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The Worst Episodes of Father Murphy

Every episode of Father Murphy ranked from worst to best. Explore the Worst Episodes of Father Murphy!

A good-hearted frontiersman poses as a priest to start an orphanage for a group of kids whose homes have been destroyed by an evil mining...
Genres:WesternDrama
Network:NBC

Worst Episodes Summary

"The First Miracle (2)" is the worst rated episode of "Father Murphy". It scored N/A/10 based on 0 votes. Directed by N/A and written by N/A, it aired on 3/11/1982. This episode scored NaN points lower than the second lowest rated, "Stopover in a One-Horse Town".

  • The First Miracle (2)
    NaN/100 votes
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    #1 - The First Miracle (2)

    Season 1 Episode 22 - Aired 3/11/1982

    Emma feels rejected and in her upset state she divulges the secret of ""Father"" Murphy's identity to Rodman, causing the church to reverse its support for the new parish.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Stopover in a One-Horse Town
    NaN/100 votes
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    #2 - Stopover in a One-Horse Town

    Season 2 Episode 3 - Aired 10/26/1982

    Sam Clemens (Mark Twain) arrives in Jackson during his itinerant journalist days, and sets up a newspaper to fight the evil influence of Garrett. Ephram and Will join him as copyboys/reporters, and in a comical turn of events, they become the inspiration for Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Outrageous Fortune
    NaN/100 votes
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    #3 - Outrageous Fortune

    Season 2 Episode 4 - Aired 11/9/1982

    Murphy and Mae join the Pinkertons on a cross-country train chase when one of their young orphans becomes heir to a large inheritance... and is kidnapped in an attempt to keep her from showing up to claim it.

    Director: Joseph Pevney

    Writer: N/A

  • The Matchmakers
    NaN/100 votes
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    #4 - The Matchmakers

    Season 2 Episode 13 - Aired 9/18/1983

    The kids decide Moses needs some romance in his life, so they send away for a mail-order bride. Her arrival precipitates comic explosions in Gold Hill, but by the time Moses realizes she's a wonderful woman, she's decided to go back to her old boyfriend back east.

    Director: Joseph Pevney

    Writer: N/A

  • The Reluctant Runaway (1)
    5.2/108 votes
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    #5 - The Reluctant Runaway (1)

    Season 2 Episode 5 - Aired 11/16/1982

    Mae announces joyously that she's pregnant and the whole community rejoices... except Will. Finding out that the new bedroom Murphy is building is not for him, he feels ignored and finally, at the baby's birth, he runs away to St. Louis.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • The Reluctant Runaway (2)
    5.2/1010 votes
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    #6 - The Reluctant Runaway (2)

    Season 2 Episode 6 - Aired 11/23/1982

    Will has run away to St. Louis and fallen in with a Fagin-type and his band of criminals. Murphy enlists Farley's help in searching for Will and goes to convince him to come home.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • The Ghost of Gold Hill
    5.8/1013 votes
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    #7 - The Ghost of Gold Hill

    Season 1 Episode 9 - Aired 12/22/1981

    Comic episode in which the son of the original owner of Gold Hill Mine comes back to reclaim the school. Mae and Murphy are worried until they discover he's harmless, loveable... and a little bit nuts.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Eighty-Eight Keys to Happiness
    6.0/109 votes
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    #8 - Eighty-Eight Keys to Happiness

    Season 1 Episode 12 - Aired 1/19/1982

    Moses discovers that music is the key to reaching a withdrawn blind girl. But the only way the school can afford a piano is by letting a local entrepreneur use the saloon building temporarily as a casino. Rodman seizes upon this to attempt to shut down the school ... but fails when he himself succumbs to the gambling bug.

    Director: Victor French

    Writer: N/A

  • By the Bear That Bit Me (2)
    6.1/1011 votes
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    #9 - By the Bear That Bit Me (2)

    Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 12/8/1981

    Murphy and Eli must finally wade in to con the authorities into releasing the kids from the workhouse.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Establish Thou the Work of Our Hands
    6.2/1015 votes
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    #10 - Establish Thou the Work of Our Hands

    Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 11/17/1981

    Murphy befriends an embittered black boy and teaches him a useful trade—wagon driving. But a wagon wreck causes the boy to lose the use of his hand, and Murphy must help him cope with living without the only task which ever made him feel worthwhile.

    Director: Leo Penn

    Writer: N/A

  • Will's Surprise
    6.4/1012 votes
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    #11 - Will's Surprise

    Season 1 Episode 11 - Aired 1/12/1982

    When Will happens upon a large gold nugget, his drunk father shows up in town and kidnaps him, convinced the boys know where there's more. Will is locked in a dank root cellar and nearly starves when his father is injured without telling the boy's whereabouts. Murphy and his dog, Mine, manage to find and save the boy.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • The Parable of Amanda
    6.5/1013 votes
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    #12 - The Parable of Amanda

    Season 1 Episode 14 - Aired 2/9/1982

    Amanda, a pretty accomplice to a bank robbery, is in a stage wreck near Gold Hill while escaping from her crime. She dons the habit of a nun who died in the wreck to avoid capture, but winds up having to go to the orphanage where the sister was expected. She grows attached to the children, and warm and comic moments ensue before she and Murphy drop pretenses in a touching conclusion.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • The Spy
    6.5/1015 votes
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    #13 - The Spy

