As the family-television hit series Little House on the Prairie started winding into its last few seasons, the show's creator Michael Landon evidently decided to capitalize on the success of the pioneer theme in a new series. The result: the two-year run of Father Murphy, centering around the adventures of the eponymous John Murphy (Merlin Olsen), a drifter with a heart of gold, who ends up impersonating a priest as he helps care for a gaggle of orphaned children along with his hard-bitten miner buddy and a beautiful teacher from the local town. (Little House viewers will recognize Olsen as Jonathan Garvey on that show before taking the lead role in Father Murphy.)

While Little House on the Prairie managed (most of the time) to be sweet rather than sappy, there's no holding back Father Murphy from pure sentimentality. It's the orphaned children that tip the balance: whether it's a little retarded girl saving the day by taming a wild horse in "A Horse from Heaven," rescuing the children from harsh workhouse conditions in "False Blessings," rescuing a child's beloved horse from becoming horsemeat in "Laddie," or winning over the son of the local bad guy in "The Spy," there's just no getting away from the overdose of sappiness in these episodes.

That's not to say that Father Murphy is badly done. It does capitalize on the inherent interesting elements of a "wild West" setting, and that historical setting does give the series some leeway to address child-related issues freely without having to tie them directly to modern life and real situations. Even if they're sometimes rather anachronistically enlightened, episodes like "Knights of the White Camelia" bring up issues like racism (and, with its use of the KKK as a plot element, helps show younger viewers how things were "way back when" and how much things have changed).

The trio of main adult characters is reasonably well handled, and Father Murphy does remain a watchable show, even if it doesn't have the same charm or realistic roots as Little House on the Prairie. It's a reasonable choice as a family show, in both the literal sense that it's a series that parents and children can enjoy watching together, and in the looser sense that it's warmly supportive of the values of family life, friendship, and loyalty.

The DVD

Father Murphy: Season 1 is a six-DVD set, nicely packaged with the discs held in a book of plastic pages, and sliding into a glossy paperboard slipcase. All 21 episodes from the show's 1981-182 season are included.

Video

For an early-80s television show, Father Murphy looks remarkably good. Overall, the image is sharp and nicely detailed, and colors look natural and bright, with no odd tints. While a few speckles show up here and there, the print is largely free of flaws; likewise, some noise appears in outdoor shots (particularly in the pilot) but the image is otherwise impressively clean. Indoor shots and close-ups in particular look excellent. Father Murphy is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.33:1.

Audio

The Dolby 2.0 soundtrack is satisfactory, providing a clean, no-frills audio experience. The actors' voices are clear and natural-sounding, and the music is balanced well with the rest of the track.

Extras

There are no special features on this set.

Final thoughts

While I wouldn't recommend rushing out to buy Father Murphy sight-unseen, it's not a bad show; it's too much on the sentimental side for my tastes, but it's reasonable family fare. Viewers who were really enthusiastic fans of the Little House on the Prairie series will probably find Father Murphy (also created by Michael Landon) to be a good choice, and for those viewers it's worth a "recommended," especially since the transfer looks excellent. For a broader audience, I'll give this set a solid "rent it."