"I will put you through that fucking wall!"
- Frank's well-known threat.
Francis X. "Frank" Murphy is the main character on F Is for Family. He is the former baggage department manager for Mohican Airways and one of the vending machine servicemen for Champagne Chariot Vending Services. He is the father of Kevin, Bill and Maureen Murphy and husband to Sue Murphy. He is voiced by comedian Bill Burr, one of the show's co-creators
Biography
Born in 1931, Frank is a 42 year old baggage handler, father of three. Not much is known about Frank's childhood, other than the fact that he hated his father. In elementary school Frank was in the class play and was cruelly humiliated by his Father for this. In middle school Frank was popular, but apparently a bit of a bully as he and his friends would throw weaker kids into the local river. In high school, Frank apparently did well academically as he regularly chastised his future son Kevin for performing poorly in school.
Once graduating high school, Frank aspired to become a pilot. However he was drafted into the Korean War in 1950 (he was nineteen) and was unable to attend college. After being discharged from the Army at the War's conclusion in 1953, Frank went to Officer Candidate School with the Air National Guard. He began dating Sue as seen in numerous flashbacks in Season 2 from 1958. It is shown that Frank was ecstatic to get into flight school and be a pilot, while Sue was planning to finish college to start her career. However, the couple was given the shocking news that she was pregnant with their future child, which lead them to both quit their desires. Frank asked his friend Bob Pogo to give him a job at Mohican Airways for the Rustbelt Memorial Airport, where he eventually became good friends with his co-workers.
Frank and Sue decided to get married due to the pregnancy, and named their first child Kevin. The two were very loving parents to their only son at this time, often taking him out, buying him a puppy and showering him with attention. During one of these outings, Kevin fell into a swimming pool and remained at the bottom for two whole minutes, an incident Sue blames on Frank. This Incident can be seen in the Beginning of "Are You Ready For Summer?" as the Murphys were watching Films about Frank and Sue's early marriage life.
They had two more children, the second Bill and the third Maureen. After Frank's boss dies on the job, he is promoted to manager, but is fired within 3 months after resolving the conflict that would lead to a strike, simply because his superior didn't do anything to stop their boss from terminating him. This leads Frank to leave Pogo in his car by putting the keys at his feet (he could not reach it due to being overweight) and leaving him on Christmas Eve.
He spends some time unemployed, falling into a deep depression. His friend Rosie helps him get a job stocking vending machines, which Frank comes to enjoy as he feels appreciated by his new boss, Smokey. The job, however, causes strain on his marriage, as he isn't around as much and isn't supporting Sue in her new career. He also winds up stealing money from her secret stash because Bob Pogo eats a bunch of his inventory and Kevin stole money from Frank's own stash. His job also leads to him neglecting his children, which results in problems for them, especially his sons.
Because Frank's replacement, Scoop Dunbarton, was such a tyrant, his old co-workers got together with him to devise a plan to get him his old job back. They planned to send Scoop on a plane to a remote location, but the plan is interrupted by a hijacking. Frank and the others are held as hostages, and a suitcase bomb winds up killing both Scoop and Roger Dunbarton, leaving Frank's future with the company up in the air.
Personality
By a lot of People (especially his Family and Friends), Frank is best described as selfish, arrogant, abusive, truculent, vain, hypocritical, and neglectful. Because of this, Frank is sometimes portrayed as the Antihero.
Frank is a man who believes in putting in effort towards hard work for success and never has any tolerance towards failure, as demonstrated in "Saturday, Bloody Saturday", when he found out Kevin was failing his classes and "The Trough", when he learned that Kevin wasn't fulfilling his promise to do better.
Frank is very straight-laced, conservative and traditional in many ways. He never gets his neighbor, Vic's, drug references and doesn't seem to catch on to his oldest son Kevin smoking pot on a regular basis, going so far as to cover his sons eyes when Vic does coke in front of them.
