Spin City

Spin City works primarily because of great characters and their interactions and chemistry. I haven't seen any of the new Charlie Sheen episodes, but I saw the Michael J. Fox episodes, and they were quite good. I love Barry Bostwick as the mayor, and how he basically acts like a child.

In Michael J. Fox's last episode, everyone started crying, and you could tell they weren't fake tears. They were real. It wasn't because he was leaving because he was tired of the show. It was because he had Parkinsons disease.

I've always liked Michael J. Fox, because I always thought he had a strong screen presence, especially in Back To the Future. He wasn't one of those stuck up guys. He knew he was short and funny. Now he has moved on to animation films like Stuart Little, but I will always remember his goodbyes from Family Ties, up to the emotional goodbye on Spin City, as he ran out on stage, and the camera picked up one last image of him waving to the audience.

I used to love spin city; set around the Mayor of New York and his staff, it provided a lot of laughs and politics in comedy actually quite works.

The mayor's deputy Mike was one of the best and brilliantly played by one of my favourite actors, Michae J. Fox who has so much screen charisma. The way Mike interacted with his staff was great; his relationship with Carter was hilarious and the way he mentored James was often touching. So many of the characters were great including James, Stuart, Carter, Paul, Nikki and Stacey.

Then they ruined it by casting Heather Locklear as Caitlin. I hated Caitlin, she was so annoying and she replaced the fiesty brooklyn gal, Stacey who was far superior.

When Stacey left it started to go wrong, then Mike, James and Nikki left too and Charlie Sheen couldn't be good enough to replace the loss of three great characters. Charlie was good, not as good as Mike but still a great actor, but Caitlin seemed to be the focus, it should have been called the Charlie Sheen and Heather Locklear show at the end as it was always about their relationship, just like it had been with Caitlin and Mike.

The later episodes are not as memorable, James was such a good character that the show suffered without him, everyone else was so self assured but James was the innocence of City hall and without him it was a bunch of big shot Caitlin's who wanted to rule the world.

I only consider this show great during the Michael J. Fox years. Between those four delicious seasons, political satire and humor were at a peak on television. Fox and his assorted cast of friends and co-workers were exceptional, making this one of the best sitcoms in the history of television. People will disagree, but come on. Friends? Seinfeld? Please!!! In an age where reality TV is becoming a norm, I can always look back to this show in syndication and watch one of the last good shows that hasn't been stretch thinner than a Hollywood actress' waistline. The most underrated actor in the show wasn't even an actor. The lovable rat/dog/wombat "Rags," a scene stealer everytime he was carried onto the screen. All of my favorite episodes have Rags in it, especially the episode when Rags rediscovers his libido and the episode when he brought back to life by Christopher Lloyd. Good stuff all around, and its too bad Fox had to leave the show.

Michael J. Fox is a terrific actor. The supporting cast for this show

were a witty team. However, for some reason the secretary Stacy

was replaced by Heather Locklear. Heather really killed this show,

it was almost dead even by the time MJF left. When she was

added, all the other charactars were pushed to the background

and we hardly ever saw them anymore. Instead, we saw a lot of

Heather interacting with Michael in a strange, contrived way. Then

when Michael J. Fox left, they brought Charlie Sheen in. Charlie

Sheen was all right, but at this point the show was unbearable to

watch because of Locklear's wooden acting abilities and the way

the other cast members (which had dwindled to just four, counting

the Mayor) were shown only once or twice per show. If Locklear had not been brought in and the other cast members

had remained with the show, this show could have survived even

without Fox. This show went off the air in 2002. If you happen to

catch it in reruns, only watch the MJF episodes and the first few

Charlie Sheen episodes, but no more than that.

That's one of the best and most funny sitcoms I've ever seen. Michael J Fox is unbeatable in his part as the Deputy-Mayor of New York. I strongly recommend this sitcom to everybody who like that kind of entertainment.