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.
