Sex and the City is a popular American cable television program. The original broadcast run of the show was on HBO from 1998 until 2004,
for a total of six seasons.
Set in New York City, the show's focus is on four female characters. It was considered
a sitcom, but had serialized storylines, like a soap
opera, as well as dramatic elements. The show tackled socially relevant issues, often specifically dealing with women in
society in the late 1990s, and how changing roles and definitions for women affected the
characters.
The show was primarily filmed at New York City's Silvercup Studios and on location
in and around Manhattan. Since it ended, the show has been aired in syndication on networks such as TBS, WGN, and many other local stations.
Premise
The show was based in part on writer Candace Bushnell's book of the same name,
compiled from her column with the New York Observer. Bushnell has stated in
several interviews that Carrie Bradshaw is her alter ego; when she originally wrote the "Sex and the City" essays, she used her
own name initially; for privacy reasons, however, she created the character of Carrie Bradshaw, a woman with the same career
(writer) and same initials. [1]
The narrative of the show focuses on Carrie and her three best girlfriends. (Bushnell has indicated that Carrie's friends are
composites of her friends.) Together, Carrie and her friends represented a cross-section of contemporary American women. The
women discussed their sexual desires and fantasies, as well as their beliefs and opinions about their "oh-so-sexiness". The show
often portrayed frank discussions about romance and sexuality, particularly in the context of being a single woman in her
mid-thirties.
The first season of the show was an adaptation of its source material; however, subsequent seasons depart from the book. Each
episode in season one featured a short montage of interviews that Carrie supposedly conducted while researching for her column.
These continued through season two before being phased out. Another feature that was eventually scrapped was Carrie breaking the
fourth wall (for example, looking into the camera and speaking to the audience directly).
Bradshaw would question scenarios and ideas, asking the audience for an opinion or insight on different situations. The last such
event occurred in episode 3 of the second season, "The Freak Show".
Overview of characters
-
- Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica
Parker) is the narrator of each episode. Each episode is structured around her train of thought while writing her weekly
column, "Sex and the City" for the fictitious newspaper, The New York Star. A member of the New York glitterati, she is a
club/bar/restaurant staple who is known for her unique fashion sense (particularly footwear). She works on her PowerBook in her apartment, writing newspaper articles focusing on the different aspects of a relationship. In
later seasons, her essays are collected as a book and she begins taking assignments from Vogue and New York Magazine. Carrie is house-proud; her
one-bedroom, rent-controlled apartment is in an Upper
East Side brownstone. Despite several long-term boyfriends, Carrie is entangled with
"Mr. Big" (Chris Noth) in a complicated, multifaceted relationship.
- Samantha Jones (Kim
Cattrall) is the oldest, most sexual and confident of the foursome. Samantha is an independent businesswoman, with a
career as a publicist. She is confident, strong, outspoken, and a self-proclaimed "try-sexual"
(meaning she'll try anything once). One of Samantha's best qualities is her loyalty to her friends. When Carrie confesses to her
that she's having an affair with her married ex-boyfriend (and cheating on her own boyfriend, as well), Samantha tells her that
judging is not her style and offers her support. She has a conspicuous sexual appetite of a nymphomaniac and avoids emotional involvement at all costs while satisfying her physical desires. She
believes that she has had "hundreds" of soulmates and requires that her sexual partners leave, "an hour after I climax." During
the course of the show it is revealed that Samantha's glamorous, impenetrable facade and dismissive approach to love actually
hides a sensitive, caring nature. Samantha has a number of relationships in the show (including one with a lesbian artist named
Maria), albeit far fewer than the number of her casual sex encounters. In Season 3, she moves from her full-service
Upper East Side apartment to an expensive loft in the then-transforming Meatpacking District. In Season 6, Samantha's character further develops when she is
unexpectedly diagnosed with cancer when visiting a plastic surgeon for a breast implant consultation. An operation and
chemotherapy challenge Samantha, but she beats cancer and it becomes clear the experience has renewed her with a new perspective
on life.
- Charlotte York (Kristin Davis)
is an art dealer with a conventional Connecticut upbringing. She is the most
conservative and optimistic of the group, the one who places the most emphasis on
emotional love as opposed to lust, and is a true romantic; always searching for her "knight in shining armor." She scoffs at the
lewder, more libertine antics that the show presents (primarily by way of Samantha), but in her own way Charlotte presents a more
traditional attitude about relationships, usually based around "the rules" of love and dating.
