City

If you saw this (especially if you saw it with SOULMATES), you were being tested for the products in the commercials. You likely filled out a survey on several products, then were shown the TV shows under the lie that your reviews would be used in the production of the shows or future shows. They told you that you would see commercials so the experience would be the same as it was when you watch the shows at home. After the shows were finished, you had a second survey of the products. This was to see if the ads had any effect and if you changed your results.

NOTHING about this has ANYTHING to do with these TV shows. It's a marketing scam to get you to watch the ads and test their effectiveness.

DON'T waste your time on this nonsense.

BTW, SOULMATES (a drama) was funnier than THE CITY.

I went to a test showing of a new pilot of a different show, and an episode of this was shown afterwards. They said it was canceled, even though it got very good ratings (top 10), because the lead actress wanted a pay raise, but she was thinking of revisiting the show. I had never heard of the show before, so at least the first part rang true. The second part was probably a lie. My guess: This show is used as a "control" to set the audience's overall mood for the new show they are actually testing. I found this show amusing (better than the pilot they were actually testing), and, judging from the audience's reaction, the rest of the test audience did too. So, they used this as a show that they knew usually got a good score (but one almost nobody had ever heard of), just in case they got an audience that was happened to be extra grumpy the day they tested. Judging from the first comment listed for this show, it's clear they have been doing this since at least 1999.

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.

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 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.