City (TV series)
| City | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Paul Haggis |
| Directed by | Howard Storm |
| Starring |
Valerie Harper Todd Susman Stephen Lee Tyra Ferrell Liz Torres Mary Jo Keenen Sam Lloyd James Lorinz LuAnne Ponce Shay Duffin Rodney Ueno (pilot only) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 1 |
| No. of episodes | 13 |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Paul Haggis Tony Cacciotti |
| Location(s) |
CBS-MTM Studios Studio City, California |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company(s) | MTM Enterprises |
| Distributor | 20th Television |
| Release | |
| Original network | CBS |
| Original release | January 29 – June 8, 1990 |
City is an American sitcom that aired on CBS from January 29 to June 8, 1990. The series was a new starring vehicle for Valerie Harper, which went into development not long after she and husband Tony Cacciotti won their lawsuit against Lorimar Telepictures over her dismissal from her NBC sitcom Valerie (which eventually continued without her as The Hogan Family). City was created by Paul Haggis, and like Harper's previous series, was also executive produced by Cacciotti.
Harper portrayed Liz Gianni, the city manager of an unnamed American city. In her line of work came dealings with the all-too-realistic but sometimes lighthearted issues of the modern-day city, from budget cuts to bureaucratic and political corruption, and the socioeconomic travails of inner-city life. Despite the turmoil that often ensued because of these problems, Liz focused on them with much exuberance, with a little kookiness thrown in, which ultimately made this a return to the type of character that first brought Harper fame on The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Rhoda in the early 1970s. Liz's breezy, Amazonian mentality played more to her advantage at home, where she had to constantly keep up with—-and fret over—-her rapidly maturing 19-year-old daughter Penny (LuAnne Ponce). Liz and Penny's frantic repertoire and sweet "mother-daughter" moments, filled with witty dialogue, was the other central base of the show.
At work, Liz oversaw a multi-ethnic staff of crazies and eccentrics. Roger Barnett (Todd Susman) was the assistant city manager who spends most of his time betting on sports and trying to sell a worn-out racehorse he owns. Anna-Maria Batista (Liz Torres) is the tough Cuban purchasing agent whose most obvious character trait was pronouncing "yep" as "jep". Wanda Jenkins (Tyra Ferrell) was the sarcastic black secretary, who often discussed how she didn't want her young son to turn out like his father, a composer of classical music who actually made very little money. Also seen around City Hall were Gloria Elgis (Mary Jo Keenen), the city social coordinator, a stereotypically beautiful airhead spoiled by her wealthy family; Lance Armstrong (Sam Lloyd), the creepy statistician; and Victor Sloboda (James Lorinz), a dumb security guard, who in one episode thought a bandit had stolen the entire supply of White-Out for use in processing records for illegal immigrants. His solution to the problem: painting his entire body in correction fluid in order to "keep his eyes" on the supply! Liz and the gang all answered to Ken Resnick (Stephen Lee), the totally powerless, monumentally rotten Deputy Mayor. Running the newsstand/lunch counter at City Hall was Sean (Shay Duffin), an acerbic Irishman. Chuck (Rodney Ueno), an aggressive Asian mail clerk, was also part of the cast, but his character was dropped after the pilot.
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