Caroline In The City

Caroline In The City
Category: Sitcom

Created By: Fred Barron, Dottie Dartland, and Marco Pennette

Stars: Lea Thompson, Eric Lutes, Malcolm Gets, Amy Pietz, Andy Lauer

Country of Origin: United States

Number of Seasons: 4

Number of Episodes: 97

Executive Producers: Fred Barron, Dottie Dartland, Marco Pennette

Original Channel: NBC

Original Run: September 21, 1995 to May 11, 1999

Caroline in the City is an American sitcom that ran from September 21, 1995, to May 11, 1999, on the NBC television network. Starring Back to the Future alumna Lea Thompson as cartoonist Caroline Duffy, the series premiered in the two-hour Thursday night block led by the popular Friends.








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Caroline in the City Premise

Caroline Duffy is a cartoonist living in a Manhattan loft. She spends many episodes searching for a husband and meddling in the lives of those around her.

Richard, her colorist, develops feelings for her towards the end of the first season. He writes her a love note and leaves it in a pile of invitations. In it he tells her to meet him at Remo's, an Italian restaurant which appears in most episodes, if she loves him. She shows up, and Richard kisses her, but doesn't explain himself, prompting Richard to leave Manhattan and start a new life in Paris. It turns out that Caroline had never even read the note, resulting in a cliffhanger.

Richard fails to sell enough paintings to stay in Paris, and moves back to Manhattan. The box of invitations with his love letter ends up at one of Caroline's friend's apartment as they plan a wedding. Annie finds the love note, and uses it to torture Richard.

Richard was married to an Italian woman for a time, prompting a bitter love triangle between the three.

Towards the end of the series, Caroline and Richard do start dating. However, the show ended on a cliffhanger note -- as Caroline was about to get married to another man, Richard (who had broken up with Caroline over not wanting children, once he discovered he'd fathered a child with his former Italian fiancee) is shown at the wedding. Since the program was cancelled after that episode aired, the cliffhanger was never resolved.

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Caroline in the City Characters

Caroline Duffy

Played by Lea Thompson. She was a cartoonist (author of the eponymous comic strip). She is from Peshtigo, Wisconsin and often tries to make everyone like her. She also has serious trouble not meddling in the lives of everyone around her. She was engaged to Del during the first season, but the marriage never took place and their friendship remained intact. She develops a contemporary attraction to Richard, however she does not develop it as early as him during the series. Continuing a trend in 1990s NBC sitcom broadcasting, she spends almost no time working. She was temporarily dating a veterinarian for a few episodes.

Del Cassidy

Caroline's sometimes boyfriend, played by Eric Lutes. They were engaged to be married during the first season of Caroline in the City, but broke it off in the season finale. Del worked at his father's greeting card company, but after he was fired he had to build his own business later in the series. Caroline becomes one of his only suppliers at this company, Eagle Greeting Cards.

Richard Karinsky

The colorist for the Caroline in the City comic strip, played by Malcolm Gets. He was in love with Caroline himself. Caroline and Richard did end up having a relationship. There was no love lost between him and Del because of Del's relationship with Caroline and Del's lack of intelligence.

Richard is highly sarcastic, especially to Annie. He is a struggling artist who usually lives in slummy parts of New York.

Annie Spadaro

Caroline's across the hall neighbor and friend, played by Amy Pietz. Annie was a dancer in the Broadway production of Cats. She is somewhat promiscuous and wears unusual styles. Her mother was a recurring character on the show.

After Richard writes Caroline a love letter which he later regrets, Annie manages to get her hands on it and makes several copies. She uses the copies to blackmail him in a couple of episodes.

Supporting characters

Supporting characters included Del's rollerblading goofball sidekick Charlie, (Andy Lauer), Italian restauranteur Remo (Tom La Grua), veterinarian — and Caroline's love interest — Dr. Joe DeStefano (Mark Feuerstein) and Richard's wife Julia Mazzone Karinsky (Sofia Milos).

Ratings

1995-1996: #4

1996-1997: #25

Caroline in the City Notable guest appearances

Thompson appeared as Caroline in the 2 November 1995 Friends episode "The One with the Baby on the Bus" soon after Caroline in the City debuted.

Jane Leeves and David Hyde Pierce from the sitcom Frasier guest-starred as their characters Daphne Moon and Niles Crane in the 1995 episode "Caroline and the Bad Back;" Hyde Pierce appeared on the series again in 1996's "Caroline and the Cat Dancer" as a man hoping to win a role alongside Caroline's best friend Annie Spadaro in Broadway's Cats.

The Dick Van Dyke Show alumni Rose Marie and Morey Amsterdam appeared as an elderly married couple in the 1996 episode "Caroline and the Watch." Amsterdam died later that year, making the episode his last television appearance; Marie later reprised her role in the 1997 episode "Caroline and the Kept Man."

Matthew Perry also made a guest appearance on the show, playing his original character from Friends; Chandler Bing.

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Trivia
For a time, the show aired at Tuesdays at 9:30 p.m., opposite the ABC sitcom Spin City, which starred Michael J. Fox, who played Thompson's son in the Back to the Future trilogy (1985, 1989, 1990).

While shooting the 1997-1998 season finale, Malcolm Gets was injured when running from a group of bulls on the studio's main lot, in a setting which had the main characters vacationing in Spain during the annual Running of the Bulls. In the storyline, Richard was caught on a street corner with a bunch of locals when the bulls entered the streets, with Caroline and the others alerting him to get out of their way. Richard tried valiantly, but as he ended up being the final one running through the streets, the camera gave the illusion that Richard was attacked from behind by a bull. In real life, Gets was in the middle of this chase scene when he ran down a grassy hill and was knocked flying by a stray bull, sustaining injuries to his head and limbs, but he soon recovered. This was a very unusual case, since most actors have stunt doubles to handle these scenes; Gets however, insisted on doing this himself.

The show was parodied on the cartoon Family Guy in one of its many off-topic scenes, in which Peter Griffin watches the show to "fool people into thinking he's gay."

MadTV also parodied the show , portraying Caroline as a dense buffoon that unaware of how to act out scenes and that was also unaware her co-star was gay.

Timeslots

September 1995 to July 1996 - Thursdays, 9:30 PM August 1996 to July 1997 - Tuesdays, 9:30 PM

June 1997 to July 1998 - Mondays, 9:00 PM

June 1998 to April 1999 - Mondays, 8:30 PM





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