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Caroline in the City is an American situation comedy that ran from September 21, 1995 to April 26, 1999 on the NBC television network. It starred Lea Thompson as cartoonist Caroline Duffy. The series premiered in the two-hour Thursday night block led by Friends.
[edit] Premise
Caroline Duffy is a cartoonist living in a Manhattan loft. She is shown in many episodes spending a lot of time with her dates or lovers and meddling in the lives of those around her. The series began shortly after she had broken up with her boyfriend Del, who quickly found a date. She hires Richard Karinsky to be her new colorist in the first episode, and he pretended to be her new boyfriend during a dinner to prevent her from being embarrassed over Del's moving on. Richard develops feelings for Caroline throughout the first season.
Caroline's success as a cartoonist is well displayed throughout the first season, as she gets her own balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, has a park dedicated to her in her native Peshtigo, Wisconsin, and is offered her own cereal.[1] She tells a date that her career began with doodling as a copywriter, a job she took after dropping out of college. In one episode it is revealed that her cartooning began as a child drawing violent pictures of her brother Chris. A meeting with her agent showed that it took less than five years for her cartoon to become nationally syndicated. A clerk at a pharmacy said he saw her on The Today Show.
Following a date with a conspiracy theorist, Caroline met Del at Remo's, an Italian restaurant which appears in most episodes. He gave her a ride home and he proposed marriage. Richard is distressed by this and searches for a new job but doesn't find one. Although Richard kept his feelings secret, Annie and Remo were able to figure out that he loved Caroline.
The day before her wedding, he writes her a love letter and leaves it in a pile of wedding 'thank-you' cards. In it he tells her to meet him at Remo's if she loves him. She arrives, and Richard kisses her, but doesn't explain himself, but it turned out that Caroline didn't get any letter. Richard realizes that since Caroline is about to marry Del there is no place in her life for him and decides to leave Manhattan. Caroline and Del decide not to marry, unknown to Richard. Caroline visits Richard's apartment only to find that he has left, and since she didn't read the letter she did not know why.
The second season began with Richard failing to sell enough paintings to stay in Paris, and moving back to Manhattan. Caroline gave the box of 'thank-you' cards with his love letter to a friend, and it ends up at her apartment. Richard tries to find and destroy the love letter, first by sending Charlie and later by going himself. He tossed the thank you notes out the window, only to have Annie find it. She made several copies and planned to show it to Caroline, but Richard convinced her not to. Richard resumed his old job as her colorist. Annie used the letter to blackmail him, but ceased doing so after her sister used the note for the lyrics of a song.
Later Caroline discovers that she has feelings for Richard when he suddenly met on Manhattan his Italian ex-girlfriend Julia, but when Caroline left a message on his answering machine telling that she loves him Julia erased it. Then Richard and Julia got married, 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 (Randy), 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 canceled after that episode aired, the cliffhanger was never resolved.
The show was filmed at CBS Studio Center.[2]
[edit] Themes and sources of humor
The underlying theme of the series is that Richard loves Caroline but is unable or unwilling to tell her. This results in awkwardness with her boyfriends and dates. Caroline later develops similar feelings and similarly doesn't tell him.
Richard's job, coloring in the cartoons and other material, is regularly mocked as being "silly" or "childish". Richard regularly made wisecracks about Caroline's extroverted and talkative nature, Annie's promiscuity, and Del's poorly thought out comments. Richard sometimes has chances to become a major success, but they all result in failure, often because of his own bumbling. His poverty and living conditions are sometimes used for jokes. Richard also had great contempt for Salty, Caroline's cat played by Tiki, the cat from Homeward Bound.
The show sometimes made use of short animated versions of her cartoon strip, especially during the first season. The Pilot and "Caroline and the Bad Back" showed that Caroline had a rivalry with Cathy.
[edit] Main characters
- Caroline Duffy (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 he during the series. As her relationship with Richard seemed impossible she was temporarily dating a veterinarian, Joe (during season 2), businessman, Trevor (during season 3), and school- time friend from Peshtigo, Randy (season 4).
- Richard Karinsky (Malcolm Gets) - The colorist for the Caroline in the City comic strip. He was in love with Caroline. Caroline and Richard did end up having a relationship. There was no love lost between he 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 (painter) who usually lives in slummy parts of New York. He is regularly embarrassed about the nature of his job. A few times he had chances for his big break, but it always ended up as failure. Richard attended an unnamed art school, which he has a substantial student loan debt remaining for.
- Del Cassidy (Eric Lutes) - Caroline's sometimes boyfriend. They were engaged to be married during the first season, 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.
- Annie Spadaro (Amy Pietz) - Caroline's across the hall neighbor and best friend. Annie was a dancer in the Broadway production of Cats. After meeting Shadoe Stevens in LA she quit her job in Cats and rushes to California to shoot pilot for series. Unfortunately she was fired from it and since she can't move back to Broadway she became unemployed until end of the series. She is somewhat promiscuous and wears unusual styles. Her mother Angie and brother Pete were recurring characters on the show. After Richard writes Caroline a love letter which he later regrets, Annie by accident manages to get her hands on it and makes several copies, which she used to blackmail him until her sister used it for a song.
- Charlie (Andy Lauer) - He was a delivery boy in Del's father's company and after Del was fired they became partners in new company Eagle Greeting Cards. He has a poor grasp on reality. In last season he has moved to Europe.
[edit] Recurring characters
- Remo (Tom La Grua) - Italian owner of restaurant Remo's Ristorante where other characters usually have dinner or spend time. Remo's Ristorante was mentioned in Richard's love letter to Caroline which later was used by Annie's sister to write song Meet me at Remo's.