    Season 1 Episode 15 - Aired 2/16/1982

    When Rodman's unruly son is kicked out of boarding school, Rodman enrolls him at Gold Hill making him pose as an orphan in order to spy on the school, and he learns the secret of Murphy's disguise. Murphy, Will and Ephram take the boy on a camping trip to keep him from telling their secret to his father. During the trip the boy comes to feel loved by Murphy and the others, so he agrees to keep their secret to himself.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • The Heir Apparent
    6.6/1010 votes
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    #14 - The Heir Apparent

    Season 1 Episode 16 - Aired 2/23/1982

    A wealthy widow with a railroad fortune comes to Gold Hill hoping to adopt a son to take over the family business. She's very taken with Will, who would rather stay with Murphy, but Murphy is torn between his love for the boy and the advantages of his adoption. The widow finally sees that the bond between Murphy and the boy is something she doesn't want to destroy and she withdraws her adoption bid in a complicated and interesting way.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • The Dream Day
    6.6/1010 votes
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    #15 - The Dream Day

    Season 1 Episode 18 - Aired 3/14/1982

    The orphanage stages an Open House for potential adopting parents, and this all-kid show examines the reactions of many of the children to finding new homes. Several of the kids find homes; our regulars are left behind until the next ""dream day.""

    Director: N/A

    Writer: Michael Landon

  • The Father Figure
    6.6/107 votes
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    #16 - The Father Figure

    Season 2 Episode 2 - Aired 10/5/1982

    A mother delivers her son to Gold Hill, saying that he's been incorrigible in school. The real reason is that his father is a child abuser and the mother fears for her son's life. When the father comes after the boy, Murphy intervenes and accidentally kills the man while trying to restrain him. Murphy faces the crisis he's feared all his life—that his great size and strength might kill if unleashed.

    Director: Joseph Pevney

    Writer: N/A

  • John Michael Murphy - R.I.P.
    6.6/108 votes
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    #17 - John Michael Murphy - R.I.P.

    Season 2 Episode 8 - Aired 12/7/1982

    Murphy and Moses find trouble on a freight run when an old yarn-spinner convinces a whole town that Murphy is a famous bank robber. The fireworks begin when the real robber shows up.

    Director: Joseph Pevney

    Writer: N/A

  • Eggs, Milk and a Dry Bed
    7.0/1017 votes
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    #18 - Eggs, Milk and a Dry Bed

    Season 1 Episode 3 - Aired 11/10/1981

    A handsome but ineffectual priest joins the school and provides comic opposition to Murphy and a pair of brothers in the orphanage, one of whom has a bed-wetting problem.

    Director: Michael Landon

    Writer: Michael Landon

  • False Blessings
    7.0/1012 votes
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    #19 - False Blessings

    Season 1 Episode 8 - Aired 12/15/1981

    Falling on hard times again, the school is seduced by an offer of ""state aid"" by a local official. Mae accepts the aid, only to learn that by doing so she has unwittingly agreed to some'terrible conditions ... including the departure of Murphy and Moses and putting the children to work making leather goods. She's finally able to kick out the unscrupulous officials when she discovers them tampering with the money earned by the children's labor.

    Director: Leo Penn

    Writer: N/A

  • Knights of the White Camelia
    7.0/1011 votes
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    #20 - Knights of the White Camelia

    Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 2/2/1982

    A runaway Southern boy, formerly a bugler in the rebel army, comes to the school and has trouble accepting Moses' status there. Simultaneously, undesirables in the area are forming a local K.K.K. chapter. The boy becomes involved with them and the group tries to railroad Moses out of town. Murphy, the Marshall, and the boy's long-lost father join Moses in doing battle with them.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Pilot (2)
    7.1/1020 votes
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    #21 - Pilot (2)

    Season 1 Episode 2 - Aired 11/3/1981

    No description available

    Director: Michael Landon

    Writer: N/A

  • Graduation
    7.2/1010 votes
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    #22 - Graduation

    Season 1 Episode 10 - Aired 1/5/1982

    Claiming he's an orphan because his parents are dead, an old man joins the school to achieve a lifelong ambition... to learn to read and write. Comical conflict arises with Rodman and Tuttle, but the old man succeeds... and wins the heart of a ladyfriend.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • The First Miracle (1)
    7.2/1012 votes
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    #23 - The First Miracle (1)

    Season 1 Episode 21 - Aired 4/4/1982

    When a teenage girl falls in love with Murphy, it forces him to examine his own feelings for Mae and he proposes marriage. At the same time, Father Parker's attempts to build a church in Jackson are thwarted by Garrett ... as a way of wreaking revenge on Murphy.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Buttons and Beaux
    7.2/108 votes
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    #24 - Buttons and Beaux

    Season 2 Episode 7 - Aired 11/30/1982

    Lizette grows up; she begins work as an apprentice seamstress in town and falls in love with a n'er-do-well teenager. She's nearly drawn into his troublesome circle of friends before Mae shows her the error of her ways. The boy eventually reforms and then remain friends. Incidentally, the ongoing romance between Will and Lizette is terminated in this period because he is too short.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • The Witness
    7.4/108 votes
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    #25 - The Witness

    Season 2 Episode 9 - Aired 12/14/1982

    Young Matt is witness to a bank robbery. One of the robbers is a teenaged friend of Matt's who is the sole support of a sick mother, and Matt must wrestle with his conscience as he decides whether or not to turn in his friend.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A