City

I went to some shady focus group up in Portland, Oregon, sometime between 1998 and 2000. One of the show's allegedly being considered for that upcoming fall TV season line-up was "The City" which was being billed as a "comeback vehicle for Valerie Harper." What I found most perplexing was how terribly dated this showed appeared from hair and makeup to clothing and props (ie., rotary phones, antique fax machines, and Commodore 64 computers. Keep in mind, this show was not billed as a period piece (i.e. 1985). The acting was poor and the set-ups predictable at best. Clearly this show never made it on air because of the poor quality in production let alone a cast of forgettable supporting actors. This show was crappola and it's no wonder it never saw the light of day. Thank you Gods of television for sparing us from this celluloid atrocity.

The City was Valerie Harper's follow-up after she left her own show on NBC called The Hogan Family (previously called Valerie, then Valerie's Family, in hope she'd return, when she didn't, she was replaced with Sandy Duncan).

The City was put on the air directly opposite The Hogan Family as if to see which one people preferred, or that we 'sided' with, Valerie or her old show.

The City actually did beat The Hogan Family in the ratings, and Harper seemed to take that as some indication that she was the victor.

Funnier still, it seems she had a daughter on The City who was the real-life sister of one of the guys who played a son on the NBC show.

With the Valerie-Hogan Family currently in reruns, I wondered what become of her 'victory' show, all but forgotten and came here to these very odd reviews about it being seen in a group screening for commercial products.

I have no idea what all that is about.

Of the two, I watched the Hogan show more, but wouldn't mind seeing this show again also.

I thought she looked young in this show. I just saw this at a test screening last weekend. Apparently, like other audiences, the majority loved this show. I wrote in my critique that it was reminiscent of other workplace sitcoms such as Night Court, Barney Miller & WKRP (i.e. straightman, or in this case, straightwoman, surrounded by a cast of oddball characters). The episode I saw was about Valerie's character trying to secure funds to fix a mess of a bulldozed cemetery sending coffins down a hillside. A secondary plot was about citizens submitting new "theme songs" for the city. If the TV Preview people were just testing the appeal of Ms. Harper & not necessarily this show, they just need to look at Seinfeld's supporting cast and check out their success post-Seinfeld.

From what I've read, most of the people who have seen this show have seen it at some kind of audience testing session...which is where I saw it tonight. We were told it was shot 12 years ago and they wanted to know what we thought of Valerie Harper, because perhaps they'd come up with another show for her. However, all the questions on the audience survey were about how we liked the characters and the show itself. I can only imagine they're using this old show to weed out audiences for future surveys.

As for the show itself, it had a strong supporting cast, but conceptually,"Spin City" has been there already. As for Valarie Harper, she's fine. A sitcom perenial. Whatever the case, she'll be back in something.

I saw an episode of this show at a TV focus-group screening recently. Apparently someone wants to bring back Valerie Harper and wants to know if Americans are ready for it. At any rate, it was absolutely hilarious, the dialog was snappy and original and the characters were a great mix of cynical government functionaries. Even interaction between the single mother (Valerie Harper) and her daughter, which could have easily been saccharine, was smart and effective. Probably one of the funniest sitcom episodes I have ever seen. It had an intelligence that is rare today and was almost unheard of in comedy series of the era. The fact that this series got canceled in its infancy while "Full House" ran from 87-95 is simply an atrocity.