Spin City

Spin City

Season 1 intertitle
Created by Gary David Goldberg
Bill Lawrence
Starring Michael J. Fox (seasons 1–4)
Charlie Sheen (seasons 5–6)
Carla Gugino (first 12 episodes)
Heather Locklear (seasons 4–6)
Richard Kind
Michael Boatman
Alan Ruck
Connie Britton (seasons 1–4)
Alexander Chaplin (seasons 1–4)
Victoria Dillard (seasons 1–4)
Jennifer Esposito (seasons 2–3)
Lana Parrilla (season 5)
with Barry Bostwick as The Mayor
Theme music composer Shelley Palmer (seasons 1-4)
Danny Pelfrey (seasons 5–6)
Opening theme Spin Doctors (Seasons 2–3)
Country of origin United States
Original language(s) English
No. of seasons 6
No. of episodes 145 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s) Gary David Goldberg (seasons 1–3, 5–6)
Michael J. Fox (seasons 1–4)
Bill Lawrence (season 3)
David S. Rosenthal
Andy Cadiff (season 4)
Tom Hertz (season 6)
Camera setup Film; Multiple camera
Running time 20 minutes
Production company(s) Ubu Productions
Lottery Hill Entertainment
DreamWorks Television
Distributor Paramount Domestic Television
Release
Original network ABC
Picture format 480i (SDTV; entire run)
720p (HDTV; season 6)
Original release September 17, 1996 (1996-09-17) – April 30, 2002 (2002-04-30)

Spin City is an American television sitcom that aired from September 17, 1996, until April 30, 2002, on ABC. Created by Gary David Goldberg and Bill Lawrence, the show was based on a fictional local government running New York City, and originally starred Michael J. Fox as Mike Flaherty, the Deputy Mayor of New York. Fox departed in 2000 at the conclusion of Season 4 due to his battle with Parkinson's disease: Charlie Sheen assumed the lead role of Charlie Crawford for the remaining two seasons. The show was cancelled in 2002 due to low ratings.

Premise

The series focuses on the Mayor of New York City, Randall Winston (Barry Bostwick), and his staff as they run the city—although the main person in charge is Deputy Mayor Mike Flaherty (Fox). Mike is excellent at his job, dealing with spin and lies, but not so good with his personal life, which he often neglects. Other members of staff at City Hall include press secretary Paul Lassiter (Richard Kind), the office cheapskate, suck-up, and noted coward, who has a habit of being a loudmouth and is often kept in the dark about things; chief of staff Stuart Bondek (Alan Ruck), who loves the ladies, and is often very sexist; and head of minority affairs Carter Heywood (Michael Boatman), a gay black man with a suicidal dog named Rags.

Carter Heywood was seen as a revolution in modern television. As the writer Orville Lloyd Douglas noted on his blog GayBlackCanadianman, "Far too often whenever a character is gay on television it's always a white person. In North America gayness equals whiteness and gay black men are displaced due to race, gender, and sexual orientation. Finally, the writers and producers of Spin City got it right. Carter was a well adjusted young black man he wasn't on the down low, he also wasn’t confused or conflicted about his homosexuality."[1] Despite their overwhelming personal differences, Stuart and Carter actually become roommates and best friends.

Also on the staff are speech writer James Hobert (Alexander Chaplin), who is easily led and quite naive; Mike's secretary Janelle Cooper (Victoria Dillard); and accountant Nikki Faber (Connie Britton). Janelle later becomes the mayor's secretary and Stacey Paterno (Jennifer Esposito) joins the show as Mike's secretary and Paul's arch-enemy. Together, this group helps run City Hall, improves the Mayor's image, and covers for his frequent gaffes—while sorting out their personal lives.

At one point in development, the show was simply called Spin.[2] At the start of the series, Mike is dating reporter Ashley Schaeffer (Carla Gugino). In early promos for the series, this relationship is shown to be the main premise of the show. After just a few episodes into the series, Gugino decided to leave. The nature of Carter and Stuart's relationship became a running gag during the series. The two ended up becoming so close,their friendship was mocked by others, and their arguments sounded so much like husband and wife, a whole episode was dedicated to the notion that the two argued like a married couple. The two ended up meeting an older duo of best friends (one black and one white) who were virtual twins of Carter and Stuart in terms of personality; when it was discovered that the two older versions had become a couple, it ended up scaring Stuart quite a bit. For his part, Stuart tends to be very possessive of his time with Carter, going so far as to be genuinely jealous when Carter spends more and more time with new campaign manager Caitlin (Heather Locklear). In spite of all the jokes and innuendo, they prove to be best friends willing to do anything for both their friends and each other. This, too, was considered an important moment in television history, with Douglas noting, "I love the fact that the writers of Spin City explored the fact that gay men and heterosexual men can be friends. The straight man doesn’t have to worry that the gay man might hit on him."[1]

Later years

In 1998, Michael J. Fox announced he had Parkinson's disease. As a result, a new character, Caitlin Moore (Locklear) was introduced at the start of the 1999–2000 season to help share Mike's workload. Caitlin was Mayor Winston's campaign manager as he decided to run for Senator, and much friction occurred between Mike and Caitlin about who was in charge of the Mayor. Their relationship was more complex than a simple rivalry, and hints were dropped that it would become more than platonic.