Despite her conservative outlook, she has been known to make concessions (while married) that even surprised her more sexually
liberated girlfriends. Charlotte was a "straight A" student who attended Smith College
where she was a member of Kappa Kappa Gamma majoring in Art History with a minor in Finance. During the series, it is also revealed
that Charlotte was voted homecoming queen, prom queen, "most popular," student body president, track team captain, and was active
as a teen model.
- Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) is a
career-minded lawyer with extremely cynical views on relationships and men. A Harvard Law School graduate from Philadelphia
with two siblings, she is Carrie's best friend, confidante, and voice of reason. In the early seasons, she is portrayed as
masculine and borderline misandric, but this image softens over the years, particularly after
she becomes pregnant by her on again-off again boyfriend, Steve Brady, whom she eventually marries. The birth of her son, Brady
Hobbes, brings up new issues for her Type A, workaholic personality, but she soon
finds a way to balance career, being single and motherhood. Of the four women, she is the first to purchase her own apartment
(across the park from Carrie, on the Upper West Side), and later a home in
Brooklyn.
- Mr. Big (Chris Noth) is the sarcastic, rich,
love interest for Carrie Bradshaw. He is the reason for many of Carrie's breakdowns as he never seemed ready to marry her. But as
we see in the final episode, Mr. Big realizes that life without Carrie is nothing. He is a big jazz fan and a heavy cigar smoker
with plenty of money to burn.
- Steve Brady (David Eigenberg) is
Miranda's on and off boyfriend throughout the series since he was introduced in the second season. He eventually marries Miranda
at the end of Season 6, after they had a child together at the end of Season 4.
Viewer response and impact
Sex and the City premiered on HBO, June 6,
1998, and was one of the highest-rated sitcoms of the
season, and the last original episode aired on February 22, 2004, was one of the most watched series finale.
Positive viewer response
The show became well known and lauded for its frank dialogue about women and sex. Fans of the show say that Sex and the
City is a realistic portrayal of the sexual behavior and lifestyles of many urban
Americans.[2] An
unlikely supporter of the show is author Orson Scott Card. Card stated that although
the crudity of the series left him numb, the show contained some of the best writing on television.[3]
Negative response and criticism
The characters have been criticized for being shallow, superficial, and self-absorbed.[4]. An issue of FHM magazine listed Carrie Bradshaw as
one of the most annoying characters in television history. It asked, "Supposedly she's become a feminist icon. Does that mean
that all women should aspire to be materialistic, cocktail-swilling homewreckers?"[citation needed]
Sex and the City has also been criticized for focusing exclusively on wealthy, white characters and ignoring
non-whites, the poor, and those living in New York's poorer neighborhoods; the characters themselves have been accused of being
elitist.[5] Further, some
opined that the show made the four women look shallow by having them talk about nothing but sex.[citation needed]
Pop culture references
- MADtv parodied the show as "Sluts and the City". The HBO
slogan "It's not TV, it's HBO" became "It's not TV, it's porn (with Emmys)" MADtv's Michael
McDonald appears as Carrie in drag with a visible crotch bulge.
- Jennifer Aniston portrayed Carrie on Saturday Night Live with a fake nose. Other sketch shows have made fun of Miranda being
color blind for her bright hair dye color, Samantha (played by Christina Aguilera) coming out as a transexual and the women
confusing sex with shoes.
- In Charmed, Paige wonders if one of the women
in Sex and the City slept around a lot, to which Phoebe suggests she was a free
spirit. At the time, Jason Lewis (who played "Smith Jerrod", one of Samantha's
loves in later episodes) was a new cast member on Charmed.
- On the Family Guy episode "You May Now Kiss the...Uh...Guy Who Receives", Brian Griffin, the family dog, represents the show as being about "three hookers and their mom." Also, on
a deleted scene in the episode, The Father, The Son, and the Holy
Fonz, Brian says that the anime series Magical DoReMi is like a kids'
version of Sex and the City.
- In the movie In Her Shoes, there was a scene in the old folks home when they
were watching tv and you could hear Carrie narrating.
- On The Simpsons, the show was parodied as "Nookie in New York". Marge's sister
described it as "a show about four straight women who act like gay men".
- The video to the song "Girl" by Destiny's Child is an homage to "Sex and the City"
with Beyonce typing some of the lyrics out on a laptop a la Carrie and Beyonce and Michelle comforting Kelly after she walks out
on her cheating man.
- Sex and the City brought to the greater public eye the now wildly popular cosmopolitan, originally known as a pink kamikaze.
