Spin City

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Spin City
Cast of Spin City
Genre	Sitcom
Running time	22 Minutes
Creator(s)	Bill Lawrence Gary David Goldberg
Starring	Michael J. Fox Charlie Sheen Barry Bostwick Heather Locklear Richard Kind Alan Ruck Michael Boatman Connie Britton Alexander Chaplin Jennifer Esposito Carla Gugino Victoria Dillard Lana Parrilla
Country of origin	USA
Original channel	ABC
Original run	September 17, 1996–April 30, 2002
No. of episodes	145
IMDb profile

Spin City was an American sitcom television series that ran from 1996 to 2002 on ABC, based on a fictional local government running New York City, originally starring Michael J. Fox as Mike Flaherty, the Deputy Mayor of New York. The show was cancelled along with Dharma & Greg and Once and Again in 2002 due to low ratings from the 2001–2002 season and a change in target demographics. Altogether 145 episodes were made (see list of episodes).

1 Premise
- 1.1 The Later Years
2 Cast
3 Spin City on DVD
4 Trivia
5 International
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Premise

The series focused on the Mayor of New York City, Randall Winston (Barry Bostwick), and his staff as they ran the city — although the main person in charge was Deputy Mayor Mike Flaherty (Fox). Mike was excellent at his job, dealing with spin and lies, but not so good with his personal life, which he often neglected. Other members of staff at City Hall included press secretary Paul Lassiter (Richard Kind), the office cheapskate and noted coward, who had a habit of being a loudmouth and was 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), who is a gay black man who owns a suicidal dog named Rags. Ironically, despite their overwhelming personal differences, Stuart and Carter were actually roommates and the best of friends; speech writer James Hobert (Alexander Chaplin), who is easily led and quite naive; the Mayor's secretary Janelle Cooper (Victoria Dillard); Mike's secretary Stacy Paterno (Jennifer Esposito); and his assistant Nikki Faber (Connie Britton). Each of them had to help run City Hall, covering for the Mayor's frequent gaffes, improving his image, while sorting out their personal lives.

At the start of the series, Mike was dating reporter Ashley Schaffer (Carla Gugino). In early promos for the series, this relationship was shown to be the main premise of the show. However, just a few episodes into the series, Gugino decided to leave. Rumours indicated that Fox's wife Tracy Pollan was not happy with the love scenes between Fox and Gugino's characters (some say that their chemistry was "too good")^{[citation needed]}, and indeed one episode ("A Star Is Born") was re-edited for syndication, with all scenes featuring Ashley removed and replaced by other scenes.

The bond between Carter and Stuart became something of 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, this 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 Catlin. In spite of all the jokes and innuendos regarding the two, they prove to be best friends willing to do anything for both their friends and each other. Fans of the show have often compared them to the The Odd Couple, with Stuart being the sloppy, hedonistic Oscar to Carter's uptight, fussy Felix.^{[citation needed]}

[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 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 research into Parkinson's. Fox's symptoms were getting worse by this point. The producers decided to carry on with the series with a new lead, and Mike Flaherty left City Hall at the end of the show's 4th season as he took the blame for an alleged Mafia link that the Mayor unknowingly had.

Production of the show then moved from New York to Los Angeles for the 5th season, and Charlie Sheen joined the show as new Deputy Mayor Charlie Crawford. Nikki, Janelle and James also disappeared between the 4th and 5th seasons (the absences of the characters were never explained), and the 5th season began with Charlie settling into his role of Deputy Mayor, along with Caitlin, Paul, Stuart, Carter and assistant Angie Ordonez (Lana Parrilla), and of course the Mayor himself. Angie left at the end of the 5th season, Parrilla feeling the character was underused, and she was never mentioned again.

