Sex and the City
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Sex and the City was a popular American cable television program based on the book of the same name by Candace Bushnell. It was originally broadcast on the HBO network from 1998 until 2004. Set in New York City, the show focuses on the sex lives of four female best friends, three of whom are in their mid-to-late thirties, and one of whom, Samantha, is in her forties. A sitcom with soap opera elements, the show often tackled socially relevant issues, such as the status of women in society. Sex and the City premiered on June 6, 1998, and the last original episode aired on February 22, 2004.
As of then, the show has been aired on networks such as TBS, The WB, and other stations.
Overview
Carrie Bradshaw and her three best girlfriends navigate the rocky terrain of being single, sexually active women in the new millennium. The show became famous for shooting scenes on the streets and in the bars, restaurants and clubs of New York City while pushing the envelope of fashion and shattering sexual taboos.Receiving consistent critical and popular acclaim, it was based on the book that was compiled from the New York Observer column "Sex and the City" by Candace Bushnell. The first season of the show is a free adaptation of its source material, but from the second season on, it took on a life of its own and went further than the book ever could. 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.
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.
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 II"), 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.
Characters
- Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker) is literally the voice of the show; she narrates 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; she violently joins together various styles into one outfit and it is not uncommon for her to pair inexpensive vintage pieces with high-end couture. Though it is never mentioned in the series Carrie seems to be the only one of her friends without a college degree and as such does not enjoy the same financial status as some of her friends. Throughout the six seasons Carrie meets famous people, both fictional and non-fictional. A self proclaimed shoe fetishist, she focuses most of her attention (and bank account) on designer footwear, primarily Manolo Blahniks, though she also wears Christian Louboutin and Jimmy Choo shoes. Often exceeding her spending limit in one shopping trip, it is unclear how the modest income of a newspaper columnist could support such an addiction. In later seasons, her essays are collected as a book and she begins taking assignments from Vogue and New York Magazine. In Season 4, it was revealed that Carrie had never before used email as she was having a hard time setting up an account to get in touch with Aidan. Carrie does not own a printer, so it's impossible to know how she submits her columns to the fictional New York Star. It has been suggested that she perhaps saves her columns on floppy disks and submits her work thusly, but Aiden buys a floppy disk drive to her in season 4, which would assume that she didn't have one. She is never seen in a library and does not mention printing out her work in hard copy. Carrie is very proud of her home, a one-bedroom apartment in an Upper East Side brownstone, which she eventually purchases, and lives in for the run of the series.
- Charlotte York (Kristin Davis) is an art dealer with a Connecticut blue-blooded upbringing. She is the most conservative and traditional of the group, the one who places the most emphasis on emotional love as opposed to lust, and is always searching for her "knight in shining armor." Often scoffing at the lewder, more libertine antics that the show presents (primarily by way of Samantha), in her own way, Charlotte presents a more straightforward 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 sexually freer girlfriends (such as her level of dirty talk, oral sex in public and "tuchus-lingus"). She gives up her career shortly after her first marriage, divorces upon irreconcilable differences around in vitro fertilization and receives a Park Avenue apartment in the divorce settlement. She eventually remarries to her less than perfect, but good hearted divorce lawyer, Harry Goldenblatt after converting to Judaism.
- Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon) is a career-minded lawyer with extremely cynical views on relationships and men. A Harvard University graduate from Philadelphia, 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 becoming 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 an apartment, and later own a home in Brooklyn. Miranda is obsessed with Jules and Mimi, an imaginary soap opera inside Sex and the City. The show first appears in Season 6, Episode 2. The small snippets shown have led to it being described as a "bi-racial sexually charged fictional BBC soap opera", and the damage of Miranda's TiVo by her cleaner played a role in one episode. Miranda also has a love for food and gossip.
- Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall), the oldest of the group, is an independent publicist and a seductress who avoids emotional involvement at all costs, while satisfying every possible carnal desire imagineable. She believes that she has had "hundreds" of soulmates and insists that her sexual partners leave "an hour after I climax." In Season 3, she moves from her full-service Upper East Side apartment to an expensive loft in the then-burgeoning Meatpacking District. Over the course of the show, she does have a handful of real relationships, but they are more unconventional than those of her friends. In the end, however, she finds a man to stay with.
