Caroline in the City

Caroline in the City is an American television sitcom that ran on NBC from 1995 until 1999. It stars Lea Thompson as cartoonist Caroline Duffy, who lives in Manhattan. The rest of the cast includes Eric Lutes, Malcolm Gets, Amy Pietz, and Andy Lauer. The series premiered on September 21, 1995, in the "Must See TV" Thursday night block between Seinfeld and ER and ran for 97 episodes over four seasons before it was cancelled; the final episode was broadcast on April 26, 1999. The series was produced by Barron/Pennette Productions, 3 Sisters Entertainment and CBS Productions.

Summary

Caroline Duffy (Lea Thompson), a cartoonist who lives in Manhattan, spends a lot of time with dates and lovers, and meddles in the lives of her friends and neighbors. In the pilot episode, she has broken up with Del Cassidy (Eric Lutes), who quickly finds another date. She hires Richard Karinsky (Malcolm Gets) to be her new colorist, and he pretends to be her new boyfriend during a dinner to prevent her from being embarrassed over Del's moving on. During the first season, Richard develops feelings for Caroline.

Caroline's success as a cartoonist is displayed throughout the first season; her cartoon character gets a balloon in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, she has a park dedicated to her in her native Peshtigo, Wisconsin, and she even has an offer for a cereal brand. After receiving one too many insults from his callous father, Del quits to build his own business, Eagle Greeting Cards. In the fourth season, he sells the business to a large entertainment conglomerate.

(Malcolm Gets) – Richard is the colorist for the Caroline in the City comic strip. He is a struggling artist who usually lives in the slummy parts of New York City, and is regularly embarrassed about the nature of his job. He has several chances for a big break, but they end up in failure. He is also an excellent pianist. He has a substantial student loan debt from attending an unnamed art school. He has a sarcastic personality, especially with Annie. He falls in love with Caroline during the first season, and does not think highly of Del Cassidy and his lack of intelligence. Eventually he and Caroline have a relationship.
(Amy Pietz) – Annie is Caroline's across the hall neighbor and her best friend. She is a dancer in the Broadway production of Cats. She is sexually promiscuous and this makes her a constant target for Richard's wisecracks. After Richard writes Caroline a love letter which he later regrets, Annie comes across the letter and uses it to blackmail him until her sister uses it for a song. After meeting Shadoe Stevens in Los Angeles, she quits her job and rushes to California to shoot a television pilot. Unfortunately, the pilot is not picked up, and she becomes unemployed.
(Andy Lauer) – He is a delivery man in Del's father's company, and after Del is fired, they become partners in new company Eagle Greeting Cards. He constantly wears roller blades, even when he is not making deliveries. He has a poor grasp on reality. In the last season, he moves to Europe.

Recurring

Remo (Tom La Grua) – Remo owns the Italian restaurant, Remo's Ristorante, where the main characters usually hang out.
Gianni (John Mariano) – A waiter at Remo's Ristorante.
Joe DeStefano (Mark Feuerstein) – A veterinarian who dated Caroline, and came close to moving into her apartment. However, after he tells Caroline that he slept with his ex-girlfriend, he and Caroline split.
Julia Mazzone Karinsky (Sofia Milos) – Richard's former girlfriend and love of Richard's life (as he calls it 'sincero amore'—the love that one does not have to question). She first met Richard in Italy, and during the third season, they get married. Her father, an Italian businessman, does not approve of their relationship and tries to destroy Richard, first physically, then economically.
Trevor (Robert Gant) – Trevor is Caroline's boyfriend during the third season. He owns a computer company and has a German shepherd dog. When Caroline rushes to Spain to meet Richard and Julia, Trevor realizes that he will never win a place in Caroline's heart.
Randy (Anthony Tyler Quinn) – Randy is a pediatrician and schoolmate of Caroline from Peshtigo, Wisconsin. He initially reunites with Caroline during the fourth season; he buys Caroline's parents' house, but agrees to sell it to Caroline and rent it from her. When he arrives in New York for the pediatricians seminar they meet again, and Caroline realizes that she harbors some feelings for him, even though she is in a relationship with Richard. After Richard goes to Italy to take care of his son, Annie brings Randy to cheer Caroline up, and he falls in love with Caroline. They have a wedding in the final episode.
Angie Spadaro (Candice Azzara) – Annie's mother who regularly visits Annie's flat and drives her crazy. She gets divorced in the third season.
Pete Spadaro (Adam Ferrara) – Annie's brother who worked at their father's undertaking company. He is influenced by Richard to try some other occupations including an electrician and a painter.
Shelly (Lauren Graham) – Richard's short-term girlfriend. Richard was desperate to break up with her, but she always had a reason not to.
Elevator Lady (Cathy Ladman) – Caroline's neighbor from one of the upper floors. She often appears in key dialogues when someone enters the elevator.
Peter Welmerling (Peter Krause) – Someone Caroline knew from her home town who goes to the opera with her on a date.