[edit] Cast

Michael J. Fox as Deputy Mayor Michael Patrick Flaherty (1996–2000)
Barry Bostwick as Mayor Randall Winston
Alan Ruck as Chief of Staff/Assistant Deputy Mayor Stuart Bondek
Richard Kind as Press Secretary Paul Lassiter
Michael Boatman as Head of Minority Affairs Carter Heywood
Alexander Chaplin as Speech Writer James Hobert (1996–2000)
Connie Britton as Assistant Nikki Faber (1996–2000)
Victoria Dillard as Secretary Janelle Cooper (1996–2000)
Carla Gugino as Journalist Ashley Schaeffer (1996)
Jennifer Esposito as Secretary Stacy Paterno (1997–1999)
Heather Locklear as Campaign Manager/Communications Director Caitlin Moore (1999–2002)
Charlie Sheen as Deputy Mayor Charlie Crawford (2000–2002)
Lana Parrilla as Secretary Angie Ordonez (2000–2001)

[edit] Spin City on DVD

Spin City has not yet been published on DVD - or at least not entirely. Dreamworks has, however, published two smaller 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 Michael J. Fox, each starting with a brief interview in which he states what makes the particular episode so special to him.

Altogether just 22% of the Michael J. Fox episodes or just 15% of the entire show is available for purchase. They have been published as RC1/NTSC boxes, so officially they are not available outside North America..

The 2003 episode intro interviews are quite touching as Michael J. Fox is visibly showing symptoms of his ongoing illness, quite in contrast to the actual episodes following thereafter. Besides that, both DVD boxes contain bonus material with fund-raising TV commercials for Parkinson's Disease research, starring Michael J. Fox and the entire Spin City cast, even Charlie Sheen.

[edit] Trivia

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Content in the trivia section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article.

The show was called Chaos City on German TV. Carter was named "Gordon" in the German dub.
The show's first 4 seasons were filmed at Chelsea Piers' Stage D in New York.
One of the most memorable (and most popular) scenes in Spin City was the "goofy" love scene that featured Heidi Klum wearing lingerie and Michael imagining himself wearing an astronaut suit, illustrating the significance he attached to the event (Episode 3.03, "Gone With The Wind"). This was a parody on a movie cliché where the person enters the room very slowly in love scenes of movies as well as to display the "achievement" in sleeping with Heidi Klum.
The show was visited by numerous guest stars, such as supermodel Heidi Klum and actress Courtney Thorne-Smith.
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; and Charlie's father was played by Charlie Sheen's real-life father Martin Sheen.
The mayor was named after associate producer Randall Winston.
The original theme was composed by Shelly Palmer, who also composed the underscore.
The theme tune for Seasons 2 and 3 was composed by the Spin Doctors.
Carter and Paul are the only two characters to appear in every episode.
Charlie Sheen was playing the Deputy Mayor of New York City in Spin City at the same time as his father Martin Sheen was playing the President of the United States in The West Wing.
Many of Spin City's main cast members have guest-starred on Scrubs, which was created by Spin City co-creator Bill Lawrence. Cast members who have appeared in Scrubs include Barry Bostwick, Richard Kind, Heather Locklear, Alan Ruck, Alexander Chaplin, Michael Boatman and Michael J. Fox.
For a time, the show aired at Tuesdays at 9:30pm, opposite the NBC sitcom Caroline in the City, starring Lea Thompson (who played Fox's mother in the Back to the Future trilogy).
In the last episode with Fox as a regular cast member, he becomes an Environmental Lobbyist. While telling Caitlin about Washington, D.C., he mentions a junior senator from Ohio named Alex P. Keaton (Fox's character on Family Ties). Also, Michael Gross portrayed Mike's therapist in this episode, as well as his father in "Family Ties". Also, as Mike leaves the room, the doctor tells him to pay "Mallory" on his way out, "Mallory" being the older sister on "Family Ties".
Christopher Lloyd, Fox's counterpart from the Back to the Future trilogy, guest starred in an episode entitled Back to the Future IV: Judgment Day. In the episode, he plays Mike's old political mentor who claimed to be the son of God. This episode had several references to Time, and the film for which both of them are remembered for; for instance, when they greet at the start of the show (to a wonderful applause), Fox remarks "It's just like stepping back in time." Lloyd then tells Fox: "The past is prologue Michael, men like us have got to keep looking to the future".
On some episodes, the mayor (Barry Bostwick) can be seen wearing a button that says "I survived Rocky Horror". Bostwick himself is best known for his role as Brad Majors in the 1975 cult film The Rocky Horror Picture Show.
In an episode that aired in November 2000, Paul goes on Who Wants to be a Millionaire and goes all the way to the top, winning the $1 million top prize.