TV Show Review: Father Murphy, Season 1

Father Murphy was created and produced by TV great, Michael Landon. It tells the story of frontiersman John Michael Murphy (Merlin Olsen), who partners up with prospector Moses Gage (Moses Gunn) to mine for gold. Having met orphan Will Adams (Timothy Gibbs), they take the boy on to handle domestic chores like cleaning and cooking while Murphy and Gage pan for gold.

Schoolmarm Mae Woodward (Katherine Cannon) came to the mining camp with a local priest to provide schooling for the children. When a large gold nugget is discovered, the man who owns most of the town, Mr. Garrett (Burr DeBenning), blows up the mining camp, leaving the priest dead and most of the children, orphaned. When Miss Woodward, Moses and Murphy attempt to set up an orphanage to care for the children, they soon find Mr. Rodman (Charles Tyner) and Miss Tuttle (Ivy Bethune) knocking on their door. If the church doesn't take over financial support of the orphanage, Rodman will see the children are sent to the workhouse. Unable to wait for word from the diocese, Murphy poses as a priest, which temporarily saves the day. But the worst troubles are still ahead of them.

Father Murphy ran for two seasons. Michael Landon, who made pioneering western era TV famous with his roles in Bonanza and Little House on the Prairie (LHOP), created and produced this series, which starred Merlin Olsen, who worked with him on LHOP. Anyone familiar with both series, will see many actors played roles in both.

While LHOP had a somewhat romanticized view of the pioneering era, focusing more on the love of family, how pulling together could make anything possible, and the importance of faith, Father Murphy portrayed an edgier side to the 1870s. While both shows had similar themes, it is how they approached them that made them different. Charles Ingalls didn't drink, but Murphy is seen visiting the saloon in the first episode. He's not opposed to the occasional beer for refreshment. Charles is a man of deep faith, but Murphy, who was orphaned as a child, is not one who will be quoting Bible verses left and right. The latter is also not opposed to using his brawn when it's helpful. When Charles got into a fight, it was usually to protect or defend a family member. Charles never seemed to have a problem expressing his feelings, but Murphy can't find the right words or wonders if he should pull up stakes when things get rough.

In addition, the towns are very different. Walnut Grove is this nice quiet place. There's no saloon. The townsfolk are happy. They all love their little town with the grove of trees that gave the town its name. Jackson, on the other hand, is a rough place. Not only does it have a saloon, night time there means, fights and guns. The number of good people in Jackson are definitely outnumbered by the not so nice ones. They don't even want a church in town, because then the saloon would need to be closed on Sundays.

I remember being more enamored with Father Murphy when it aired in the 80s, but it's still quality family television, which doesn't exist much today. I'm glad I purchased both seasons last year.

Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC
Language: English
Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
Number of discs: 6
Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Studio: Image Entertainment
DVD Release Date: October 26, 2004
Run Time: 1175 minutes
SRP:  $49.99

I purchased this DVD set from Amazon. I received no monetary compensation for my review.