SPIN CITY: RAGS TO RICHES (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. Rags passes away and Carter is sharply affected by his death. The mayor plans a fundraising dinner for charity and starts interviewing representatives of charitable organizations. Charlie's birthday is approaching, and he keeps turning away calls from his father Ray, who wants to see him. Caitlin decides to arrange a meeting between Charlie and Ray as a birthday gift, but Charlie is upset, explaining that his father is a con artist who is only visiting Charlie to ask for money. Charlie, outraged that Ray abandoned him as a child, leaves, ignoring Ray's claims that "people can change." The next day Caitlin apologizes to Charlie, and he recounts how his father left home on his ninth birthday after promising him a gumball machine as a present. In an effort to help Carter get over Rags's death, Paul has Rags stuffed and presents him to Carter. This only serves to horrify and disgust Carter. The mayor hosts his fundraiser dinner, but it turns out that Ray is posing as a charity representative, having invented a fictional charity in order to collect the mayor's donation for himself. In private, Charlie berates his father for these actions, but cannot bring himself to turn Ray in. Instead, Ray challenges Charlie to a game of pool: if Charlie wins, Ray will leave immediately, but if Ray wins he keeps the money. During the game, Charlie and Ray recount the time they spent together when Charlie was a kid. Despite some fond memories, Charlie refuses to believe that his father is any different. Caitlin enters and breaks Charlie's concentration; he makes a mistake and loses the game. Paul continues to try to get Carter to feel better, even attempting to stuff Rags's body into a miniature casket. Carter insists he wants to work through it himself, but after Paul shows him a dancing man in a ridiculous dog costume Carter laughs from the absurdity and seems to feel better. Charlie tries to prevent the mayor from writing out his check to Ray, but still can't bring himself to reveal Ray's identity. Later, Ray confronts Charlie and, much to his surprise, rips up the mayor's check. He reveals that his scheme with the fake charity was merely an excuse so that he could spend time with Charlie on his birthday. He wants to get back into Charlie's life but Charlie refuses, still bitter over his father abandoning him and believing that it is too late to fix anything. Ray admits that while he has not been a good father, he is nonetheless proud of Charlie and gives him a phone number to call if he feels like it. The episode ends as Charlie discovers that Ray has left a gumball machine on his desk as a parting gift. Includes commercials. Also includes an "Eyewitness News" news brief with Marc Brown and Laura Diaz.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: March 5, 2002 8:30 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:30:00
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:70460
- GENRE: Comedy
- SUBJECT HEADING: Comedy; LGBT Collection
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 1996-2002
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV – Commercials – "Showtime" motion picture
- TV – Commercials – Cheez-It cheese snacks
- TV – Commercials – Dr Pepper soft drink
- TV – Commercials – FedEx shipping service
- TV – Commercials – Ford automobiles
- TV – Commercials – K-Mart department stores
- TV – Commercials – Mailboxes Etc. shipping service
- TV – Commercials – Mazda automobiles
- TV – Commercials – McDonald's restaurants
- TV – Commercials – Nivea skin cream
- TV – Commercials – Philadelphia snack bars
- TV – Commercials – Puffs tissues
- TV – Promos – "A Season on the Brink"
- TV – Promos – "According to Jim"
- TV – Promos – "Alias"
- TV – Promos – "Eyewitness News"
- TV – Promos – "NYPD Blue"
- TV – Promos – "Philly"
- TV – Promos – "Spin City"
- TV – Promos – "The Court"
- TV – Promos – "The Job"
- TV – Promos – "The Practice"
CREDITS
- Gary David Goldberg … Executive Producer, Created by
- Jon Pollack … Executive Producer
- Tom Hertz … Executive Producer
- Chris Henchy … Co-Executive Producer
- Michelle Nader … Co-Executive Producer
- Tim Hobert … Co-Executive Producer
- Paul A. Kaplan … Supervising Producer, Writer
- Mark Torgove … Supervising Producer, Writer
- Philip Wen … Producer
- Bill Callahan … Producer
- Linda Nieber … Producer
- Sandi B. Hochman … Co-Producer
- Alex Maggioni-Schaffer (See also: Alex Maggioni) … Consulting Producer
- Ted Wass … Director
- Bill Lawrence … Created by
- 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
- Barry Bostwick … Cast, The Mayor
- Martin Sheen … Cast, Ray Crawford
- Jeris Donovan … Cast, Miss Wadkins
- Courtney Gebhart … Cast, Waitress
- For "Eyewitness News"
- Marc Brown … Anchor
- Laura Diaz … Anchor