Spin City

Spin City works primarily because of great characters and their interactions and chemistry. I haven't seen any of the new Charlie Sheen episodes, but I saw the Michael J. Fox episodes, and they were quite good. I love Barry Bostwick as the mayor, and how he basically acts like a child.

In Michael J. Fox's last episode, everyone started crying, and you could tell they weren't fake tears. They were real. It wasn't because he was leaving because he was tired of the show. It was because he had Parkinsons disease.

I've always liked Michael J. Fox, because I always thought he had a strong screen presence, especially in Back To the Future. He wasn't one of those stuck up guys. He knew he was short and funny. Now he has moved on to animation films like Stuart Little, but I will always remember his goodbyes from Family Ties, up to the emotional goodbye on Spin City, as he ran out on stage, and the camera picked up one last image of him waving to the audience.

Spin City was a great show for the first three years, okay for a year, and bad for the last two. From what I've read on IMDb, I'm the one who didn't like Michael J. Fox from Family Ties and Back to the Future. I also don't like some of the things I've heard him say in interviews, but that all goes away when he is playing Mike Flaherty. That, I believe, is a sign of a good actor.

This show is by Mike, for Mike, and about Mike, and for the first 3 years of the show, it worked, and worked well. Bringing in Heather Locklear served its intended purpose, which was to create competition for Mike, but it did not work. This show was at its best when Mike was in command of his team of dunces, including the mayor.

In the beginning, Carla Gugino played Mike's love interest, and that created some great moments just in the first 12 episodes. Mike is the Deputy mayor of New York City, and Gugino, as Ashley, was a City Hall reporter. Not a totally original concept, but it worked really well. After the original 12 episode run, they decided that they had enough show without the Ashley character. Apparently it came as a surprise to the producers of the show that New York City politics was enough to stand on its own. So much so that no character other than Mike was ever really explored on this show.

All the other characters are very simple, but very funny. Stuart is the sex obsessed wacko. Carter is the homosexual, token black wacko. Nikki is the unlucky in love, neurotic wacko. James is the naive wacko. Stacy is the foul-mouthed Brooklynite wacko. Paul is just plain wacko.

What made the first 3 seasons great were the story lines and the performances of Michael J. Fox and Barry Bostwick. The fact that they used politics without politicizing the show just makes it a stroke of genius. Think about this: the show is about politics, and it never once got preachy. In fact, I don't believe they ever come out and say what political party the staff is representing. Reading between the lines, you can figure out that they are Democrats, but that is not the point of the show in any way. Others may find this a detriment to the show, meaning it was not socially relevant. This is true, it was not. But it was funny. That was really the bottom line of this show. It was just funny. Nothing more, nothing less. The jokes made you laugh. Whether its a joke about the Pope, or the state of Wisconsin, or homosexuality, or an overflowing toilet (perhaps the single best moment ever on the show).

This show lost me in the fourth season when Heather Locklear came on board. Her character took charge of the office, and the energy that came with Mike in control was gone. In addition, with two well known stars on the show, the other characters were literally filtered out. I would have loved to see Caitlin take on Stacey, but Jennifer Esposito left as Heather Locklear came on. Of course, Mike and Caitlin eventually fell for each other, but it never really worked, and shortly thereafter, Mike was gone.

I personally consider the Charlie Sheen years to be a completely different show, not worthy of comment.

I used to love spin city; set around the Mayor of New York and his staff, it provided a lot of laughs and politics in comedy actually quite works.

The mayor's deputy Mike was one of the best and brilliantly played by one of my favourite actors, Michae J. Fox who has so much screen charisma. The way Mike interacted with his staff was great; his relationship with Carter was hilarious and the way he mentored James was often touching. So many of the characters were great including James, Stuart, Carter, Paul, Nikki and Stacey.

Then they ruined it by casting Heather Locklear as Caitlin. I hated Caitlin, she was so annoying and she replaced the fiesty brooklyn gal, Stacey who was far superior.

When Stacey left it started to go wrong, then Mike, James and Nikki left too and Charlie Sheen couldn't be good enough to replace the loss of three great characters. Charlie was good, not as good as Mike but still a great actor, but Caitlin seemed to be the focus, it should have been called the Charlie Sheen and Heather Locklear show at the end as it was always about their relationship, just like it had been with Caitlin and Mike.

The later episodes are not as memorable, James was such a good character that the show suffered without him, everyone else was so self assured but James was the innocence of City hall and without him it was a bunch of big shot Caitlin's who wanted to rule the world.

This is the funniest show on TV this year. The writing is clever and genuinely funny. All of the members of the cast are interesting characters in themselves, and there is also tremendous chemistry among them. The chemistry between Stuart and Carter is especially good (possible spin-off?) I'd recommend that everyone look in on this show.

I only consider this show great during the Michael J. Fox years. Between those four delicious seasons, political satire and humor were at a peak on television. Fox and his assorted cast of friends and co-workers were exceptional, making this one of the best sitcoms in the history of television. People will disagree, but come on. Friends? Seinfeld? Please!!! In an age where reality TV is becoming a norm, I can always look back to this show in syndication and watch one of the last good shows that hasn't been stretch thinner than a Hollywood actress' waistline. The most underrated actor in the show wasn't even an actor. The lovable rat/dog/wombat "Rags," a scene stealer everytime he was carried onto the screen. All of my favorite episodes have Rags in it, especially the episode when Rags rediscovers his libido and the episode when he brought back to life by Christopher Lloyd. Good stuff all around, and its too bad Fox had to leave the show.