Spin City
| Spin City | |
|---|---|
Season 1 intertitle
|
|
| Created by |
Gary David Goldberg Bill Lawrence |
| Starring |
Michael J. Fox (seasons 1–4) Charlie Sheen (seasons 5–6) Carla Gugino (first 12 episodes) Heather Locklear (seasons 4–6) Richard Kind Michael Boatman Alan Ruck Connie Britton (seasons 1–4) Alexander Chaplin (seasons 1–4) Victoria Dillard (seasons 1–4) Jennifer Esposito (seasons 2–3) Lana Parrilla (season 5) with Barry Bostwick as The Mayor |
| Theme music composer | Spin Doctors(seasons 2–3) |
| Composer(s) | Shelley Palmer(seasons 1-4) Danny Pelfrey(seasons 5–6) |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language(s) | English |
| No. of seasons | 6 |
| No. of episodes | 145 (list of episodes) |
| Production | |
| Executive producer(s) | Gary David Goldberg (seasons 1–3, 5–6) Michael J. Fox (seasons 1–4) Bill Lawrence (season 3) David S. Rosenthal Andy Cadiff (season 4) Tom Hertz (season 6) |
| Camera setup | Film; Multi-camera |
| Running time | 30 minutes |
| Production company(s) |
Ubu Productions Lottery Hill Entertainment DreamWorks Television |
| Distributor | Paramount Worldwide Television Licensing & Distribution (Paramount Television) |
| Release | |
| Original network | ABC |
| Picture format |
480i (SDTV; entire run) 720p (HDTV; season 6) |
| Original release | September 17, 1996 – April 30, 2002 |
| Website | |
Spin City is an American television sitcom that aired from September 17, 1996, until April 30, 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. Fox departed in 2000 at the conclusion of Season 4 due to his battle with Parkinson's disease, and Charlie Sheen assumed the lead role of Charlie Crawford for the remaining two seasons. The show was cancelled in 2002 due to low ratings.
The series presents a fictional local government running New York City and follows its Mayor Randall Winston (Barry Bostwick) and his staff as they run the city, although the main person in charge is Deputy Mayor Mike Flaherty (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; and head of minority affairs Carter Heywood (Michael Boatman), a gay black man with a suicidal dog named Rags.
Carter Heywood was seen as a revolution in modern television. As the writer Orville Lloyd Douglas noted on his blog GayBlackCanadianman, "Far too often whenever a character is gay on television it's always a white person. In North America gayness equals whiteness and gay black men are displaced due to race, gender, and sexual orientation. Finally, the writers and producers of Spin City got it right. Carter was a well adjusted young black man he wasn't on the down low, he also wasn’t confused or conflicted about his homosexuality." Despite their overwhelming personal differences, Stuart and Carter actually become roommates and best friends.
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