A ‘90s sitcom character became the center of political controversy. Echoes of that are being felt today

(CNN) — The fervor over GOP vice presidential nominee JD Vance’s now-infamous “childless cat ladies” remark had barely died down when Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders fanned the flames again.

“My kids keep me humble,” Sanders said at a September 17 campaign event for Donald Trump in Flint, Michigan. “Unfortunately, Kamala Harris doesn’t have anything keeping her humble.”

As with Vance’s “cat ladies” dig, many women were outraged that Sanders would criticize Vice President Harris for not having biological children (and that she would disregard Harris’ two stepchildren). Even some conservatives attempted to distance themselves from the comments, with one senior Trump campaign adviser saying he was “offended” and “disappointed” by them.

It’s too soon to tell what impact, if any, these statements will have on Trump’s third bid for the White House. But there’s reason to believe they might alienate some women — a demographic that Trump already struggles with. Polls show that Democrats have an edge with women, and that advantage increases significantly when it comes to younger and unmarried female voters.

The public discourse over “childless cat ladies” and Sanders’ latest remark evokes a similar political controversy in US history, in which another Republican leader uttered a statement about women’s reproductive choices that would go on to haunt his campaign.

The year was 1992: Then-President George H.W. Bush was running for a second term, and the eponymous protagonist of the TV sitcom “Murphy Brown” gave birth to a child she decided to raise as a single mother. What would have been two entirely unrelated events were then forever entwined when Vice President Dan Quayle decried the fictional character in a campaign speech.

“​​Bearing babies irresponsibly is simply wrong. Failing to support children one has fathered is wrong and we must be unequivocal about this,” he said at the time.

“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.”

The backlash from liberals was swift. Quayle’s “Murphy Brown” pronouncement made newspaper front pages and television broadcasts, and garnered a stumbling response from the White House. It also sparked a national conversation on “family values,” reaching such a fever pitch that the “Murphy Brown” writers addressed Quayle’s remarks on the show.

Just as Quayle’s throwaway line turned into one of the most memorable moments of the 1992 presidential campaign, the public is still talking about Vance’s “childless cat ladies” swipe today.

‘Murphy Brown’ reflected women’s changing role in society

“Murphy Brown” premiered on CBS in 1988, starring Candice Bergen as a fierce, acerbic news anchor of the same name.

Murphy was a highly ambitious, divorced woman in her 40s returning to the newsroom after battling an addiction to alcohol and cigarettes. She reflected a zeitgeist in which more women were reclaiming control over their lives and pursuing demanding careers outside the home, often choosing to delay or forgo motherhood.

“I hadn’t really seen a character like Murphy on television before. I hadn’t seen a character like myself or my friends: women who at the time were really making our way in a man’s world,” series creator Diane English says in an episode of the CNN Original Series “TV on the Edge: Moments That Shaped Our Culture.”

In hindsight, “Murphy Brown” seemed primed to become a culture war flashpoint.

From the start, the show was “unabashedly liberal,” the critic Emily St. James wrote in an article for Vox — its characters sermonized about the ways liberal policies would improve lives and frequently mocked Republicans. Quayle, whose gaffes made him the butt of countless jokes at the time, was a favorite target.

By the early ‘90s, “Murphy Brown” was one of the most popular shows on TV. Then at the end of the third season, the writers threw Murphy an unexpected challenge: The character gets pregnant by her ex-husband.

After Murphy’s ex-husband says he can’t be there for her, she decides to keep the baby and raise it alone. The fourth season follows her navigating her pregnancy and culminates in her giving birth — an estimated 33.7 million viewers tuned in for the finale, titled “Birth 101.”

“Everybody we knew was going through this at the time,” says Barnet Kellman, who directed the “Birth 101” episode and much of the series. “Some people were adopting and raising children by themselves. Some people were marrying friends. People were doing all kinds of things … to continue the joys and responsibilities of parenting while being in the workforce.”

