SPIN CITY: A TALE OF FOUR CITIES & A FRIEND IN NEED {SERIES FINALE} (TV)
Summary
The finale of 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.
Charlie and Caitlin pursue their newfound relationship, unbeknownst to everyone in the office except Carter. Interference comes in the form of Carla Hayes, the organizer of the annual mayor’s conference and an old flame of Charlie’s. They reminisce about their time together and Charlie walks her out, annoying Caitlin to no end. The mayor’s conference begins and the mayor bemoans the need to interact with the other mayors, including Stone Taylor, the pompous mayor of Los Angeles. They trade insults before Stone reveals that Los Angeles intends to make Paris its sister city; the mayor is embarrassed since New York is planning to make the comparatively less glamorous city of Ottawa its sister city. Caitlin admits to Carter that seeing Charlie with Carla bothered her, and he advises her to talk about the situation directly with Charlie. However, Charlie commends her for not “flipping out” and displaying her jealousy, claiming that he never gets jealous and that it is a “weak” emotion. Paul discovers that Paris has not fully committed to being the sister city of Los Angeles, leaving a potential opportunity for New York to do so. In order to prove Charlie wrong, Caitlin takes Joseph Maxwell, a reporter covering the mayor’s conference, out to dinner, out to dinner. Charlie becomes uncomfortable when he sees Joseph hitting on Caitlin and does his best to disguise his jealousy.
The next day, Charlie questions Caitlin about her date with Joseph and she notes his strange behavior. He claims not to be jealous, but clearly is, and Caitlin is happy that her point seems to have been made, hoping that Charlie will learn to understand how she feels about their relationship. Stone takes Simone, the delegate from Paris, out to dinner but is called away for a phone call. The mayor takes his opportunity to speak to Simone himself, telling her that she is making a mistake in naming Los Angeles as the sister city of Paris. Caitlin makes it a point to flaunt her relationship with Joseph in front of Charlie, making him increasingly annoyed. He resolves to talk to Caitlin, unable to stop thinking about her. Joseph approaches Charlie in private, and Charlie discovers that Joseph is gay and interested in Carter, much to his surprise. Charlie is relieved to know that Joseph isn’t interested in Caitlin and figures out that she is “messing with” him. However, he conceals his knowledge of Caitlin’s activities from her for the time being.
Stone discovers that the mayor is vying for Simone’s attentions and calls out the both of them. The representative from Ottawa arrives as well, indignant that the mayor has gone back on his previous declaration that Ottawa was New York’s sister city. Simone and the Ottawan lady walk out together, and the mayor and Stone continue to snipe at each other. Caitlin tries to impress upon Charlie how much fun she is having with Joseph, but Charlie acts nonchalantly about the entire thing in front of her, frustrating her efforts. Caitlin, believing that Charlie doesn’t care about her, performs an over-the-top sensual dance with Joseph in hopes of eliciting a reaction from Charlie. It doesn’t work and Charlie reveals that Joseph is gay; Caitlin realizes what has been happening and feels embarrassed that Charlie took pleasure in watching her doomed efforts. Back at the office Charlie and Caitlin discusses the matter, and Caitlin realizes that she is not solving their relationship problems in a mature manner. They resolve to discuss their issues more frankly, and Charlie expresses surprise that Caitlin would be jealous of any of his previous girlfriends, as she is “on a whole different level” than them. He reveals how upset he was initially about seeing her with Joseph and they seem to reconcile for the time being.
Caitlin and Charlie continue to develop their relationship, and become frustrated that after work they are often too tired to engage in sexual activity. They conceal their relationship from the rest of the office, but Charlie is convinced that everyone else is able to tell anyway. They try to get their work done, but they are distracted by constant reminders of sex, further frustrating their efforts to conceal their relationship. Carter announces to the office that he is finally getting a foster baby after a great deal of effort. The child, Sam, is brought to the office and Carter is overjoyed to see him. Carter insists on having Sam accompany him in his office for the first few weeks, and has taken numerous precautions to care for him. Everyone else in the office soon shares Carter’s affection for Sam. Later, Charlie and Caitlin try to sneak out of the office to return to his apartment, but are stopped by the mayor for a meeting to discuss an important budget proposal with the governor. He requests an extensive budget analysis by the following morning, and the mayor agrees on Charlie and Caitlin’s behalf.
