This NBC sitcom featured New York cartoonist Caroline Duffy (former ballet dancer and Back To The Future costar, Lea Thompson) who had found success with her autobiographical comic strip called “Caroline In The City” – being the adventures of a young single woman living in the big city – which was syndicated to 565 newspapers.
Caroline lived at 54 Gramercy Place in the Tribeca neighbourhood of Manhattan, where she also worked, and eventually expanded her business to include greeting cards, books and calendars.
When she hired a rather stuffy artist/colourist named Richard Karinsky (Malcolm Gets), Caroline fell in love with him – much to her surprise – although she had become engaged to buffoonish Delbert “Del” Cassidy (Eric Lutes) – the president of the Cassidy Greeting Card Company (owned by his father) who published her greeting cards.
Del later formed his own company, Eagle Greeting Cards, with Caroline as his only client. Much to Caroline’s chagrin, Richard married an attractive, full-figured bartender named Julia (Sofia Milos).
Listening to Caroline’s various problems was her best friend and neighbour, Annie Spadaro (Amy Pietz) – a professional dancer. Annie had been a regular cast member of the Broadway play Cats, did a TV commercial for Dr Furman’s Foot Powder, and appeared in an unnamed and unsold pilot. When she left Cats, she became Princess Neptuna, the model for a cartoon character.
Annie was an understudy for Julie Andrews in Victor/ Victoria and Caroline based “the slutty next door neighbour” in her comic strip on Annie.
Savvy, slick, squeaky-clean and difficult to dislike, Caroline In The City came across like a Mary Tyler Moore Showfor the nineties. It even managed to knock Friendsoff the top spot in the US ratings.
One disconcerting habit was the introduction of characters from other sitcoms as guests. In one episode, Chandler (Matthew Perry) turned up from Friends, and in another, it was Niles Crane (David Hyde Pierce) and Daphne Moon (Jane Leeves) from Frasier.
For the record, Caroline’s cat was called Salty.
Caroline Duffy Lea Thompson
Richard Karinsky
Malcolm Gets
Annie Spadaro
Amy Pietz
Delbert “Del” Cassidy
Eric Lutes
Julia
Sofia Milos Remo
Tom La Grua Charlie
Andrew Lauer
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