Episodes
Quotations
The following are quotations from the TV special, Sex And The City: A Farewell, that aired introducing the final episode:
- ;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."
- ;Kim Cattrall::"The show is a valentine to being single."
- ;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::"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."
Broadcasters
The United States cable channel HBO was the original broadcaster, and TBS ran reruns after the series ended. In Canada, the show airs on Bravo! Canada and Citytv Toronto, and in Germany it is shown on Pro7.
In the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, Channel 4 and its digital sister channel E4 broadcast episodes of "Sex and the City", while older episodes are rerun on Paramount Comedy 1. In France the show is shown on M6, in the Netherlands it is aired by NET 5, and in Sweden it is aired by TV3 and ZTV. In Italy the show airs on La7 and on the cable channel Paramount Comedy. In Belgium the show used to run on VT4, later on Vitaya and Vijf TV. In Spain, it's been aired by Canal + and Antena 3. In Finland it was broadcast on MTV3 and in Israel it was broadcast on Channel 2.
In Russia, the show was aired by NTV Russia. In Romania, the show was aired by Pro TV and later by the sister channels Acasa TV and Pro Cinema. HBO Romania also aired all seasons. In Bulgaria, Sex and the City is aired by Nova Television. HBO Bulgaria also aired the show. In Turkey it is broadcast by ComedyMax channel.
In Australia it was broadcast on the Nine Network, late at night. Rerun rights were sold to Network Ten. Australian subscription channel W airs two episodes each weeknight. In New Zealand, the show aired on TV3.
In México, the show airs in Spanish on TV Azteca. In Brazil, it was aired by [Multishow] and FOX channels. Multishow exibits two versions of the series, the standard and the light versions. The light versions have some dialogs and scenes removed or replaced by "more polite" versions. Multishow also replaces the original subtitles with their own translated subtitles, usually in a lower quality than the originals.
In Japan, the show is aired by Lala.tv. Korea was one of the biggest TV broadcast nations, with Catch On, OCN and On Style all playing the series over the Korean cable network. In Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Hong Kong, India, and Pakistan the show airs on HBO Asia (season 1-6). Hong Kong's TVB Pearl also aired the show at midnight before, while later, TVB Drama, the pay TV channel of the same company, rerun the show on Sunday night. Sex and the City was banned in Singapore until July 2004, when the government allowed the television series to be aired on cable after being censored. In the Philippines, the show airs on HBO Asia while its reruns are being aired by free TV RPN9. In Lithuania, Latvia and Denmark the series can be seen on TV3. In Hungary, where the show aired on HBO and Viasat 3, the latter only showing episodes up to the fifth season. After a number of reruns, Viasat has moved the show to an earlier time and, as per the rules and standards of broadcasting in Hungary, has recut the episodes (removing, among others, almost all references to genitals, a number of sexual conversations and non-heterosexual kisses) to be able to fit its rating to an equivalent of PG-13, resulting in many deleted scenes and indecipherable storylines.
Criticism
Some have criticized the show for pandering to audiences with little more than "perversion and sex." While fans of the show recognize these are important elements, they also point out that the show focuses largely on relationships.Sexual content
Sex and the City has been accused of being softcore pornography strung together by superficial plots; the characters' lifestyles have been criticized for being immoral and hedonistic. Some viewers organized a boycott of TBS for running "Sex and the City" in syndication because they felt the material was inappropriate for children, who could more easily see it on TBS than on HBO (where it originally ran), though TBS cuts down on the sexuality quite a bit.[link]Elitism and lack of diversity
"Sex and the City" has 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. [link]Miscellaneous criticism
The female main characters' fixation with sex and penis size has been criticized for being more typical of gay men#redirect than of real-life women. However, although the show's creator is a gay man, all seven writers are straight women. The characters' fixation on penis size has also been criticized for promoting poor body image in men.The characters have been criticized for being shallow and superficial[link].