Frank is also a very abusive parent who is very dismissive of his own children. There is an underlying element of sadness and unhappiness in the Murphy home because it's not uncommon for Frank to fight with them, especially Sue. He has on many times emotionally and verbally abused his family members and is very dismissive of who they are and what they do. Even though he constantly professes that he loves his family and children, it is clearly evident that he favors Maureen over his own sons.
He has also shown to be sexist towards Sue and his daughter Maureen. As evidence, he did not like the idea of his wife having a part-time job, because it would mean he would have to be left alone with the kids. When the job becomes stressful for Sue, he tells her that that's just how it is being a part of the working world, given that he's been through it himself. He is also very dismissive of Maureen's interests in technology and computers, feeling that it is too masculine for her.
It is also hinted that Frank is secretly a racist, as he has on one occasion, displayed aversion to the fact that he was going to be mugged by one of them.
Overall, Frank is a victim of circumstances and it's clear from the start he's suffering from a mid-life crisis. He feels cheated, screwed over, emasculated, worn thin, and unnoticed. He is very resentful of some of the bad decisions he made as an adult, and all of it mirrors the dysfunctional and saddening situation in the Murphy household. His neighbor Vic, has a flashy lifestyle that's infinitely more impressive to Kevin than his own father, and his two other children are even more impressed by their friends and their friends' families' lifestyles.
Whenever Frank experiences more than he can handle, it makes him angry. Then, out of frustration, he uses a punching bag in the garage. He has severe anger issues which seem to stem from his relationship with his father. Ironically, he seems to have passed the trait on to Kevin and Bill. As soon as he reaches his boiling point, he'll consider anything else that's bad a personal slight, like in "O Holy Moly Night" when the Mohican Airways staff goes on strike, Frank analyzes all the turmoil he and his family have gone through and explodes in fury, pointing out that staying positive and hoping for a miracle would be improbable. This is shown when he says Major would be lucky as soon as Maureen says he might be dead. Another instance is when a man whose windshield Kevin accidentally destroyed threatens to sue Frank, and he sardonically says that he should do it soon. The third breaking point involves Bill saying that he's about to be beaten by his bully and the final straw is when Pogo tells Frank that Dunbarton fired him and Frank immediately puts Pogo into a near death situation for not stopping it.
Family and Relationships
Sue Murphy
Sue is Frank's wife. They got married because he got her pregnant with Kevin. Frank and Sue have a loving but strained relationship. This is mostly due to financial stress, and later Frank's companies impending strike and Sue's new job. In season 2, we see their marriage go through a lot of difficulties and they begin to fight more and more often. Frank is secretly jealous of Sue's invention because he never got to live his dream of being a pilot, and so he is unable to support her. In Landing The Plane he reflects on how poorly he treated her the past two months and tells the hijacker he'd be better off if he shot him (though, he didn't expect to actually be shot). With the incident later resolved, Sue and Frank's marriage was mended and they started to discuss their future plans together.
Kevin Murphy
Kevin is Frank's oldest son. They were very close when he was young, but grew apart over the years. Frank can be hard on Kevin, but he obviously loves him and wants his son to respect him. He was clearly effected very much when Kevin said to him, "I fucking hate you." Since this incident, he has tried to repair his relationship with Kevin and to motivate Kevin to do better in school so he can have a career. He also seemed touched when he came home to find Kevin listening to the record he and Sue used to play for him as a child. Though, he does think Sue treating Kevin delicately is unnecessary. In "Bill Murphy's Day Off", it's discovered that Frank was indirectly responsible for Kevin's attitude as he had let him drown in a motel swimming pool when he was a toddler. He also has to sometimes bring Kevin down from panic attacks, because the accident gave his son PTSD.