Film
-
A feature film based on Sex and the City, written and produced by Michael
Patrick King, is in pre-production.[6][7][1] The film originally was slated for production near the end of the broadcast series run in 2004, but the
movie deal fell through at that time. Multiple press reports at the time indicated a personal dispute between Parker and
Cattrall, as well as Cattrall's refusal to sign a contract for the film at a pay scale considerably less than Parker's.[8]
Michael Patrick King will write and direct, and the four lead actresses will return to reprise their roles, and Chris Noth has
signed to reprise his role as "Mr. Big." In addition, Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson will
appear in the film as Carrie's assistant. New Line Cinema will be distributing the film,
and New Line president of production Toby Emmerich, Richard Brenner and Kathy Busby are overseeing the project. Parker and John
Melfi are producing. Filming started on September 19, 2007 in New York City.[2][3] [9]
The plot of the film, it was also announced, revolves around the lives of the four main characters, four years after the time
frame of the finale of the HBO series.[4]
Evan Handler signed on to play Harry Goldenblatt as of September 16, 2007.[10]
As of September 19, 2007, the actresses' leading men, Chris Noth (Carrie Bradshaw's love
interest, Mr. Big), Evan Handler (Charlotte York's second husband, Harry Goldenblatt),
David Eigenberg (Miranda Hobbes' husband Steve Brady), and Jason Lewis (Samantha Jones' love interest, Smith Jerrod) are all signed onto the film.
IMDB also reports that Mario Cantone and Willie Garson have signed on to reprise their roles as Anthony Marantino and Stanford
Blatch respectively.
Insiders are reporting that the movie's creators are filming sequences, such as having Charlotte pregnant and showing Carrie
getting married, as a way to distract fans from what they feel might be a predictable plot. These scenes may or may not actually
be dream sequences that do not actually prove true in the film.
The movie is set to be released on May 30, 2008.
Awards and recognition
-
Over its course of six seasons, "Sex and the City" was nominated for over 50 Emmy Awards,
winning seven of them. Among the Emmys the show won were two for Outstanding Casting for a Comedy Series (Jennifer McNamara), one
for its Costumes, a trophy for Outstanding Comedy Series for its third season in 2001, Outstanding
Directing for a Comedy Series in 2002 for the episode "The Real Me", and for its final season in
2004, Emmys for Sarah Jessica Parker (Outstanding
Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for the episode "An American Girl in
Paris, Part Deux"), and Cynthia Nixon (Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy
Series for the episodes "One" and "Ick Factor"). It has also been nominated for 24
Golden Globe Awards, and won 8. Its wins included Best TV Series — Musical or Comedy, and Best Actress in a TV Series — Musical or Comedy,
(Sarah Jessica Parker) for three consecutive years from 2000 – 2002, Best Supporting Actress in a Series, Mini-Series, or Movie for
Kim Cattrall, and another one for Parker.
Broadcast and distribution
Season one of Sex and the City aired on HBO from June to August 1998. Season two was broadcast from June until
October,1999. Season three aired from June until October 2000. Season four was broadcast in two parts: from June until August
2001, and then in January and February 2002. Season five, truncated due to Parker's pregnancy, aired on HBO during the summer of
2002. The twenty episodes of the final season, season six, aired in two parts: from June until September 2003 and during January
and February 2004.
Sex and the City is currently syndicated in the United States by HBO corporate sibling (under Time Warner) Warner Bros. Television
Distribution. The international rights to the series currently rest with CBS
Paramount Television, the successor-in-interest to Paramount's television unit (through its acquisition of original
international distributor Rysher Entertainment) now owned by CBS Corporation.
Broadcasters
The United States cable channel HBO was the original
broadcaster. TBS and WGN began showing edited
reruns of the series. The series then went into international syndication.
DVD releases
All six seasons of Sex and the City have been released commercially on DVD. They have been
released officially on region 1 (Americas), region 2 (Europe & Middle East), region 3 (Korea) and region 4 (Oceania) formats,
but illegal bootleg editions have also surfaced for region 3 (Thailand) as well
as region 0 (Universal) and can even be found on eBay. In addition to their region encoding,
releases vary depending on which region they were released in. Region 2 DVDs of Sex and the City have been criticized by
some fans for having little or no special features, but region 1 editions have included director commentary, cast interviews and
more.
In addition to standard single season DVD Boxsets of the show, limited edition collectors' editions have also been released
that include all 6 seasons in one complete set. Even these vary between region 1 2 and 4. While Europe got a complete set that
came with special 'shoe box' packaging (a reference to Sarah Jessica Parker's
character's love for shoes in the show), the USA and Canada version came packaged in a more traditional fold-out suede case and
with an additional bonus DVD including many special features. Oceania's edition came packaged in a beauty case.