Notable guests

This is a list of the notable guest stars in the series. Some of them appear as their characters from related NBC series that aired around the same time.

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align: center"

! style="width:15%;"| Actor

! style="width:15%;"| Character

! style="width:20%;"| Episode

! style="width:50%;"| Notes

| Marvin Hamlisch

| Himself

| "Caroline and the Bitter Beast"

| Matthew Perry

| Chandler Bing

| rowspan="2" | "Caroline and the Folks"

| Crossover appearance. Annie meets Chandler at the video store. The same night, Thompson appeared as Caroline in the November 2, 1995 Friends episode "The One with the Baby on the Bus".

|Jonathan Silverman

|Jonathan Eliot

|Appears briefly as his character from his sitcom The Single Guy

| Jean Stapleton

| Mary Kosky

| "Caroline and the Opera"

| Stapleton plays Caroline's aunt in the episode. as Daphne and Niles read a Caroline in the City comic in Frasier's Seattle apartment.

|rowspan=2| David Hyde Pierce

| Niles Crane

| Frasier cameo crossover appearance at the end of the episode. Appearances were also made by Frasier actors Dan Butler, Harriet Sansom Harris, and Edward Hibbert, but none of them appeared as their characters from the show.

| Sharon Lawrence

| Maddie

| "Caroline and the Proposal"

| John Landis

| Himself

| "Caroline and the Movie"

| Florence Henderson

Episodes

Background/production

The show was filmed at the CBS Studio Center in Los Angeles, California.

Illustrations and animations

Bonnie Timmons drew the illustrations and animations that are supposed to represent Caroline's eponymous in-show comic strip.

Connections with other sitcoms

Connections with Frasier

Though not officially a companion show to Frasier, Caroline in the City exists in the same universe (so likely also connects to both Cheers and Wings as well) with several crossovers and connections. Not only does the end of one early first-season episode feature Frasier characters, Daphne and Niles, in Frasier's apartment (filmed on Frasier set at the Paramount lot and guest-starring Jane Leeves and David Hyde Pierce as their characters) looking at a Caroline in the City cartoon, but lead Eric Lutes played Frasier's boss Tom Duran in two episodes. David Hyde Pierce also appears a second time as another character, this time playing an IRS man who dreams of being in Cats. Dan Butler (Bulldog in Frasier) had a recurring role as a museum owner, plus Frasier actors Harriet Sansom Harris (Bebe) and Edward Hibbert (Gil) appear in the same third-season episode as each other, playing different characters (and not sharing any scenes). Additionally, Scott Atkinson (who portrayed Daphne's ex-boyfriend, Clive, in a Frasier episode) also appears playing Caroline's love interest in one episode.

Connection with Friends

Matthew Perry appears as his Friends character Chandler Bing (not named but implied to be him and advertised by the network as such in their crossover promotions) in the episode "Caroline and the Folks" in a crossover appearance in which Annie meets Chandler at the video store. The same night, Lea Thompson appeared as Caroline Duffy (also never named as such but implied to be—and advertised as—her character) in the November 2, 1995 Friends episode "The One with the Baby on the Bus".

Connection with The Single Guy

In the same episode—"Caroline and the Folks"—which featured Chandler from Friends, Jonathan Silverman also appeared, playing his character Jonathan Eliot (again not named but advertised as such) from the sitcom The Single Guy.

Broadcast

{|class="wikitable"

! width=80px | Season

! width=120px | Time slot

! width=300px | Notes

|1 (1995–96)||Thursdays, 9:30 p.m. || Part of the "Must See TV" lineup

|2 (1996–97)||Tuesdays, 9:30 p.m. ||

|3 (1997–98)||Mondays, 9:00 p.m. || Part of the "Must She TV" lineup which included Suddenly Susan, Fired Up, and The Naked Truth

|4 (1998–99)||Mondays, 8:30 p.m. ||

Reception

Ratings

{|class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"

! Season

! Season premiere

! Season finale

! TV season

! Season<br/>rank

! Households<br/>(in millions)

! Rating

! 1

|1995–96

|17.26

|10.67

|8.4

| 8.8 A decade later, the remaining two seasons were both released (though lacking episodes) in Region 1 on August 6, 2019.

In Region 2, Revelation Films released all four seasons on DVD between August 2005 and June 2006.

In Region 4, Visual Entertainment has released the first two seasons on DVD in Australia.

{| class="wikitable"

! rowspan="2"|Season

! rowspan="2"|Ep #

! colspan="3"|Release Dates

! Region 1

! Region 2

! Region 4

| 1

| align="center"|24

| August 12, 2008

| February 20, 2006

| TBA

| 4

| align="center"|22

| June 26, 2006