Spin City

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Spin City
The original Spin City intertitle, as seen during season one (1996-1997)
Also known as	Chaos City (Germany) Cidade Louca (Portugal) Spin (USA working title) Loca alcaldía (Spain)
Format	Sitcom
Created by	Bill Lawrence Gary Goldberg
Written by	Bill Lawrence (1996-2002) Gary Goldberg (1996-2002) Tim Hobert (1996-2001) and many more...
Starring	Michael J. Fox (1996-2000) Charlie Sheen (2000-2002) Barry Bostwick Richard Kind Michael Boatman Alan Ruck Heather Locklear (1999-2002) Connie Britton (1996-2000) Alexander Chaplin (1996-2000) Jennifer Esposito (1997-1999) Carla Gugino (1996) Victoria Dillard (1996-2000) Lana Parrilla (2000-2001)
Country of origin	USA
No. of seasons	6
No. of episodes	145 (List of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Gary David Goldberg Michael J. Fox (1996-2000) Bill Lawrence (1998-2000) Andy Cadiff (1998-2000) Tom Hertz (2001-2002)
Producer(s)	DreamWorks SKG Lottery Hill Entertainment Ubu Productions
Camera setup	Multiple camera
Running time	approx. 22 minutes
Broadcast
Original channel	ABC
Picture format	4:3 480i (SDTV)
Original run	September 17, 1996 – April 30, 2002
Chronology
Related shows	Scrubs

Spin City is an American sitcom television series that ran from 1996 to 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. The show was canceled in 2002 due to low ratings from the 2001–2002 season and a change in target demographics.

Contents 1 Premise 1.1 The later years 2 Episodes 3 Ratings 4 Awards 5 DVD Releases 6 Trivia 7 References 8 External links

[edit] 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 (Michael J. 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; head of minority affairs Carter Heywood (Michael Boatman), a gay black man who owns a suicidal dog named Rags. Despite their overwhelming personal differences, Stuart and Carter actually become roommates and the best of friends. Also part of the staff are speech writer James Hobert (Alexander Chaplin), who is easily led and quite naive; Mike's secretary Janelle Cooper (Victoria Dillard); and his assistant Nikki Faber (Connie Britton). Janelle later became the mayor's secretary and Stacy Paterno (Jennifer Esposito) joined the show as Mike's secretary. Each of them has to help run City Hall, improving the Mayor's image and cover for his frequent gaffes, while sorting out their personal lives.

At the start of the series, Mike is dating reporter Ashley Schaffer (Carla Gugino). In early promos for the series, this relationship is shown to be the main premise of the show. However, 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 that their friendship was mocked by others, and their arguments sounded so much like husband and wife that 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) that 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) [see below]. 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.

During the fourth season, Stacy was replaced by a temp, Gayle, in one episode, and then by James in subsequent episodes of that season. Her absence was never explained, nor was she mentioned again after James took over her duties, although Paul has one comment in Gayle's episode: he accidentally calls the temp "Stacy", then explains that he doesn't have the time to learn new names.

[edit] The later years

In 1998, Michael J. Fox announced that he had Parkinson's disease. As a result, a new character, Caitlin Moore (Heather 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 there was much friction between Mike and Caitlin about who was in charge of the Mayor. Their relationship, however, was more complex than a simple rivalry and there were hints that it would become more than platonic.

In 2000, as his symptoms worsened, Fox announced that 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^[1]. His character left City Hall at the end of the show's 4th season, taking the blame for an alleged Mafia link that the Mayor unknowingly had^[2]. He later moved to Washington D.C. as a environmental lobbyist, there meeting a senator named Alex P. Keaton^[2] (an homage to Family Ties, in which Fox played a conservative son of liberal parents ^[3]). 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 5th season, production moved from New York to Los Angeles, and Charlie Sheen as new Deputy Mayor Charlie Crawford, joining Caitlin, Paul, Stuart, Carter, and the Mayor. The characters of Nikki, Janelle and James were not carried over (like Stacy, their absences were never explained), replaced by assistant Angie Ordonez (Lana Parrilla), who likewise left after one season without explanation (Parrilla feeling the character was underused).

