the show for five years, but his mother made no mention of him, not even the sort of details that parents normally find it hard not to talk about: a child's first steps, first words, sleepless nights from teething, etc. The show instead has focused on Murphy Brown's career and any of a number of "issues" that periodically come up. The latest such issue is breast cancer, which Murphy Brown has contracted.
Murphy's child has now reappeared on the show after a long hiatus, not as a five-year-old, but at the advanced age of seven. His apparent function is to look sad at the thought that his mother is dying.
[Ed.: Ms. Bergen later told the Los Angeles Times that she agreed with all of Quayle's speech except his reference to the show, which he had not seen. Bergen added, "I had a very difficult time playing Murphy the first year after the baby, [who was treated] as a distant second priority. It was very distressing to me, and I couldn't get them to change it.... I didn't think it was a good message to be sending out."]