In 2000, as his symptoms worsened, Fox announced he was leaving the show at the end of the season to spend more time with his family and to raise money for awareness of and research into Parkinson's.[3] His character left City Hall at the end of the show's fourth season, taking the blame for an alleged Mafia link the Mayor unknowingly had.[4] He later moved to Washington, D.C. as an environmental lobbyist, there (offscreen) meeting a senator named Alex P. Keaton, the name of the character Fox played on Family Ties.[4][5] Executive Producer/co-creator Bill Lawrence also left the show, along with a few cast members and writers/producers.

The remaining producers decided to carry on the series with a new lead. For the show's fifth season, production moved from New York to Los Angeles, and Charlie Sheen, as new Deputy Mayor Charlie Crawford, joined Caitlin, Paul, Stuart, Carter, and the Mayor. The characters of Nikki, James, and Janelle were not carried over (like Stacey, their absences are presumed to be because the actors felt the show should not continue without Fox), replaced by assistant Angie Ordonez (Lana Parrilla), who likewise left after one season without explanation (Parrilla feeling the character was underused).

Characters

Actor Role Years Seasons Episodes
Michael J. Fox Mike Flaherty 1996–2000, 2001 1–4, 6 (3 episodes) 103
Charlie Sheen Charlie Crawford 2000–2002 5-6 45
Carla Gugino Ashley Schaeffer 1996, 1997 1 (12 episodes), 3 (1 episode) 13
Heather Locklear Caitlin Moore 1999–2002 4–6 71
Richard Kind Paul Lassiter 1996–2002 1–6 145
Michael Boatman Carter Heywood 1996–2002 1–6 145
Alan Ruck Stuart Bondek 1996–2002 1–6 140
Connie Britton Nikki Faber 1996–2000 1–4 100
Alexander Chaplin James Hobert 1996–2000 1–4 100
Victoria Dillard Janelle Cooper 1996–2000 1 (recurring), 2–4 (starring) 90
Jennifer Esposito Stacey Paterno 1997–1999 2–3 46
Lana Parrilla Angie Ordonez 2000–2001 5 21
Barry Bostwick Mayor Randall Winston 1996–2002 1–6 144
Faith Prince Claudia Sachs 1996–1999, 2000 1–3 (recurring), 5 (guest) 21
Rags the Dog Rags the Dog 1998–2002 3–6 (recurring) 20

Ratings

Seasonal rankings (based on average total viewers per episode) of Spin City.

Note: Each U.S. network television season starts in late September and ends in late May, which coincides with the completion of May sweeps.

Season Season premiere Season finale TV season Ranking Rating
1st September 17, 1996 May 13, 1997 1996–1997 #17[6] 11.7[6]
2nd September 24, 1997 May 20, 1998 1997–1998 #47[7] 8.4[7]
3rd September 22, 1998 May 25, 1999 1998–1999 #25[8] 9.1[8]
4th September 21, 1999 May 24, 2000 1999–2000 #33[9] 8.7[9]
5th October 18, 2000 May 23, 2001 2000–2001 #53[10] 7.1[10]
6th September 25, 2001 April 30, 2002 2001–2002 #72[11] 5.5[11]

Awards and nominations

Michael J. Fox won one Primetime Emmy, out of four nominations. The show won four Golden Globes (three for Fox and one for Charlie Sheen), out of its nine nominations.

DVD releases

Shout! Factory has released all six seasons of Spin City on DVD in Region 1.[12]

DreamWorks released two best-of sets entitled "Michael J. Fox – His All Time Favorites" Vols. 1 and 2 in 2003, both containing 11 episodes. All 22 episodes are taken from the four seasons containing Fox, each starting with a brief interview in which he describes what he likes about the episode. In the 2003 interviews, Fox shows symptoms of his ongoing illness. Both DVD boxes contain bonus material with fund-raising TV commercials for Parkinson's disease research, starring the Spin City cast.

DVD Name Ep # Release Date
The Complete First Season 24 November 4, 2008
The Complete Second Season 24 April 28, 2009
The Complete Third Season 26 November 3, 2009
The Complete Fourth Season 26 February 15, 2011
The Complete Fifth Season 23 August 16, 2011
The Complete Sixth and Final Season 22 December 13, 2011

See also

References

  1. 1 2 "Carter On Spin City Was A Breakthrough Black Gay Male Character". Mar 25, 2008.
  2. "The Art of Picking TV Titles: 9 Do's and Don'ts". yahoo.com. March 9, 2012.
  3. Rice, Lynette (January 18, 2000). "'Spin' Out, The three-time Emmy nominee plans to devote himself to his family". Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved 2008-09-03.
  4. 1 2 "Goodbye Pt. 2". Spin City. Season 4. Episode 26. 2000-05-24. ABC.
  5. "Poobala.com". Crossover between Family Ties and Spin City. Retrieved March 9, 2008.
  6. 1 2 "Complete TV Ratings 1996-1997". Fbibler.chez.com. July 26, 2002. Retrieved 2010-05-05.
  7. 1 2 "Final Ratings for '97-'98 TV Season". Sfgate.com. May 25, 1998. Retrieved 2010-05-05.
  8. 1 2 "Final ratings for the 1998-1999 TV season". Archived from the original on October 29, 2009. Retrieved 2010-05-05.
  9. 1 2 "TV Ratings 1999-2000". Fbibler.chez.com. July 26, 2002. Retrieved 2010-05-05.
  10. 1 2 "TV Ratings 2000–2001". Retrieved January 9, 2010.
  11. 1 2 "How did your favorite show rate?". Usatoday.Com. May 28, 2002. Retrieved 2010-05-05.
  12. "Spin City DVD news: Announcement for Spin City - The Complete 6th Season - TVShowsOnDVD.com". tvshowsondvd.com.

External links

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