- Johnny (John Mariano) - Waiter in Remo's Ristorante. Usually takes part wherever Remo is.
- Joe DeStefano (Mark Feuerstein) - Veterinarian whom used to date Caroline and came close to moving in to her apartment for good. His character disappears from series after he confessess to Caroline that he slept with his ex-girlfriend.
- Julia Mazzone Karinsky (Sofia Milos) - At the beginning of the series she was the love of Richard's life (as he calls it 'sincero amore' - the love that you don't have to question) and during Season 3 she becomes his wife. She's from Italy where they first met. She is the spoiled daughter of an Italian businessman who didn't approve of her relationship with Richard and tried to destroy him (first physically then economically).
- Trevor (Robert Gant) - Caroline's boyfriend during season 3. He owns a computer company and German shepherd dog. His character disappears in last episode of season 3 when Caroline rushes to Spain to meet Richard and Julia - Trevor realised that he will never win a place in Caroline heart over Richard.
- Randy (Anthony Tyler Quinn) - Pediatrician, Caroline's schooltime friend (or boyfriend) from Peshtigo, Wisconsin. They meet in last season when Caroline's parents were selling their house. Since she grew up in this house she was trying to stop the sale and later was trying to buy it herself, but Randy already bought the house. When Caroline explained him how much this house means to her he agrees to sell it to her and rent it from her. When he arrives to New York for the pediatricians seminary they meet again and Caroline realizes that she may still have some feelings for Randy despite that she is in relationship with Richard. When Richard left to Italy to take care of his son Annie brought Randy to cheer Caroline up which ended up with their wedding in last episode, but since the ending was suspended and never finished there isn't any answer to question if Randy became Caroline's husband.
- Angie Spadaro (Candy Azzara) - Mother of Annie whom constantly moves back to her daughter's flat which drives Annie crazy. During season 3 she got divorced.
- Pete Spadaro (Adam Ferrara) - Brother of Annie whom used to work in their father's undertaking company. During the series he tries some other occupations influenced by Richard (electrician and artist painter).
- Shelly (Lauren Graham) - Short time she was Richard's girlfriend. Richard was desperate to break up with her, but she always had reason not to.
- Elevator Lady (Cathy Ladman) - Recurring character on the show - she was Caroline's neighbor from one of the upper floors. She often appears in key dialogues when someone enters the elevator. Also one of the episodes takes part in her flat.
[edit] Notable guest appearances
- Matthew Perry - As his Friends character, Chandler Bing (although not actually identified as such). Met Annie in the video store on "Caroline and the Folks." That night, Thompson appeared as Caroline in the November 2, 1995 Friends episode "The One with the Baby on the Bus." [3]
- Jean Stapleton - As Mary Kosky, Caroline's aunt, who visits in "Caroline and the Opera."[4]
- Jane Leeves and David Hyde Pierce - Briefly playing Daphne Moon and Niles Crane, their characters from the sitcom Frasier at the end of the 1995 episode "Caroline and the Bad Back;" Hyde Pierce later appeared on the series again in 1996's "Caroline and the Cat Dancer" as an accountant hoping to win a role alongside Caroline's best friend Annie Spadaro in Broadway's Cats.[5] [6]
- Sharon Lawrence as Maddie in "Caroline and the Proposal."[7]
- John Landis as himself in "Caroline and the Movie."
- Florence Henderson as herself in "Caroline and the Balloon".
- Elizabeth Ashley as Richard's mother in "Caroline and Richard's Mother" and "Caroline and the Bad Trip."
- Morey Amsterdam and Rose Marie - As Vic Stansky and Stella Dawson. The The Dick Van Dyke Show alumni 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."[8] [9]
- Phil Hartman - In a parody of The Twilight Zone, the host describes the viewers entering the Caroline Zone in "Caroline and the Letter."[10]
- Thomas Gibson - Playing Caroline's old boyfriend William Stevens in "Caroline and the Nice Jewish Boy."[11]
- Julie Andrews - As herself in "Caroline and Victor/Victoria."[12]
- French Stewart - A reporter covering Richard in "Caroline and the Long Shot".[13]
- Debra Jo Rupp - As Richard's boss at his second job during Christmastime in "Caroline and the Red Sauce".[14]
- George Segal in "Caroline and the Buyer."[15]
- Brian George - As Mr. Tedescu, Caroline's super in "Caroline and the Ombudsman."[16]
- Shadoe Stevens as himself in "Caroline and the Wayward Husband." .[17]
- Judd Hirsch - As Ben Karinsky, Richard's father, appearing in the 1996 episode "Caroline and the Comic."[18]
- Jay Leno appeared as himself in "Caroline and the Bad Trip".
- J.C. Wendel appeared as Candy, Del's secretary in the 1997 episode "Caroline and Richard & Julia"[19]
[edit] Nielsen rankings
[edit] 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
During the third season, it was paired with Suddenly Susan, Fired Up, and The Naked Truth as part of "Ladies Monday Night." [24]
[edit] DVD releases
CBS Home Entertainment (distributed by Paramount) released the first season of Caroline in the City on DVD in Region 1 on August 12, 2008. Season 2 was released on March 10, 2009.[25]
In Region 2, Revelation Films released all four seasons on DVD between August 2005 - June 2006
| DVD Name | Ep # | Region 1 | Region 2 |
| The Complete 1st Season | 24 | August 12, 2008 | August 22, 2005 |
| The Complete 2nd Season | 25 | March 10, 2009 | November 7, 2005 |
| The Complete 3rd Season | 26 | TBA | February 20, 2006 |
| The Complete 4th Season | 22 | TBA | June 26, 2006 |
[edit] See also
List of Caroline in the City episodes
[edit] References
[edit] External links
