While most of the Aretha Franklin memories being shared today are from live performances like Barack Obama’s inauguration or the Kennedy Center Honors, the legendary singer also gave a memorably sweet performance in a sitcom cameo back in 1991. During Murphy Brown’s season-four episode “The Queen of Soul,” Brown lands an interview with Franklin on her show, only for Franklin’s train and limo to the studio to get so delayed that she doesn’t make it on time, leaving Brown and her crew scrambling to fill the dead airtime. Eventually, Brown gets a one-on-one meeting with Franklin, who treats her fan to her own personal performance of “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman.” The song was somewhat of a hallmark on Murphy Brown, with Bergen’s character singing it in both the series-premiere episode “Respect” and the season-four finale “Birth 101”:
In an Instagram post today, Bergen shared a still from Franklin’s Murphy Brown appearance, saying “Aretha Forever!”
