Murphy Bed
A murphy bed is used for comic relief. Usually a character is checking out a cheap, crappy apartment with a murphy bed. Sometimes the bed closes up with them inside.
Wings
Appearances
- The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis: Season 1, episode 28, "Live Alone and Like It" (1960). Dobie and Maynard move in together, and their new apartment has a Murphy bed.
- Are You Being Served?: Season 1, episode 3, "Camping In" (1973). While the staff is spending the night stranded in the store, Mr. Rumbold insists on better accommodations than the lower staff, so Mr. Mash sets him up with a murphy bed.
- Too Close for Comfort: Season 5, episode 10, "For Every Man, There's Two Women" (1985). After two women abduct and assault Monroe, he and Henry track down their apartment so they can turn them into the police, but as soon Monroe recognizes one of them, he takes off, and the women force Henry into their apartment, where he hides from them by folding himself up in a Murphy bed.
- Sledge Hammer!: Season 1, episode 17, "Brother, Can You Spare a Crime?" (1987). Sledge's apartment has a Murphy bed, and he's seen opening it for the first time in this episode.
- Wings: Season 6, episode 24, "Et Tu, Antonio?" (1995). Antonio's one-room apartment has a Murphy bed that doesn't always stay up.
- Frasier: Season 6, episode 7, "How to Buy a Millionaire" (1998). Niles's divorce forces him to sell his swanky apartment, and the only place he can afford is in the "Shangri-la," where the bedroom is a Murphy bed complete with sheets left by its late previous occupant.
- My Name is Earl: Season 2, episode 14, "Kept a Guy Locked in a Truck" (2007). Earl decides to do something to make up for helping Joy keep a guy named Josh locked in a truck, so he brings a masseuse to his apartment, but when he gets there, he finds that Josh was crushed to death when his Murphy bed retracted while he was sleeping in it.
- Extras: Season 2, episode 7, "The Extra Special Series Finale" (2007). After a particularly humiliating day on a film set, Maggie decides to quit being an extra and get a regular job, but the only job for which she's qualified is part-time cleaning, and the low salary forces her to move into a smaller flat, and the only one she can afford is only one room with a Murphy bed.