Male oriented television and news programs have characterized the show as being unrealistic and proof of everthing that is wrong with women today in America. Tom Leykis states repeatedly that no man would want one of "those four bitter old shrews", Brian on Family Guy after watching an episode asks "So, this is about three hookers and their mother?". Common alternative names for the program indcluded "Sluts in the City", "Four Whores", and "Nookie in New York".
Finally, some critics question whether "Sex and the City" is really "ground-breaking" and argue that it is actually an average sitcom whose sexual references are used to disguise its ordinariness.
Response to criticism
Fans of the show say that "Sex and the City" is a realistic portrayal of the sexual behavior and lifestyles of many urban Americans.[link] An unlikely supporter of the show is author and Latter Day Saint 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. [link]Continuity issues within the series
There are many inconsistencies within the series. For example, Carrie's apartment interior remains the same for all six seasons. The exterior, however, changes between season one and season two.DVD releases
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 "Shoebox" 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. In Europe, "Sex and the City" boxsets were released through Paramount Pictures (whose parent Viacom interestingly onced 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 critizied. American and Canadian DVD's 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 its popularity of the show. Complete six seasons of Special DVD Shoebox set was released. 600 limited edtion in 2005, 850 limited edition in 2006 at suggested retail price of $300 US Dollar. All of them sold out immediately.
Awards
2003
- American Cinema Editors ACE Eddie Awards
- Best Edited Half-Hour Series for Television - Episode: "Luck Be An Old Lady"; Wendey Stanzler, A.C.E.
- American Women in Radio and Television (AWRT)
- Emmy® Awards
- Golden Globe® Awards
- Makeup Artists and Hair Stylists Guild Awards
2002
- ACE Eddie Awards
- Best Edited Half-Hour Series for Television - Michael Berenbaum, "The Real Me"
- CINE Golden Eagle Film and Video Competition
- Primetime Emmy® Awards
- Golden Globes®
- Monte Carlo Television Festival
- New York Festivals
- Producers Guild Golden Laurel Awards (PGA)
- Comedy Episode - Episode "Coulda, Woulda, Shoulda"
- WIN Awards
2001
- Gracie Allen Award
- American Women in Radio and Television - Episode: "Attack of the 5'10" Woman"
- Columbus International Film & Video Festival
- Primetime Emmy® Awards
- Entertainment Industries Council Prism Awards
- Golden Globes®
- Golden Satellite Awards
- Makeup Artist & Hairstylist Guild Awards
- National Council on Family Relations Media Awards
- Producers Guild Golden Laurel Awards (PGA)
- Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG)
- TV Cares
- Women's Image Network WIN Femme Film Festival
2000
- Gracie Allen Awards: American Women in Radio and Television
- Gracie Allen Award - Episode: "Twenty-Something Girls vs. Thirty-Something Women"
- CINE Golden Eagle Awards
- Columbus International Film & Video Festival
- Golden Globe® Awards
- Media Project SHINE Awards
1999
- CINE Gold Eagle Film and Video Competition
- CINE Golden Eagle Award - Episode: "They Shoot Single People Don't They?"
- Columbus International Film & Video Festival - Chris Awards
- New York Festivals - Television Programming and Promotion Competition
- Women In Film
- WorldFest - Houston International Film Festival
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 little or no tracks that appear on the programme's actual soundtrack.The title theme song was written by Douglas J. Cuomo.
- [Import]
- 2000/2001/2002
- Sire Records
- 13 Chart Hits - Including the Main Theme from the Show
- Sex and the City - Official Soundtrack
- Irma at Sex and the City - Part 1 - Daylight Session
- Irma at Sex and the City - Part 2 - Nightlife Session
References
- Amy Sohn (2004). Sex and the City: Kiss and Tell, Updated Edition. ISBN 0743457307
External links
- [Home of HBO's Sex and the City]
- [TBS.com Sex and the City]
- [Sex and the City Map]
- [WGNTV.com Sex and the City]
- [Carrie's Diary - Sex and the City fan site]
- [Sex and the City fan site (German)]
- [Complete List of Soundtrack for Every Episode]
- [SNL spoof of "Sex & the City" starring Christina Aguilera as Samantha Jones]
- [SATC map] - on flagr.com, a site which allows users to create their own 'themed' maps using data and images from Google Maps.
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