Los líos de Caroline

Due to a recent wave of nostalgia for the seventies, "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" has become recognized by many critics, historians and viewers of Nick at Nite as a landmark TV series that captured perhaps better than anything else on TV at the time the social changes that took place in the US following the turbulent sixties and women's liberation. The series focused on a single woman (Mary Tyler Moore previously known to America as the perfect embodiment of domestic femininity playing Dick Van Dyke's wife) whose job and friendships gave her life meaning at a time when most women

were only beginning to realize that there was more to life than being a wife and mother. Mary Richards was the perfect seventies heroine in that she was a woman nearing middle age stylishly with the domestic social values of fifties/sixties behind her and the sexual liberation of the seventies in front of her. A woman who has been trained her whole life to be subservient to men is now working amongst them, standing up to them and gaining their professional and social respect.

Lately there have been a plethora of shows that attempt to do what MTM did in the seventies. "Caroline in the City" is one of them, "Suddenly Susan" is another. Unfortunately these shows are taking place in the wrong time period because neither "Caroline" or "Susan," female characters who grew up during the sexual revolution and the AIDS crisis, have any adequate justification to feel overwhelmed by the prospect of being a working woman without a husband. A woman who choses work over marriage is no longer an edgy premise for a sit-com.

Caroline (Leah Thompson) is a cartoon artist who has recently moved to New York having grown up in the midwest. She struggles to preserve her small town values in the fast paced world of the big city. In order to give Caroline's character the innocence that MTM had, the writers keep drawing on her midwestern upbringing as a contrast to her cynical sarcastic native New Yorker friends. I don't know where this woman supposedly grew up but I don't know how she could have been living in NYC for as long as she has and still hasn't gotten over it. While MTM often seemed overwhelmed by the crassness of her female friends and her male colleagues because she was brought up in an era where she just may have been innocent of such behavior, Caroline remains overwhelmed by her New York friends for no other reason than she looks cute when she's overwhelmed.

A typical show goes something like this: Caroline gets really excited about something old fashioned. Her friends "wise cracking" Annie and "cynical-black-wearing" Richard (who is such a closet case and for some reason we are supposed to believe he's in love with her) get annoyed by her pollyanna attitude and make fun of her. She gets upset and gets even and the cynical New York gang sees the importance of Caroline's small town values. The End. There is no character development. There is no plot line that doesn't resolve itself within an episode or two (cept for her on-again-off-again romance with the closet homo Richard). There is no chemistry between her and her friends and Leah Thompson is simply too old to be acting cutsey.

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.

Caroline in the City was one of those shows that attracted a mixed reception: some loved it like me; some thought it was good but nothing special whilst the rest just slated it harshly. It's interesting to note that the show is more popular outside the US, although I'm sure there are a few Yanks who are keen on CITC as well.

The sitcom revolved around a Wisconsin native, Caroline who applies her trade as a cartoonist in Manhattan, New York. Her career and work life, couldn't be more perfect: her greeting cards and merchandise are selling, her comic strip is a hit in every major newspaper and she couldn't be any more happier as she is. Except she is also on the look out for love and thus after several attempts, by the fourth season she finds solace and love in the form of Richard- her assistant and colourist.

The casting of Lea Thompson, Malcolm Gets, Amy Pietz, Andy Lauer and Eric Lutes was spot-on and they all did a magnificent job as their characters, Caroline Duffy, Richard Karinsky, Annie Spadaro, Charlie and Del Cassidy. Lea is just great as the sweet, caring Caroline, whilst Malcolm is brilliant as the often dour- faced, miserable geek/struggling artist, Richard. The attraction involving the pair felt so real and they made such a convincing sitcom couple. Special mentions also go out to Amy, Eric,Andy and Tom. Most of the show's funniest moments revolved around either Richard's sarcastic banter or Richard and Annie mocking and insulting one another.

The first season was an instant hit in 1995-96 but by the time when Friends, Frasier were at their peak in the late 1990s, by 1998 onwards CITC was suddenly losing ground and ultimately the changes had put the nail in the coffin.

I didn't have a problem with Season 3, as I thought it was very good. The first two were just downright funny and brilliant, but with the fourth whilst there were some wonderful moments involving the pair, I just felt that there was too much pain towards the end, which was totally unnecessary. I was bemused as to why Caroline and Richard argued as much as they did in the fourth season when they were a couple, which I thought was pretty stupid. Particularly as after the 'Big Night' episode where they finally consummated their 4- year relationship, the episodes which had followed afterwards had them arguing, such as the arrival of Caroline's former high school 'friend' Randy and thus, the cracks in their relationship had appeared. What didn't make sense was how could Caroline have feelings for Randy, whilst she was with Richard at the same time, and the guy she had always wanted to be with?

The way the writers had handled the writing was shameful: different writers for different seasons? Now that I don't get. No wonder there was no continuity, no consistency, and no genuine ending. CITC became a silly soap opera towards the end of the final season that the impression that I and many other fans got, based on the changes they made, was that none of the writers cared about the show, any more. They didn't know whether they wanted CITC to be a work place sitcom or a romantic sitcom, although I'd go for the latter. Although it seems to me that they had numerous ideas up their sleeves, in an attempt to keep Caroline and Richard apart for as long as possible and preventing them from getting married to one another. What they mistakenly didn't realise is that as soon as fans sense a sitcom is no longer a sitcom and the ideas become so OTT, then there will be signs indicating that the show is no longer what it stands for- and there were signs throughout that final season, which denoted that CITC no longer stood for what it originally was in the beginning.

For instance, getting rid of Remo and moving Caroline's work environment from the loft was a massive gamble, which was a terrible error and a decision of which backfired completely. In its place, we got a dull office, characters like Plum, Dave and Reg-, who I liked; hence, silly twists in the shape of Richard discovering he has a child by his horrible ex Julia, of him telling Caroline he doesn't want any more children and Randy's appearance also emerged. Eventually, CITC lost its sense of direction and it got canned, which led us fans to ponder how on earth the show started out so brilliantly and perfectly at the beginning… only to falter and go downhill in the end, all in the short space of 4 seasons.

I was disappointed and angry when I first read that the show had been cancelled- as much as the fourth season was bad, it was still okay. I still felt that CITC had some life in the series yet to be able to prolong its existence until the very end, as well as there would have been plenty of material for a fifth season. And even though, ratings were falling, I still felt they should have just gone ahead and produced it, rather than to just have an unresolved ending. I will never forgive the writers for concluding it on a cliff hanger. It wasn't the actors, of who were accountable for the show's demise, but the writers of the last season. Because of those errors, which weren't addressed throughout the series, Caroline In The City failed to fulfil its full potential as a show- so therefore despite the early promise, the constant chopping and changing, as well as the absurd ideas later on, had killed it completely.

Nonetheless, CITC is an amusing sitcom, which despite its faults, is a show that is worth watching and one that kept me interested up until the finale.

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.

Lea Thompson was adorable as cheerful cartoonist Caroline Duffy, and Malcolm Gets got off the best lines as artist Richard. The other main characters, Del, Annie, and Charlie were fun to watch too. Then Julia came into the picture and the show went downhill fast, never to recover. Then again, you could never even FIND the show, it changed timeslots so much it didn't help. But thanks to the cast, the show was a joy to watch for 2 seasons.