BRIDGEPORT, Pa. — The sport of water polo has a unique connection to early 1990’s history due to an appearance by former University of California-Davis women’s collegiate club water polo student-athlete Danica Fascella on the CBS show, Murphy Brown.
2013 Sierra Pacific Division All-Conference Second Team selection Fascella, who helped the Aggies capture three consecutive Sierra Pacific Division crowns (2012, 2013, 2014), the 2012 (2-1 W vs. California Polytechnic State University at Florida State University) and 2013 (6-5 W vs. University of Central Florida at the University of Minnesota) Women’s National Collegiate Club Championships along with a Third Place finish at the 2014 Women’s National Collegiate Club Championship hosted by The Ohio State University at the SPIRE Institute following a varsity red-shirt year with the UC-Davis women’s varsity team in 2011, inadvertently made a mark in television history within the first weeks of her life.
During Murphy Brown’s Season Four finale in early May, the title character portrayed by actress Candice Bergen gives birth to a baby boy and becomes a single mother. In a campaign speech later in the month in support of President George Bush, then Vice President Dan Quayle raised the issue of family values during a speech at the Commonwealth Club of California in San Francisco about the Los Angeles Riots which erupted in late April and killed dozens of people.
Quayle talked about poverty, crime, race and “family values” before pivoting to the hit television show, with the line, “It doesn’t help matters when prime time T.V. has Murphy Brown.”
The speech launched a political debate about family values, single mortherhood and is believed to have led in part to the the Republicans, who had held the White House since President Reagan’s 1980 victory, losing the presidency to Arkansas governor Bill Clinton and Al Gore.
How did Fascella impact the debate?
The baby in the photo is a seven-week old Fascella – who earned the camera spot due to her twin sister, who also appeared in the episode – not responding as well to Bergen’s singing.
