Spin City : Synopsis, Pictures, Photos, Trivia, Filming Locations

Mayor of New York, Randall Winston is a rather staggering man. Fortunately, he is surrounded by a team of professionals who strive to repair his awkwardness and treat his public image, first with his assistant, Mike Flaherty.

Spin City is an American television series which was broadcast from 1996 to 2002 on the ABC channel. The series was created by Bill Lawrence and Gary David Goldberg, and features Michael J. Fox in the main role of Mike Flaherty, the secretary of the city of New York. Other important players in the series include Barry Bostwick, Richard Kind, Alan Ruck, Connie Britton and Victoria Dillard.

The intrigue of Spin City follows the adventures of Mike Flaherty and his team of collaborators who work in the Administration of the City of New York. Mike is an intelligent and determined man, but he often has to face the tests and obstacles imposed by his demanding and sometimes stressful work. With the help of his colleagues, Mike generally manages to solve the problems that arise from him, even if he sometimes makes mistakes or find himself in embarrassing situations.

Throughout the series, Mike and his colleagues face many challenges and problems, including controversial political affairs, media scandals, personal crises and internal conflicts within the administration. The series also addresses themes such as politics, journalism, professional ethics and romantic relationships.

Spin City has received numerous awards, including an Emmy Award for the best actor in a comic series for Michael J. Fox and two Golden Globe Awards for the best actor in a comic or musical series for Fox and the best actor in a comic series or musical for Charlie Sheen, who replaced Fox as a main star after his departure from the series in 2000. The series was also nominated for many other prices, including Emmy Awards, Screen Actors Guild Awards and Writers Guild of America Awards.

When Michael J. Fox announced in 1998 that he suffered from Parkinson's disease, the character of Caitlin Moore (Heather Locklear) was added to the series the following year to unload his work mass. In charge of Mayor Winston's campaign for Senator's headquarters, Caitlin becomes a rival of Mike (Michael J. Fox). To hide his illness, the actor often had to keep his hand in the pocket.

Mayor Winston regularly wears a pin's on which is marked "I Survived Rocky Horror" ("I survived Rocky Horror"). This is a nod to the role of its interpreter, Barry Botswick, in the 1975 comedy The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

The episode "Back to the future IV" of Season 3 of Spin City is the occasion for an exceptional reunion for fans of the trilogy of Robert Zemeckis. Christopher Lloyd, the interpreter of the crazy Dr. Emmett Brown in Back to the future and his consequences, plays Owen Kingston, the political mentor of the character of Michael J. Fox. Mike convinces the mayor to appoint Owen at the head of the city's project for the millennial festivities, but the latter reveals that he is taken for the Messiah.

The fifth season of Spin City marks a turning point in the series. On the casting side first, since it was Charlie Sheen who takes over the position of deputy mayor occupied Michael J. Fox until the previous season. The characters of Nikki, Janelle and James disappear at the same time, without explanation in history. It is also the arrival of Lana Parrilla in the role of a secretary, a character who flies away at the end of the season. Finally, the fifth year also sees the move of New York production in Los Angeles.

A "spin" is an Anglo-Saxon expression, sometimes pejorative, linked to public relations. It is a communication technique intended to send a message or an idea without expressing it clearly. Specialists in this area are called "spin doctors", a term which perfectly corresponds to Mike and his team within the town hall of New York.

The Spin Doctors are also a particularly famous rock group for the "Two Princes" tube in 1992. They also signed the credits of seasons 2 and 3 of Spin City.

For the last episode of Michael J. Fox in Spin City, the writers joined several references to the Sacred Family series, where he held one of the main roles in the 80s. Michael Gross and Meredith Baxter, his parents of the ' A period, play the guest stars in the episode, the first as a therapist of Mike, the second in the role of his mother. Mike also mentions an Ohio senator, Alex P. Keaton. It was the name of his character in Sacrée Famille!

The creator of the Scrubs series, Bill Lawrence, is not another co-creator of Spin City. Thus, several of the main actors of the latter played the guest stars in Scrubs, such as Michael J. Fox (Mike), Heather Locklear (Caitlin), Barry Bostwick (Mayor Winston), Richard Kind (Paul), Alan Ruck (Stuart ), Michael Boatman (Carter) and Alexander Chaplin (James).

The advantage of being an actor's son is that the cast for the father's role is fairly fast. Charlie Crawford's father is indeed interpreted by Martin Sheen, the own father of Charlie Sheen. While the son played the deputy mayor of New York in Spin City, his father occupied the famous oval office in the White House.

At the start of Spin City in 1996, the character of Mike had a romantic relationship with journalist Ashley Schaffer (Carla Gugino). However, the actress left the series after just a few episodes. The rumor wants it to be the wife of Michael J. Fox, Tracy Pollan, who is at the origin of this departure, seeing with a bad eye the "too good" alchemy on the screen between her husband and Carla Gugino. Ironically, the two women crossed into the episode "Mike has the paternal instinct" in season 3.

In 2000, Michael J. Fox decided to leave the series to spend more time with his family, and collect money in favor of research on Parkinson's disease. His character leaves the town hall after wearing the hat for a new blunder of the mayor. Mike Flaherty is replaced in the fifth season by Charlie Crawford, played by Charlie Sheen.

Filming locations:

Los Angeles, California, USA

New York City, New York, USA

Republic Studios/CBS Studio Center - 4024 Radford Ave., Studio City, Los Angeles, California, USA

(studio)

• Creation date: 2008/03/02 by abdest
• Last Update: 2008/11/30 by younk

. Source(s) : http://www.allocine.fr, http://fr.wikipedia.org, http://www.imdb.com