[edit] Episodes

[edit] 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	Viewers (in millions)
1st	September 17, 1996	May 13, 1997	1996–1997	#17	11.73
2nd	September 24, 1997	May 20, 1998	1997–1998	#32	7.63
3rd	September 22, 1998	May 25, 1999	1998–1999	#25	9.13
4th	September 21, 1999	May 24, 2000	1999–2000	#31	8.83
5th	October 18, 2000	May 23, 2001	2000–2001	#38	8.2
6th	September 25, 2001	April 30, 2002	2001–2002	#78	6.4

[edit] Awards

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

[edit] DVD Releases

On November 4, 2008, Shout! Factory released the complete first season of Spin City on DVD in Region 1 for the very first time. Season 2 will be released on April 28, 2009. [1]

Dreamworks has also published two DVD boxes titled "Michael J. Fox - His All Time Favorites" Vols. 1 and 2 in 2003, both containing eleven 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	Bonus Features
The Complete First Season	24	November 4, 2008	All-New Interviews with Michael J. Fox, the Series Creators and the Ensemble cast 7 Episode Commentaries Highlights of The Paley Center for Media Seminar featuring Gary David Goldberg and Michael J. Fox in 1996 Special Message from The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research: an inspiring video showcasing Team Fox, the Foundation's community fundraising program
The Complete Second Season	24	April 28, 2009

[edit] Trivia

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (April 2008)

• The show's first 4 seasons were filmed at Chelsea Piers' Stage D in New York.
• Alan Ruck, who plays Chief of Staff Stuart Bondek, had his breakout performance as the best friend in Ferris Bueller's Day Off^[4].
• A pennant from the Fordham University school is hung in Flaherty's office and throughout the series he is seen wearing a maroon-and-white bomber jacket, featuring not only the school's colors but also the name across the back.
• Many guest stars were connected to Fox and later Sheen. For instance, Mike Flaherty's mother was played by Meredith Baxter, who played his mother on Family Ties, so did Michael Gross, who played his father also on Family Ties, this time as Mike's shrink in the last two episodes of season 4; and Charlie's father was played by Charlie Sheen's real-life father Martin Sheen.^[4]
• Carter (Boatman) and Paul (Kind) are the only two characters to appear in every episode^[4].
• Christopher Lloyd, Fox's colleague from the Back to the Future trilogy, guest starred in an episode entitled Back to the Future IV: Judgment Day^[5]. The Back to the Future films were co-produced by Amblin Entertainment, whose founder, Steven Spielberg, would co-found DreamWorks (the main production company behind Spin City).
• Many of the actors have made a guest appearance on the show Scrubs, which is also produced by Lawrence. Fox appeared as a doctor who has Obsessive-compulsive disorder, first in the episode "My Catalyst", then the episode following it, "My Porcelain God". Richard Kind has appeared many times as an annoying hypochondriac patient. Alan Ruck made one appearance as a patient in the episode "My Lucky Day" who was wrongly diagnosed with terminal cancer. Boatman appeared in the episode "My Roommates" as Dr. Cox's old friend whose son may have a medical problem. Alexander Chaplin has had a recurring role as a drug addict who tricks many doctors into feeding his addiction. Heather Locklear appeared in the second season as a pharmaceutial representative who had a brief relationship with Perry Cox. Barry Bostwick appeared in the episode "My Dirty Secret" as an Episcopalian man with prostate cancer^[4].
• Many of the actors and actresses have also appeared on Law & Order and its two spinoffs. Barry Bostwick and Michael Boatman have recurring roles as lawyers, and Alexander Chaplin, Jennifer Esposito, Faith Prince, Victoria Dillard, and Richard Kind have all appeared as various other characters.
• Both Michael J. Fox's and Charlie Sheen's characters were given the actors' real first names. Sheen would later have the same honor on his next show, Two and a Half Men.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Spin City

• Spin City at the Internet Movie Database
• Spin City at Allmovie
• Spin City at Yahoo! TV
• Spin City at TV.com