SPIN CITY: BALLOONS OVER BROADWAY (TV)
Summary
One in this comedy series about the Deputy Mayor of New York City and his co-workers at City Hall as they deal with problems both professional and personal.
The mayor is holding a press conference about the upcoming Thanksgiving Day parade, and makes a mess of things when he claims to a representative of the New York Native American Council that he will produce a balloon representing her people for the parade in less than a day. His staff is less than pleased with this development, especially since it interferes with their own personal plans for Thanksgiving. Caitlin criticizes Charlie for planning to spend his Thanksgiving in Jamaica with a dancer he recently met, and especially notes that his choice of dates are not intellectually engaging. Meanwhile, Paul is worried since his mother is coming to visit and he has not told her about Claudia leaving him yet. She soon arrives and Paul tries to allay her suspicions. Stuart devises a balloon based on an oversized blow-up doll dressed in buckskin garb, which the mayor seems to approve of.
Caitlin gets Paul to tell his mother the truth about his separation from Claudia, but he also lies and tells her that he’s in a relationship with Caitlin so as not to make her upset. Caitlin reluctantly goes along with Paul’s lie for the time being. Charlie introduces Caitlin to his latest girlfriend, Mindy, in an effort to prove that she is not a “bimbo.” However, she seems to conform to Caitlin’s expectations and prove that she is somewhat dim. The mayor and Stuart appear on television helping to carry the float, but things go awry when the balloon’s top falls off and Stuart is accidentally carried into the air and falls to the street from a great height. The balloon continues to float around the city, causing all manner of disturbances. Stuart proposes shooting it out of the sky, but Charlie wants to get permission from the New York Native American Council first so as not to exacerbate the embarrassing situation.
Paul convinces Caitlin to continue the charade that they are dating despite her increasing resistance to the idea. In private, Paul’s mother tells Caitlin that she considers her a “vulture” preying on Paul and that he is out of her league. Charlie keeps trying to convince Caitlin that Mindy is more intelligent than she actually is. The mayor negotiates with the Native American Council and they endorse the idea to shoot down the balloon, provided that an authentic Native American float appear in next year’s parade. The mayor, however, takes this moment to discuss the centuries of injustices enacted on Native Americans; it is clear he is doing this because he is bitter that his daughter changed her mind about spending Thanksgiving with him. Charlie tries to comfort the mayor, who feels as though he has been abandoned. Caitlin is fed up and tries to reveal the truth to Paul’s mother, but instead he “dumps” her, claiming that she is a lesbian. Caitlin leaves in frustration, and afterwards Paul finally tells her the truth. She proves to take the news much better than he expected, and she says that she is still proud of who he is despite his shortcomings. Charlie tells Caitlin that he decided not to go to Jamaica with Mindy after all, and that Caitlin was right about her. The balloon incident has ruined everyone’s Thanksgiving plans, and so they all decide to have Thanksgiving dinner with the mayor. Includes commercials.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: November 22, 2000 9:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:30:05
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:62078
- GENRE: Comedy
- SUBJECT HEADING: Comedy; LGBT Collection
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 1996-2002
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV – Commercials – Burger King restaurants
- TV – Commercials – Celebrations candy gifts
- TV – Commercials – GMC automobiles
- TV – Commercials – JCPenney department stores
- TV – Commercials – MasterCard credit cards
- TV – Commercials – McDonald’s restaurants
- TV – Commercials – Mercedes-Benz automobiles
- TV – Commercials – Nokia phones
- TV – Commercials – Oreo cookies
- TV – Commercials – Reddi Whip whipped topping
- TV – Commercials – “Gladiator” home video release
- TV – Promos – “20/20”
- TV – Promos – “Gideon’s Crossing”
- TV – Promos – “Jingle All the Way”
- TV – Promos – “The Best Commercials: Holiday Edition”
- TV – Promos – “The Santa Clause”
CREDITS
- Gary David Goldberg … Executive Producer, Created by
- Tom Hertz … Co-Executive Producer
- Jon Pollack … Supervising Producer
- Tim Hobert … Supervising Producer
- Chris Henchy … Supervising Producer
- Michelle Nader … Supervising Producer
- Linda Nieber … Producer
- Philip Wen … Co-Producer
- Bill Callahan … Co-Producer
- Paul A. Kaplan … Co-Producer
- Mark Torgove … Co-Producer
- Sandi B. Hochman … Associate Producer
- Alex Maggioni … Consulting Producer
- Ted Wass … Director
- Bill Lawrence … Created by
- Mark Banker … Writer
- Bonnie Schneider … Writer
- Hadley Davis … Writer
- Danny Pelfrey … Music by
- Charlie Sheen … Cast, Charlie Crawford
- Heather Locklear … Cast, Caitlin Moore
- Richard Kind … Cast, Paul Lassiter
- Alan Ruck … Cast, Stuart Bondek
- Michael Boatman … Cast, Carter Heywood
- Lana Parrilla … Cast, Angie Ordonez
- Barry Bostwick … Cast, The Mayor
- Raquel Welch … Cast, Abby Lassiter
- Caroline Keenan … Cast, Mindy
- Alex Rice … Cast, Native American Representative