Caroline in the City

Caroline Duffy (Lea Thompson) is a cartoonist with a successful character. She hires grumpy starving-artist Richard Karinsky (Malcolm Gets) forced to lower himself as a colorist for her cartoon. Del Cassidy (Eric Lutes) is her ex. Annie Spadaro (Amy Pietz) is her next door neighbor best friend. For wacky physical humor, there is rollerskating deliveryboy Charlie (Andrew Lauer).

This works very well as a standard traditional Successful-Gal-who-Can't-Find-Love show. It lasted 4 seasons. It does ramble a bit with changing work and complications in the lead's relationships. Not all of it worked but Lea Thompson is always likable. It wasn't allowed a proper ending and it ended with a cliffhanger.

This show became an (undeserved) critical punching-bag during its too-brief run on NBC. It was similar to several shows which ran during the same period: female centered, urban, based in arts/media. All of them were lumped together and sniffed at by sour old critics. This was by far the best of the group, however. The degree to which the viewer identified with and appreciated "Caroline" depended on the degree to which one found Richard, and by extension Richard's budding romance with Caroline, appealing. I don't know if that was always the direction planned for the show's plot, but that had become the overarching direction it followed by the end of the first season. All the performances were excellent, though some of the characterizations were not designed to be warm and cuddly. Oddly, though I completely bought the Caroline/Richard relationship, the funniest episodes were often the ones which concentrated on other things (such as the one in which Caroline got in a public feud with JoAnn Worley over a deli sandwich). Unfortunately, the show was cancelled before the final cliffhanger was resolved, so we'll never know the outcome.

I started to watch this a little about 3 years ago when it played on a satellite station here. I was not expecting to like it because it has been slated by various critics across the US. However, I found myself enjoying it more and more as it went along. The characters were well portrayed and likeable and the writing was at least average.

Lea Thompson is gorgeous and her 'chirpiness' as Caroline was endearing, as was her attachment to Richard. He seems to have been something of a sore point in the show but I took to him straight away. He's fab because he's different and quirky. I think it's great that he didn't have to be an amazingly attractive, built guy, it gives more realism.

All in all, 'Caroline in the City' is fun and watchable, though not Emmy-worthy its certainly worth a look.

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.

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.