As well as missing out on some special features, many fans in Europe had trouble with the region 2 edition of the season 1
DVD. Unfortunately, the show was not converted into a PAL video signal, and remained in its original
American NTSC format. This caused some compatibility problems with some European television sets
and DVD players. All subsequent Region 2 DVD releases of the programme were
appropriately transferred to PAL video and season 1 has since been re-released in PAL format.
Outside the US, Sex and the City boxed sets were released through Paramount
Pictures (whose parent Viacom interestingly once owned HBO's rival Showtime, before the CBS Corporation split at the end of 2005) - who owned at once, certain rights to the
programme's broadcast as well -- it was probably because of Paramount's "no-extras" policy that the region 2 DVDs were
criticized. American and Canadian DVDs were released through the programme's original broadcasters, HBO. In Australia, single editions have been released, where each disc is sold separately. In Korea, due to the
popularity of the show, a complete, six-season, special DVD shoebox set was released--600 limited edition sets in 2005; 850
limited edition sets in 2006--at suggested retail price of $300 (US). All of them sold out immediately.
Selected episodes are also available as part of the Sex and the City Essentials DVD collection. These are four
separately-packaged discs containing three selected episodes that fit a common theme.
- The Best of Breakups - Contains the episodes "Don't Ask, Don't Tell",
"I Love a Charade", and "The Post-it Always Sticks
Twice".
Soundtrack releases
There have been several CD Albums released to accompany
the series Sex and the City. These releases span various record labels and some are
even unofficial. The two albums from Irma Records are seen to be the best because they contain
tracks used in the show's actual soundtrack that are difficult to find elsewhere. The other two releases have few or no tracks
that appear on the programme's actual soundtrack.
The title theme song was written by Douglas J. Cuomo.
- 2000/2001/2002
- Sire Records
- 13 Chart Hits - Including the Main Theme from the Show
- Sex and the City - Official Soundtrack
- March 1, 2004
- Sony TV
- 2 Disc Set - 36 Hits.
- Irma at Sex and the City - Part 1 - Daylight Session
- April 19, 2004
- Irma Records
- 2 Disc Set - Part of a 2 Part Collection. Ambient and Chilled Sounds from the Show's Soundtrack
- Irma at Sex and the City - Part 2 - Nightlife Session
- April 19, 2004
- Irma Records
- 2 Disc Set - Part of a 2 Part Collection. House and Electronica Sounds from the Show's Soundtrack
Episodes
-
Quotations
Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
The following are quotations from the TV special, Sex And The City: A Farewell, that aired introducing the final
episode: "An American Girl in Paris, Part Deux"
- Michael Patrick King, Executive Producer::"People thought, oh it's just about sex or it's just about fashion. And
then slowly over the years people start to see it's really about love ... and relationships ... and sex ... and basically the
battlefield of trying to be in love—whether it be with another person or with yourself."
- Sarah Jessica Parker::"What the show has to have, and has had to have in order to survive six years, is a soul...
if the show was a heart and you split the heart in two, one half would be the four women, and the other would be Carrie, alone,
and her life in the city with her friends."
- Cynthia Nixon::"These women would never wear the same outfit twice."
- David Eigenberg::"They were honest about sex, they were honest about the humor of sex."
- Kim Cattrall::"The show is a valentine to being single. ... Being single used to mean that nobody wanted you; now
it means you're pretty sexy and you're taking your time deciding how you want your life to be...and who you want to spend it
with."
References
- Amy Sohn (2004). Sex and the City: Kiss and Tell, Updated Edition. ISBN 0-7434-5730-7
Sources
- ^ Bushnell Speaks
on Sex, City, and Shoes, Stanford Daily Online, March
1, 2005
- ^ Binks, Georgie. "Sex and the City",
CBC News, 2004-03-25. Retrieved on
2006-12-17.
- ^ Card, Orson Scott. "Gifts, television, comedy,
traffic, and earphones", The Rhinoceros Times, 2003-12-21. Retrieved on 2006-12-17.
- ^ Hull, Shelton. "Modern Woman as Love Machine: The Post-Feminist Landscape, as Projected by 'Sex and the
City'", LewRockwell.com, 2006-06-30. Retrieved on
2006-12-17.
- ^ Greenwood, Arin. Sex and What
City?. PopPolitics.com. Retrieved on 2006-12-17.
- ^ Parker confirms "Sex and the City" rumors, The New Zealand Herald, June 8,
2007
- ^ Sarah Jessica Parker Confirms "Sex and the City" Movie in the Works, Hollywood.com, June 7, 2007
- ^ Cattrall Quits Sex and the City ,FemaleFirst,
December 13, 2004
- ^ "Sex and the City" Movie a Big Deal, Yahoo!, July 5, 2007
- ^ Evan Handler Onboard for Sex and the City Movie
External links
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
