City

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.

This was the funniest sitcom Valerie Harper has done (except of course for the Mary Tyler Moore Show). The city manager's office that provided the setting is the perfect locale for the parade of crazies that give comedic impetus to this type of show (sane, regular put-upon star surrounded by weird/interesting/funny supporting cast--Bob Newhart is the patron saint of these). The funniest was James Lorinz as the security guard (in one episode, he was convinced that white-out was being stolen to aid illegal immigration; to prove his point, he painted his entire body with it). One of the Mysteries of the Universe is why this failed while "The Hogan Family," a profoundly mediocre show, lasted several years.

With a stale plot and over-worked jokes, it is amazing that in 1999, someone in Hollywood is trying to revive this unimaginative sitcom for today's audience. Although it would be nice to see Valerie Harper on TV once again, this is not the vehicle for her.

Valerie plays a middle aged city employee with a teen aged daughter and a dysfunctional relationship with her father who once again appears in her life. In the first episode, the father appears, disappoints, and disappears (just like that) and we are left without any additional insights to the main characters.

Liz Torres turned in a solid comedic performance, but I can't help wonder if I haven't seen it before.

To the people who are re-testing this idea for a new incarnation of this series, DON'T! Revive some other show. Does anyone remember "Partners"?

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.

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.