Spin City 

Mike Flaherty, the Deputy Mayor of New York City, and his team of half-wits must constantly save the Mayor from embarrassment and the media. Mike is later succeeded by Charlie Crawford.

Creators:

Gary David Goldberg, Bill Lawrence

Stars:

Michael J. Fox, Charlie Sheen, Heather Locklear

Won 4 Golden Globes. Another 10 wins & 38 nominations.

Cast

Series cast summary:
Richard Kind	...	Paul Lassiter 145 episodes, 1996-2002
Alan Ruck	...	Stuart Bondek 145 episodes, 1996-2002
Michael Boatman	...	Carter Heywood / ... 145 episodes, 1996-2002
Barry Bostwick	...	The Mayor 145 episodes, 1996-2002
Michael J. Fox	...	Mike Flaherty 103 episodes, 1996-2001
Connie Britton	...	Nikki Faber 100 episodes, 1996-2000
Alexander Chaplin	...	James Hobert 100 episodes, 1996-2000
Victoria Dillard	...	Janelle Cooper / ... 91 episodes, 1996-2000
Heather Locklear	...	Caitlin Moore 71 episodes, 1999-2002

Storyline

In this sitcom, Deputy Mayor Mike Flaherty (Fox) and his City Hall staff must stop the dim-witted Mayor (Bostwick) of New York City from embarrassing himself in front of the media and the voters. The staff consists of Caitlin Moore (Locklear) the Communications Director, Carter Haywood (Boatman) the head of Minority Affairs,Stuart Bondack (Ruck) the Chief of Staff, Paul Lassiter (Kind) the Press Secretary, James Hobert (Gaberman/Chaplin)the Mayor's Speech Writer, and Nikki Faber (Britton) accountant. In the final two seasons of the show, Mike is replaced by Charlie Crawford (Sheen).

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Plot Keywords:

20th century | 21st century | 1990s | 2000s | mayor | 

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Taglines:

Slur campaigns. Cheap shots. Smear tactics. Just another day at the office.

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Genres:

Comedy

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Official Sites:

ABC

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

17 September 1996 (USA)

Also Known As:

Spin

Filming Locations:

CBS Studio Center - 4024 Radford Avenue, Studio City, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company Credits

Production Co:

DreamWorks, Lottery Hill Entertainment, Ubu Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

30 min (145 episodes)

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Michael J. Fox's final episode contained numerous references to his earlier series, Family Ties (1982), including a cameo appearance by Michael Gross (who played Fox's father in the earlier series), the doctor he plays has a secretary named Mallory, which was Fox's sister's name on the show, a reference to a Republican Senator named "Alex P. Keaton" (Fox's earlier character). Also, Meredith Baxter starred as his mother in earlier episodes, and also was his mother in Family Ties (1982).

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Quotes

[the staff is concerned that the mayor may cheat on his wife]
Mike: All right, everybody huddle up, close your eyes, I want to paint you a mental picture; the mayor is very vulnerable tonight, there are a lot of reporters here tonight, and also in attendance is a woman I will refer to simply as "The Shark", whereas the Mayor is like an older, slow-moving sea lion.
Stuart: [French accent] I will stay aboard the Calypso, while my assistant, Mike, dive into the ocean to join in the life and death struggle between...

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Alternate Versions

In the episode "A Star is Born" [1.6], there are 2 different primetime versions, one with a storyline involving Ashley Shaffer trying out to be a televion anchor and a second verson completely without her. The differences between these 2 versions are as follows:

• The original opening sequence features Ashley on a Sunday talk show. In the second version, the footage is replaced with Mike, Nicki and Carter betting on the Super Bowl.
• The second version's press conference sequence replaces Ashley's lines with those of a different reporter's.
• The original version has a sequence in which Ashley talks with Mike while walking down the hallway. In the second version, she's replaced with Stuart.
• The original version contains a sequence where Mike and Ashley are in their apartment watching television, followed by a closing sequence where they make out off camera. In the second version, all of the footage is replaced with a completely different storyline in which Nicki and Carter interview a guy named "Guy" at a focus group meeting, whom both Nicki and Carter develop feelings for. They argue over what Guy's sexual preference is and ask him back to find out for sure, to which he replies that he is gay, but not interested in Carter.

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Connections

Featured in The Nineties: The One About TV (2017)

User Reviews

Heather Locklear is a gaping black hole that sucks every last ounce of life out of this formerly incredible series

"Spin City": Network: ABC; Genre: Sitcom; Content Rating: TV-14 (for language and strong sexual content); Available: syndication; Classification: Contemporary (Star range: 1 - 4);

Season Reviewed: Seasons 5 & 6

To keep this little project manageable I have roped off the new millennium as a starting point to look at television. The trap door in this rule is that if a show was on the air at all after that time I can review the whole thing - except in the instances where that show underwent a change, for better or worse. Unfortunately, as with 'The Drew Carey Show' and 'The Daily Show', 'Spin City' is one such series whose glory days lie before the year 2000 and out of my jurisdiction. Thus, this review is really of a version of 'Spin City' that isn't the heart of this show. It is of a show that had lost it's lead, reshuffled the cast and was on it's dying legs. The change in the show is undeniable, and it would be irresponsible to simply ignore it, but this is not what 'Spin City' really was about.

Created by Bill Lawrence and Gary David Goldberg, 'Spin City' is a traditional sitcom about the womanizing deputy mayor and his staff of spin-masters struggling to save and protect the image of flaky New York City mayor Randall Winston (Barry Bostwick). The real 'Spin City' was driven about Michael J. Fox's terrific lead performance and absolutely impeccable comic delivery (for which he garnered a well-deserved Emmy award and 2 Golden Globes). It crackled with sharp, adult and always laugh-out-loud writing and an awesome ensemble cast to contend with any other on TV. Michael Boatman, Alexander Chapman as James, and Jennifer Esposito's hot Stacey are just 3 of my favorites. And the reunion episode with Christopher Lloyd was superb. Truly one of the funniest shows on the air, It probably gets my vote for the most underrated sitcom of the 90s. During the first 4 years, 'Spin City' was a 4 ½ star show by my scale. It was that good.

At the close of the 2000 season, Fox made a classy exit to fight a private battle with Parkinson's disease. At that signal, the rest of the cast (save for Boatman, Bostwick, Richard Kind and Alan Ruck) jumped overboard like rats form a sinking ship. But all was not quite lost as replacement Charlie Sheen - reportedly hand picked by producer Fox himself - stepped in and stepped up, filling the new role with surprising success and agility. Sheen has picked up Fox's mannerisms for the arrogant Mike Flaherty and incorporated it into his own completely new character, Charlie Crawford (like Fox, taking his own first name). In fact, with this his first project after coming out of rehab, Sheen is something of a revelation here. As hard to believe as it may be for the purists, but he almost comes up to par with Fox.

The fast and steep decline of the series really has nothing to do with Charlie Sheen. I believe it had more to do with the rest of the ensemble leaving and the show making the suicidal decision to shoulder the series on Heather Locklear. 'Spin' then quickly became a 2-person series in which we are supposed to agonize over the sexual tension between the leads and wonder if Sheen and Locklear's characters will get together. It should have occurred to Lawrence that it's fans where smarter than that. Locklear is a black hole that sucks every remaining ounce of life out of 'Spin City'. Sheen's efforts to save the show and the legacy of it's name deserve far better than this. Forget about this. Stick with seasons 1 through 3, and 4 as a bonus, and you will be in good hands.

* ½