Caroline in the City

Due to a recent wave of nostalgia for the seventies, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" has become recognized by many critics, historians and viewers of Nick at Nite as a landmark TV series that captured perhaps better than anything else on TV at the time the social changes that took place in the US following the turbulent sixties and women's liberation. The series focused on a single woman (Mary Tyler Moore previously known to America as the perfect embodiment of domestic femininity playing Dick Van Dyke's wife) whose job and friendships gave her life meaning at a time when most women

were only beginning to realize that there was more to life than being a wife and mother. Mary Richards was the perfect seventies heroine in that she was a woman nearing middle age stylishly with the domestic social values of fifties/sixties behind her and the sexual liberation of the seventies in front of her. A woman who has been trained her whole life to be subservient to men is now working amongst them, standing up to them and gaining their professional and social respect.

Lately there have been a plethora of shows that attempt to do what MTM did in the seventies. "Caroline in the City" is one of them, "Suddenly Susan" is another. Unfortunately these shows are taking place in the wrong time period because neither "Caroline" or "Susan," female characters who grew up during the sexual revolution and the AIDS crisis, have any adequate justification to feel overwhelmed by the prospect of being a working woman without a husband. A woman who choses work over marriage is no longer an edgy premise for a sit-com.

Caroline (Leah Thompson) is a cartoon artist who has recently moved to New York having grown up in the midwest. She struggles to preserve her small town values in the fast paced world of the big city. In order to give Caroline's character the innocence that MTM had, the writers keep drawing on her midwestern upbringing as a contrast to her cynical sarcastic native New Yorker friends. I don't know where this woman supposedly grew up but I don't know how she could have been living in NYC for as long as she has and still hasn't gotten over it. While MTM often seemed overwhelmed by the crassness of her female friends and her male colleagues because she was brought up in an era where she just may have been innocent of such behavior, Caroline remains overwhelmed by her New York friends for no other reason than she looks cute when she's overwhelmed.

A typical show goes something like this: Caroline gets really excited about something old fashioned. Her friends "wise cracking" Annie and "cynical-black-wearing" Richard (who is such a closet case and for some reason we are supposed to believe he's in love with her) get annoyed by her pollyanna attitude and make fun of her. She gets upset and gets even and the cynical New York gang sees the importance of Caroline's small town values. The End. There is no character development. There is no plot line that doesn't resolve itself within an episode or two (cept for her on-again-off-again romance with the closet homo Richard). There is no chemistry between her and her friends and Leah Thompson is simply too old to be acting cutsey.

This show has to be one of the cutesy-est ones out there. It's perfect to watch when you have nothing else to do or can't sleep. I've gotten into the habit of doing that lately. It's an amusing comedy, though not one of the best out there. All in all, it is a pretty good show and I would recommend it if you like cute comedies.

This show is pretty good, I watch it whenever I can find the time. It's not really outstanding, and there are better sitcoms, but the characters are nice and especially Richad has some good lines. Compared to Suddenly Susan this show is, well, a million times better, mainly because the characters aren't as annoying (except Julia).

When "Caroline In The City" first started, the ensemble cast was great, with Caroline, Richard, Del and Annie. They had good chemistry together and the way particularly Richard would trade barbs with Annie was hilarious. Even the minor characters like Remo and Johnny were great. Sometimes I would've like to have seen more of those two. They were a perfect fit for each other. Candy Azzara, who played Annie's mother was good as well.

Another one of my favorites, was "Shelly", played by Lauren Graham. Richard's ultra perky girlfriend. Lauren Graham played that role so well. My favorite memory of her came from the Christmas episode, "Caroline and the Christmas Break". Caroline couldn't get misseltoe, so she used oregano instead. Shelly asks what happens when you stand under oregano instead. Since Annie couldn't stand her, she said, "you say goodbye". After that, every time Shelly was under the oregano, in her perky way would say "goodbye". That was too much.

About midway through the first season, "tinkering" was done to the show. It started with the beginning theme and credits. Gone was the 10 second short of the animated "Caroline", which would give you an idea what was going to happen in the episode to a new beginning, showing different comic strips from "Peanuts" to "Beetle Bailey" and Remo's changing from a restaurant and bar to a small bistro. These were small changes; Although I liked the 10 second animated short; Without it, it changed the show somewhat. In addition, they added Andy Lauer as "Charlie", Del's delivery boy. He fit in the cast well, like he was there from the beginning.

One of my favorite episodes came from the first season, entitled "Caroline and the Watch". You got to see Maury Amsterdam and Rose Marie from "The Dick Van Dyke Show" teamed up one last time (About 8 months after that episode aired, Maury Amsterdam died).

The problems started in the second season, when they added a new love interest for Caroline; Joe DeStefano (Mark Fuerstein). He just didn't seem like he fit in well. I didn't watch too many episodes when he was on, but things really went downhill, when they introduced Richard's new wife, Julia. She was a "square peg" in the cast. I felt like she never fit in and I couldn't stand her. She was the reason why I quit watching the show, which was too bad because it was funny at a time.

I was really annoyed to see all those comments about Richard's character and Malcolm Gets playing his part. Richard's character is performed perfectly by Malcolm Gets, no one would have done it better! This show is not some stupid show that makes u laugh on silly things, you actually laugh because this show links you to reality. Caroline is the perfect confused woman who needs love in her life and Richard is the perfect struggling artist who is only satisfied by working as one, not a cartoonist assistant. If you look at the real world, you will find that the show makes perfect sense and has been a success from A to Z. As for Spadaro's character, well she's the comic relief of the show, she and Charlie's character. but the show is a realistic Drama with the right amount of real life comedy and tragedy in it and it's a shame seeing it unappreciated like that.