May 19, 1992: "Murphy Has a Baby, Quayle Has a Cow"

May 19, 1992: Vice President Dan Quayle, running for re-election on the Republican Party's ticket with President George H.W. Bush, gives a speech to the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco, as many other major public figures have done.

He titles it "Reflections On Urban America," and it's basically a commentary on the conditions that produced the riots down the Coast in Los Angeles 3 weeks earlier.

Often mocked for being stupid -- by the standards of late 20th Century politicians, anyway -- he makes some good points about the structure of families. And if he hadn't brought up a certain TV episode, he might have done himself a lot of good.

Instead, he totally blew it. He blamed the riot's conditions on weakened family structures -- not the problems of poverty and bigotry that frequently combine to cause such weakenings. This is not the hippie San Francisco about which you've heard so much: This was families like the Stanfords and the Hearsts. So, here, Quayle was "preaching to the choir."

That was bad enough. But Quayle also took a swipe at pop culture, saying it "glamorized single motherhood," and cited as an example the previous night's season finale of the CBS situation comedy Murphy Brown. In that episode, the lead character -- unmarried, but, like Quayle's in-room audience, wealthy enough to raise a child alone -- gave birth to a baby boy, having rejected both potential boyfriends, one of them the baby's biological father, as unacceptable.

Quayle said she was "mocking the importance of fathers." She wasn't: As portrayed by Candice Bergen, she was pointing that importance out, saying that neither of these guys was worthy of the role. Nor did she "call it just another lifestyle choice."

The Philadelphia Daily News printed a classic headline the next day: "Murphy has a baby, Quayle has a cow!" It was appropriate, since Murphy had previously claimed to have been born in Philadelphia.

The general perception after this speech, going along with Quayle's already-present image, was that he was so dumb, he couldn't tell the difference between a TV show and real life. That part wasn't true: He specifically called Murphy "a character who... " (That part was edited out on the show.) He could tell the difference.

The reality was worse: He was blaming pop culture and society for problems that conservatism had been in the process of causing on this continent for nearly 400 years, including long before independence.

The problem wasn't that Quayle was dumb, or even that he was ignorant: It was that he was demanding that others accept responsibility for what was going wrong, but not that his own side accept their share of it, which was a massive one.

When the next TV season began, just as the general election campaign was hitting its stride, Murphy -- at least, on the air -- took the high road, and explained that attacking single mothers was "painfully unfair."

There was a reason why Quayle was never seriously considered for the Republican nomination for President after the 1992 election. Then again, look at what we've had as Republican nominees for President and Vice President since: George W. Bush, Sarah Palin and Donald Trump. And the "smart" ones have been no better: Dick Cheney, John McCain, Mitt Romney, Paul Ryan, Mike Pence. (UPDATE: Add JD Vance to that list.)

Murphy Brown ran on CBS from 1988 to 1998. In 2018, CBS brought it back for 1 season. Murphy's son, Avery, now 26 and also a TV reporter, was played by Jake McDorman.

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May 19, 1992 was a Tuesday. Football was out of season. There were 2 games played in the NBA Playoffs. The Chicago Bulls beat the Cleveland Cavaliers, 103-89 at the Chicago Stadium. Michael Jordan scored 33 points. And the Portland Trail Blazers beat the Utah Jazz, 119-102 at the Portland Memorial Coliseum. Terry Porter scored 41.

In the Stanley Cup Playoffs, Game 2 of the Prince of Wales Conference Final was held at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh Penguins beat the Boston Bruins, 5-2.

And these games were played in Major League Baseball:

* The New York Yankees beat the California Angels, 5-4 at Yankee Stadium. Randy Velarde singled Mel Hall home with the winning run in the bottom of the 10th inning, making Rich Monteleone a winning pitcher in relief of Scott Sanderson. Bert Blyleven started for the Angels. Hall, Kevin Maas and Matt Nokes hit home runs for the Yankees. Don Mattingly went 1-for-4 with a walk.

* The New York Mets beat the San Diego Padres, 8-0 at Jack Murphy Stadium in San Diego. David Cone pitched a 7-hit shutout. Daryl Boston and Bobby Bonilla hit home runs. Tony Gwynn did not play.

* The Cincinnati Reds beat the Montreal Expos, 7-4 at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.

* The Boston Red Sox beat the Seattle Mariners, 7-5 at Fenway Park in Boston. Ken Griffey Jr. went 4-for-5, but had no RBIs.

* The Philadelphia Phillies beat the Houston Astros, 4-3 at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia.

* The Oakland Athletics beat the Baltimore Orioles, 5-3 at Camden Yards in Baltimore. Rickey Henderson went 1-for-3 with 2 walks and a stolen base. Cal Ripken went 0-for-3 with a walk.

* The St. Louis Cardinals beat the Atlanta Braves, 7-2 at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium.

* The Minnesota Twins beat the Toronto Blue Jays, 7-1 at the SkyDome (now the Rogers Centre) in Toronto.

* The Texas Rangers beat the Cleveland Indians, 8-7 at Cleveland Municipal Stadium.

* The Detroit Tigers beat the Milwaukee Brewers, 3-0 at Tiger Stadium in Detroit. How many Tigers does it take to pitch a 3-hit shutout? This time, 3: Frank Tanana (2 hits over 6 1/3rd innings), John Doherty (none over 1 2/3rds) and Mike Henneman (a scoreless 9th).

* The Chicago White Sox beat the Kansas City Royals, 2-1 at the new Comiskey Park (now Rate Field) in Chicago. George Brett went 1-for-4.

* The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Chicago Cubs, 5-2 at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.

* And the San Francisco Giants beat the Pittsburgh Pirates, 7-2 at Candlestick Park in San Francisco. Barry Bonds, still with the Pirates, went 1-for-4.