Though Murphy’s decision to keep the baby and have it without a partner may seem political, writer Korby Siamis says it was primarily a storytelling choice.

“For our world that we had created and the characters in this world, (we thought) that it would be interesting to see this character be a mom,” Siamis tells CNN. “I don’t think that we felt that we were igniting any controversy.”

The controversy sparked a debate over ‘family values’

Despite the “Murphy Brown” writers’ intentions, the storyline did ignite controversy.

On May 19, 1992, a day after the “Birth 101” episode aired, Quayle delivered what’s now known as his “Murphy Brown” speech. Despite how it’s remembered, surprisingly little of the speech was about women like Murphy: a White, upper-middle-class professional in Washington, DC. Quayle’s swipe at Murphy Brown was merely a quick aside in a 3,000-word speech focused on the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Weeks before, the predominantly Black neighborhood of South Central Los Angeles erupted in violence and unrest over the acquittal of the police officers who were captured on camera brutally beating Rodney King.

Rather than dissecting racial disparities or excessive police use of force, Quayle attributed the riots to “the breakdown of the family structure.” He suggested that poor Black communities had been hampered by the welfare state — which, in turn, contributed to the conditions that led to the riots. TV shows like “Murphy Brown,” he added, were only making the problem worse.

“When it came up that this zeitgeist-leading TV show was buying into single motherhood as a good thing … it had the effect of making this choice seem normative and wholesome,” says Lisa Schiffren, who wrote the “Murphy Brown” speech and many others for the former vice president. “This was negative and likely to have negative repercussions among middle class young women.”

Others, however, understood Quayle’s explanation of the riots as a racist dog whistle, coupled with a critique of the so-called “Hollywood elite.”

“He made a TV sound bite segue to the Murphy Brown thing, which absolutely short-circuited any possible serious consideration for the merits of anything he said,” Kellman adds.

The national conversation over Quayle’s speech soon eclipsed any sort of consequential discussion of racism and police brutality and turned into a debate over “family values.” As St. James noted in Vox, “the battle lines were drawn almost immediately.”

Much like Vance’s “cat ladies” comment, women interpreted Quayle’s Murphy Brown line as an attack on their choices about work, motherhood and marriage. Liberals pointed out the hypocrisy of Republicans opposing abortion while also attacking single motherhood, and the “Murphy Brown” team made it clear where they stood.

“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,” showrunner English said in a statement at the time.

When “Murphy Brown” premiered its fifth season, the writers addressed the controversy head-on. In the show, Murphy sees Quayle’s speech and decides to respond on her news broadcast, inviting a number of nontraditional families onto the fictional program.

“I’d like to introduce you to some people who might not fit into the vice president’s vision of a family. But they consider themselves families nonetheless,” her character said. “They work. They struggle. They hope for the kind of life for their children that we all want for our children.”

Seventy million viewers watched that episode. Several weeks later, Republicans lost the White House to Bill Clinton and Al Gore.

Quayle’s attack on single moms backfired

More than 30 years later, it’s clear that the societal changes depicted in “Murphy Brown” are here to stay.

There’s no longer one dominant family structure in the US. More women are having children outside of marriage, and fewer people are choosing to have kids. But the culture war that Quayle’s speech ignited hasn’t exactly faded — as evidenced by Republican-led attacks on abortion rights and IVF access, as well as Vance’s “childless cat ladies” comment.

Bergen, whose portrayal of Murphy earned her five Emmy Awards and a Golden Globe, recently drew a parallel between then and now while onstage at the 76th Primetime Emmy Awards.

“Oh, how far we’ve come,” she 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!”

Time will tell whether Republican attacks on Harris’ lack of biological children will prove consequential in November.

But as someone who witnessed firsthand how Quayle’s jabs at single motherhood influenced the 1992 election, “Murphy Brown” director Kellman has some words of warning for politicians who dare to criticize women’s reproductive choices in 2024: “Watch out when you piss off women.”

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