SPIN CITY: HOW TO BURY A MILLIONAIRE (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.
Stuart is in the middle of negotiations with the fireman’s union, but they are delayed due to a crisis involving a baby trapped in a well. Paul earns a spot on the game show “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” and is confident that he will win, although his co-workers do not share his enthusiasm. Mike takes the mayor down to the well for a public appearance, although they find only a few firefighters there packing things away, having just rescued the infant. The mayor accidentally falls into a parallel “rescue pit” dug at the scene, trapping him there. Mike goes back to city hall to secretly organize a rescue party and leaves James behind to watch over the mayor. Meanwhile, Carter leaves his dog at a dog day care center, confident that he will not bother the other dogs there. Mike tries to covertly get Stuart to help him rescue the mayor while simultaneously allaying Caitlin’s suspicions. He requires the assistance of the firemen, but Stuart’s negotiations with them are breaking down due to him constantly lobbing insults their way. Caitlin demands to know where the mayor is, and Mike lies about it until the news finds out about the mayor’s predicament and reports it.
As the media attention surrounding the mayor’s entrapment grows, Mike and Caitlin hope to delay the rescue effort in order to drag out its duration, hoping to capitalize on the publicity. Carter is mortified to find that his dog has been molesting the other dogs at his daycare center. Stuart finally reaches an agreement with the firemen’s union, but goes back to insulting them once Mike tells him that they want to keep the mayor trapped for a longer period of time. Paul makes his appearance on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?” and manages to answer most of the questions by guesswork, making it up to the final question. Mike proposes that Carter put his dog at the bottom of the well with the mayor to make it seem as though he deliberately went in to save him, and Carter reluctantly agrees. The final question on “Millionaire” happens to involve Mike’s area of expertise, hockey trivia, and Paul uses his lifeline to contact him on the phone. However, Mike is forced to hang up to deal with the mayor’s rescue before he can answer the question. Carter guesses anyway and manages to win the million dollars, leaving him overjoyed. The mayor is brought up from the well, scuffed but unharmed. Includes commercials.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: November 16, 1999 8:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:30:15
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:58835
- GENRE: Comedy
- SUBJECT HEADING: Comedy; LGBT Collection
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 1996-2002
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV – Commercials – Cool Whip whipped topping
- TV – Commercials – Datek Online broker services
- TV – Commercials – Excedrin headache relief
- TV – Commercials – Ford automobiles
- TV – Commercials – GM auto service
- TV – Commercials – Hasbro board games
- TV – Commercials – Kay jewelers
- TV – Commercials – Motorola phone service
- TV – Commercials – Nokia cell phones
- TV – Commercials – Pillsbury cooking dough
- TV – Commercials – Saturn automobiles
- TV – Commercials – “Jenga” board game
- TV – Commercials – “The World is Not Enough” motion picture
- TV – Commercials – “Winnie the Pooh: Seasons of Giving” home video release
- TV – Promos – “20/20”
- TV – Promos – “Dharma & Greg”
- TV – Promos – “One Fine Day”
- TV – Promos – “The Drew Carey Show”
- TV – Promos – “Tuesdays with Morrie”
- TV – Promos – “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”
CREDITS
- Andy Cadiff … Executive Producer, Director
- Richard Day … Executive Producer
- David S. Rosenthal … Executive Producer
- Michael J. Fox … Executive Producer
- Stephen Godchaux … Supervising Producer
- Tom Hertz … Supervising Producer
- Christopher Case … Producer, Writer
- Steve Rose … Producer
- Tim Hobert … Producer
- Jon Pollack … Producer
- Tad Quill … Producer
- David Ronn … Producer
- Jay Scherick … Producer
- John Michel … Co-Producer
- Randall Winston … Associate Producer
- Danelle Black … Consulting Producer
- Gary David Goldberg … Created by
- Bill Lawerence … Created by
- Shelly Palmer … Music by
- Spin Doctors … Theme Music by
- Michael J. Fox … Cast, Michael Flaherty
- Richard Kind … Cast, Paul Lassiter
- Alan Ruck … Cast, Stuart Bondek
- Michael Boatman … Cast, Carter Heywood
- Connie Britton … Cast, Nikki Faber
- Alexander Chaplin … Cast, James Hobert
- Victoria Dillard … Cast, Janelle
- Heather Locklear … Cast, Caitlin Moore
- Barry Bostwick … Cast, The Mayor
- Regis Philbin … Cast, Himself
- Marceline Hugot … Cast, Doggie Day Care
- Christopher Innvar … Cast, Fireman
- Danny Mastrogiorgio … Cast, First Rescue Worker
- Deirdre Lovejay … Cast, First Reporter
- Mark Kenneth Smaltz … Cast, Reporter
- Kal Cauthen … Cast, Second Rescue Worker