Father Murphy - Season 1

Description

Family is where you find it in the Wild West! Burly drifter John Murphy (Merlin Olsen) becomes the unlikely caretaker of a group of orphaned children growing up in America#s Wild West. Touched by their plight, he poses as a priest with lovely local school teacher Mae Woodward (Katherine Cannon) and his miner buddy (Moses Gunn) assisting with the children. Together this makeshift family gets involved in a series of adventures, encountering unscrupulous businessmen, gamblers, horse rustlers, bank robbers and much more! Created by Little House on the Prairie#s Michael Landon and originally aired from 1981 to 1983, Father Murphy provides quality entertainment for the entire family, touchingly exploring the bonds of family and friendship as tested by the trials of life on the rugged frontier.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent.......2007-09-10

I love this Box Set, my granddaughter got hooked on it too. It's a wonderful Family show.

Family Life At An Orphanage.......2007-04-18

Michael Landon is renowned for epic television series BONANZA and LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE. Perhaps less well known outside of the United States is his creation of a quite brilliant but ultimately short-lived show FATHER MURPHY. Broadcast on American tv from 1981 to 1983 the story revolved around the lives of "family" Father Murphy (Merlin Olsen) and others at an orphanage during the 1870's. Storylines from Season 1 covered many challenging topics including adoption, bigotry, child labor, greed and kidnapping. Well written throughout, the series was further improved by quality acting from both adult and child stars. Sadly FATHER MURPHY lasted just one more season which was a shame because had it enjoyed the same number of years as LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE it might have achieved similar international recognition.

Pleasant.......2007-03-04

Merlin Olsen disguises himself as a priest so territory officials believe the church is supporting his friend Mae's orphanage and school, and do not send the children to the hated work-house.

This series often has a new child guest star in an episode. Has a villain who shows up regularly trying different ways to close the orphanage and send the children to the hated work-house.

In real life, Merlin Olsen was a star NFL football player for the LA Rams.

"Father Murphy" is closest to being "Bonanza" with kids. "Little House on the Prairie" and "Road to Avonlea" are a league above "Father Murphy". They have more of everything, bigger budgets, better writers, more charm (depth), more character-acting (Mrs. Olsen), and more character development (opportunity for personality). Several episodes of "Father Murphy" do reach the level of "Little House". The episode, "The Horse from Heaven", is good; the new priest is swindled into using the orphanage's last money to buy a race horse, to win money for food for the orphanage, but later finds that no one has ever been able to break and ride the horse. The tale of Amanda about the bank embezzler doing good deeds is good. Three of the 21 episodes did not interest me. In the league of the "Christy" series. The characters are likeable, but not the exceptional star charm of Michael Landon and Melissa Gilbert. "Little House" and "Avonlea" had the advantage of being based on great books. There are so few good shows on TV, that I was willing to work with "Father Murphy", and enjoyed both seasons.

Family entertainment.......2006-02-26

A wonderful family program, right up there with Little House On The Prairie.

In the mold of Little House.......2006-01-30

I thought this was a very enjoyable family show. Both seasons were great, but what I think really "killed" this show was: (1)Season Two got away from the main theme of Murphy imitating a Franciscan Priest in order to save the orphanage; (2)It followed too closely after the great "Little House" series in which Merlin Olsen had a continuing role after Victor French left the show - It was almost like a continuation of the Merlin Olsen Little House character on Father Murphy; and finally, (3) the executive producer of Father Murphy,Michael Landon, began work on his "Highway to Heaven" series leading a fan to believe he really wanted to end his "stint" with "period pieces."

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