In Season 2, it's strongly implied that Frank and Kevin's current father-son relationship stems from the fact that it's similar to the relationship Frank had with his father. This was later confirmed in Season 3. Frank's own perception of a normal father/son relationship was effected, as evident that he felt the need to tell Kevin at a very young age that he would always love him even if they didn't get along in the future. He incorrectly projects his feelings towards his own father on to Kevin. This explains why he's so antagonistic towards him. In season 2 he let his son know he understands if he hates him. Kevin seems surprised, and lets Frank know that even though they argue, he doesn't hate him.
Because of Frank's own failed ambitions, he was unable to support Kevin's dream of being a musician. He did eventually come around, though only if Kevin promised it wouldn't interfere with his school work. By this time though, his marriage with Sue was on the rocks and he rudely dismisses Kevin when he wanted to talk about the sexual abuse by Vic's girlfriend, assuming he just wanted to ask about his band again. Kevin is a child obviously in need of a lot of emotional support and affection, but Frank doesn't see this partly because of his sexist attitude, causing him to give this to Maureen instead who is much more independent and emotionally stable.
Bill Murphy
Bill is Frank's middle child. He seems to have little patience for Bill and often threatens to "put [him] through that fucking wall." Bill is obviously a sensitive child and because of this Frank thinks of him as a "pussy" who can't handle much, even pointing out that Bill needs his back rubbed when he watches war movies. To his face though, he calls Bill a little man, either out of guilt or as a way to encourage him. Frank was very defensive of Bill when the Fitzsimmons tried to incriminate him.
In Season 2, Frank begins to neglect Bill, which led to Bill starting to become more rude and insensitive towards others. Nonetheless, he is still proud of Bill for taking on roles of responsibility and working for money.
Maureen Murphy
Maureen is Frank's only daughter. He considers her his little princess and rarely disciplines her. In F is For Halloween he discouraged her from wearing boys Halloween costumes, trying to get her to dress up as something female. In the end, he did relent and allowed her to dress as Mr. Coconut. Because of his favoritism, Frank will usually automatically blame Bill when Bill and Maureen fight with each other. This also caused him to ignore Kevin's hypothermia after falling through the ice, in favor of tending to Maureen's cut on her eye (which was the result of Bill accidentally kicking her).
As the series progresses, Frank becomes more accepting of Maureen's personality and desires, even allowing her to be who she wants to, as long as she doesn't turn out to be like Kevin.
Trivia
- He would be 88 years old today in 2019.
- As depicted in Season 3, Frank is somewhat of a patriot and nationalist, as he strongly rebuked a child for attempting to desecrate an American flag, and thoroughly enjoyed taking part in a memorial parade and hosting an Independence Day party in his neighborhood.
- It is suggested that he is a supporter of the Republican Party (a political party with conservative political views) as he supported Richard Nixon's presidency.
- It's been hinted at that Frank is suffering from PTSD from his combat service in Korea. His self-medication for it is to simply, "Shove it down" rather than seeking help from the VA. He also thought he was shoving his commanders guts back in his body even when he said "THOSE AREN'T MINE THOSE AREN'T MINE."
- He was also hinted to hate M*A*S*H going on about it in one of his signature rants.
- Due to Frank's frequent Smoking and Drinking, he had suffer from Hair Loss over time. According to the Intro, this started after his Marriage with Sue.
- It should also be noted that Frank also gained some Weight over time. This is due to the fact that for Relaxation, he sits on the Chair and watches TV instead of Exercising.
Quotes
- "I'll put you through that fucking wall!"
- "Ah, shit!"
- "Oh, fuck me!"
- "You going to leave me alone with these animals!"
- "You can't leave me alone with these kids! I won't survive!"
- "I hate my life, but I keep on doing it!"
- ”I didn’t do anything!”
- "So help me God, if I started building walls today, and didn't stop for the next 10 years, there still wouldn't be enough of 'em FOR ME TO FUCKING PUT YOU THROUGH!"
- "Be nice to your sister, Bill. Some day you'll be sleeping on her couch after your 1st divorce."
- It is implied that Sue is his 2nd wife, and he has a sister, as Frank says to Bill in Season 1.
Gallery
