American cultural reference

To cut the long story short, there's a column in GQ, where the author is trying to cope with the fact that her dad is prone to weeping. At the beginning, the dad describes a YouTube video where a soldier comes back from Iraq, and his dog feels that he's approaching in a kind of supernatural way. In the middle, there's a reference to the 1990's sitcom 'Murphy Brown'. In the end, the author says: "maybe it's equally important for me to be able to give my father a hug and say, "It's okay, Pop. Murphy's daddy is home. He's home."

Full text here.

What is that last remark about? Thanks in advance.