Carter finds caring for Sam more difficult than he anticipated, as Sam is constantly crying and misbehaving. Paul comes to visit him and Sam stops crying the instant he is in Paul’s arms, much to Carter’s surprise. Charlie finds it impossible to concentrate on work with Caitlin and proposes that they have sex in the mayor’s office. Caitlin refuses at first but soon finds the idea arousing and they start making out. The next morning Caitlin feels liberated by their romantic activity and begins to become more impulsive and unrestrained. The mayor tells them that the governor left a pair of valuable sunglasses in his office the night before and that they are now missing. He says he is going to watch the office’s video surveillance camera in order to discover the identity of the thief, sending Charlie and Caitlin into a panic. Caitlin blames Charlie for the whole thing and believes that her credibility will never recover if the surveillance tape is viewed. She argues with Charlie about it, and Stuart hears the entire conversation via Carter’s newly-installed baby monitor. Stuart rushes down to the security office to secure the tape before Charlie can get his hands on it. Charlie blackmails Stuart into giving him the tape, but the mayor soon snatches it and says that he will view it at the end of the day.
The mayor advises Carter on how to deal with Sam, telling him that his “tension” is making Sam uneasy. He advises him to get rid of his various infant care help books and trust his “instincts” of what to do with Sam. Carter follows his advice and it appears to work. The mayor puts in the video tape as Charlie and Caitlin hope that the sunglasses were stolen before they were in the office, which will prevent anyone from discovering their tryst. The tape gets to Charlie and Caitlin’s encounter and she confesses to having sex with Charlie in the mayor’s office, unaware that the security camera was angled so that none of it was visible on the tape. She realizes her faux pas and feels extremely embarrassed. Later, the mayor comes to speak to them and tells them he’s not angry about what transpired, feeling happy that they are both together now. The mayor stands up to the governor over the phone when he accuses the mayoral staff of stealing the sunglasses, and the mayor feels proud of himself for doing so. However, it turns out that Paul was the one who took the sunglasses. Includes commercials.
Details
- NETWORK: ABC
- DATE: April 30, 2002 9:00 PM
- RUNNING TIME: 0:57:14
- COLOR/B&W: Color
- CATALOG ID: B:71431
- GENRE: Comedy
- SUBJECT HEADING: LGBT Collection; Comedy
- SERIES RUN: ABC - TV series, 1996-2002
- COMMERCIALS:
- TV – Commercials – Burger King restaurants
- TV – Commercials – Carefree panty liners
- TV – Commercials – Celebrex antidepressants
- TV – Commercials – Chevrolet automobiles
- TV – Commercials – Coppertone tanning lotion
- TV – Commercials – Ford automobiles
- TV – Commercials – Home Depot home improvement stores
- TV – Commercials – K-Mart department stores
- TV – Commercials – Kay jewelers
- TV – Commercials – Kodak film
- TV – Commercials – LensCrafters eyewear
- TV – Commercials – Lincoln automobiles
- TV – Commercials – Lowe’s home improvement stores
- TV – Commercials – L’Oreal skin moisturizer
- TV – Commercials – Maybelline cosmetics
- TV – Commercials – Maybelline cosmetics
- TV – Commercials – Miller Lite beer
- TV – Commercials – Nissan automobiles
- TV – Commercials – Olive Garden restaurants
- TV – Commercials – Reach toothbrushes
- TV – Commercials – Red Lobster restaurants
- TV – Commercials – Sears department stores
- TV – Commercials – Subway restaurants
- TV – Commercials – Target department stores
- TV – Commercials – Tropicana orange juice
- TV – Commercials – Victoria’s Secret underwear
- TV – Promos – “20/20”
- TV – Promos – “According to Jim”
- TV – Promos – “Alias”
- TV – Promos – “American Bandstand’s 50th”
- TV – Promos – “Dinotopia”
- TV – Promos – “Favorite Stars: Then and Now”
- TV – Promos – “Laverne & Shirley Together Again”
- TV – Promos – “My Wife and Kids”
- TV – Promos – “NYPD Blue”
- TV – Promos – “Primetime Special: Mind Game? Murder and Multiple Personalities”
- TV – Promos – “The Practice”
CREDITS
- Gary David Goldberg … Executive Producer, Created by
- Tom Hertz … Executive Producer, Writer
- Jon Pollack … Executive Producer
- Chris Henchy … Co-Executive Producer
- Michelle Nader … Co-Executive Producer
- Tim Hobert … Co-Executive Producer
- Paul A. Kaplan … Supervising Producer
- Mark Torgove … Supervising Producer
- 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
- Reese Bryant … Writer
- Robert Cornick … 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
- Barry Bostwick … Cast, The Mayor
- Bob Gunton … Cast, Governor Riley
- Mark Valley … Cast, Joseph Maxwell
- Robert Hays … Cast, Stone Taylor
- Lydie Denier … Cast, Mademoiselle Simone
- Pattie Tierce … Cast, Ottawa
- Lizzie Murray … Cast, Foster Care Lady
- Deborah Zoe … Cast, Carla Hayes
- Terence Heuston … Cast, Waiter
- Dirk Etchison … Cast, Conference Attendee